I hadn’t heard from John in quite a while, but he recently phoned with something on his mind and got right to the point.
“It’s my parents”, he confided, “They just can’t manage on their own anymore. So I suggested they consider moving into a retirement home”.
“Wow!” he continued, “talk about waving a red flag in front of a bull. They went off on a rant, saying among other things, how some of their friends were caught in homes during the recent Covid outbreak and they reviewed some of the problems they encountered with poor planning and management as well as antiquated facilities”.
“They even mentioned how the government had to call in the army to take over the administration of some of the homes and that the deplorable conditions were shocking”.
He paused, then went on, “I knew you had written about retirement and nursing homes so I thought you might have some ideas or suggestions on the subject?”
Well, I ventured, there are a lot of innovative things happening in the retirement field, such as the small house design (see sketch below), and an entire village for people with dementia has opened in the Netherlands. There is even a retirement home in Japan where the residents run a commercial ‘Market Garden’, staffed by the residents and everything is grown onsite by the residents.
Today, a retirement home is much more than just a place to stay! A well run, functioning retirement facility is a combination of good design and management. The old concept of warehousing the elderly is being challenged, in many areas, by the “Baby-boom” generation which has now entering retirement age population.
The Small House Design was pioneered by Dr. Bill Thomas, an American, Geriatrician under the name and style of The Green House Project. Normally, each building is arranged in a campus style setting along with 10 or so other separate one storey units that can also accommodate ten retirees. (Sketch prepared by Toronto Architect, Don Loucks)
In fact, I thought I should reiterate, that there was more to choosing a retirement home than just bricks and mortar. John interjected, “Like what?”
So I continued…
Probably one of the most important characteristics of senior’s housing is location. Older people do not want to be warehoused in some isolated place far from the day-to-day life of a real community. They want to be imbedded in and part of a community.
I believe that another important characteristic of a high “quality of life” residence for older people is the degree of day-to-day autonomy that is available to each individual resident. Certainly, it is critical as well, that with the sense of autonomy and the level and quality of care, it adds up to something that doesn’t just feel like a home, it is a home. It’s a place where a person can have a meaningful, and to a certain extent, a self-directed life within a community. A place, as well, with an empowered staff, that can make rational decisions without always following the strict procedure rules laid down by management.
If Mrs. Jones, for example, decides she wants to sleep in and there is no medical reason why she shouldn’t, then don’t call her for breakfast at seven in the morning.
I continued, by saying, it seemed that the overarching concern of his parents was that they didn’t want to get caught up in another pandemic and have things get out of hand like they did in the past. They are right to be concerned since Covid is still around and is still a very invasive virus. The one thing that the medical experts do seem to agree upon however, is that it is an airborne virus.
With that in mind the one thing you can do is to make sure that the homes you are looking at recognize this and have the most up to date HVAC systems and established protocols in place to limit any possible cross contamination. Having easy access to the outdoors, is another factor that should be looked into.
John, couldn’t contain himself any longer, and blurted out, “What do you want me to do, wave an ‘air sampler’ around every time I visit a potential facility?”
We both had a good laugh at this because I could just imagine him doing it, and he knew he would do it.
After we settled down a little, I broached another important matter and asked John about his parents financial situation.
For example, would they be looking at a ‘for profit’ facility or one that’s financed and operated by the Government?
John replied, “Why, does it really make that much difference?”
I replied, that at the present time it makes the world of difference.
In the United States, for example, right now I am told there is a 20% vacancy rate in the ‘for profit’ facilities and judging from the amount of publicity and advertising being undertaken by the available ‘for profit’ units in Ontario, they are not far behind. At the same time, there are some 30 to 40 thousand seniors in Ontario on waiting lists to get into Government operated facilities.
But, to give the Government credit, they have embarked on a mammoth program to get more units built as quickly as possible. In spite of this, at present, if you have the money, within limitations, you can get pretty much the housing that you want, but if you haven’t, you are sent to the back of the line!
John went very quiet, and said, “You know, we sometimes forget that this is a big move for our parents, a complete change in lifestyle for most, and we should be patient and try to understand the situation from their point of view.”
With that, he thanked me, said, “Good-bye” and hung up.
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Robert B. Hulley is an author, and was lead author in the Award Winning book, “Crossing The Humber” published by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA). Prior to his retirement he was a Real Estate Consultant and two term President of the Canadian wing of the American Society of Real Estate Counselors.