Senior living communities can benefit from the same platforms serving seniors and their caregivers in the home setting.
Aging adults often require assistance to sustain their safety and well-being long before they enter a seniors housing community. Over time, this may advance to needs in the realm of care, companionship, and support for most activities of daily life including shopping, transportation to appointments, finding products and services and more.
Studies have shown that adult children of seniors may provide as many as 24 hours per week of care in addition to their personal and professional responsibilities. In many cases, it is multiple family members and friends that coordinate and deliver care and support.
Purpose-Built Platforms
Creative solutions in the form of purpose-built platforms, like Chorus.com, are available to bridge the gaps. Comprehensive caregiving platforms centralize communication, care coordination, and service management into one accessible system. An integrated platform solution addressing the full spectrum of needs has become crucial in the support of families providing care for aging adults. The Chorus solution combines centralized communication with 24-hour access to “live” coordinators and a network of trusted service providers to identify, qualify and coordinate services for prospects as well as residents of active adult and senior living communities.
Seniors housing communities, for their part, can avail themselves of enhanced communication and engagement with prospective residents. These platforms also allow communities to identify elevated prospect needs through data and accelerate conversions.
Early engagement helps families better understand a community lifestyle, easing the transition and fostering confidence in the decision-making process. For prospective residents of senior living communities and their families, these platforms bridge the gap between home care and community living. They provide potential residents with access to social events, transportation arrangements and communication with community staff before a move-in occurs.
For example, if a community is having bingo night, prospective residents may register to attend. Transportation is arranged, and engagement with the community team is strengthened.
Family Focus
Seniors housing as a sector has long recognized the influence families have on the business. With an average caregiving period of 4.5 years and average residency in senior living of 28 months, there remains a significant gap in support for these families, presenting a significant challenge and an equally large opportunity for communities to provide support. These consumers seek solutions to bridge the gap and tools to navigate the aging journey.
Older adults may (or may not) have adopted technology solutions for bill payment, grocery delivery, appointment scheduling, travel arrangements and access to medical records. In many cases, they rely upon family members and friends to help them execute these activities as well as scheduling lawn care, haircuts, home maintenance requests, auto repairs and more. VIP- or concierge-level services like Chorus are available to ease the burden for purchasing products, non-medical transactions and access to services designed to ease the burden.
Transitioning With Tech
Mobile applications have quickly become more than just a flashy “nice-to-have” and are integral to many facets of life. Offering an indispensable value, mobile technology is a driving force for the silver economy — it streamlines basic tasks, access to services, improves clarity in communication, provides peace of mind for families, and improves the safety and well-being of seniors.
Senior living operators continue to explore the best practices for embracing emerging technology integration. Applications like Chorus offer senior living operators greater reach and a stronger connection to prospective residents, their families and caregivers. It can also inform operators of changing needs through dashboards of prospective resident activity.
Further, these platforms offer a concierge-level service to existing residents that allow longer-term sustainability without additional burden to limited staff. In the early phases of care at independent living, assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care facilities, the application of technology can reduce the burden on staff and reduce the workload.
Access Anywhere
Innovation powered by technology holds the promise for senior living communities, businesses and industries to extend reach beyond physical building walls, delivering viable solutions that solve challenges for customers impacted by the aging tsunami.
Use of various applications will simplify and organize family support efforts on the home front, adapting to needs and presenting opportunities for senior housing to respond to gaps in coverage while building trust with communities and easing transitions.
By leveraging technology coupled with a human-centered approach, care coordination becomes less stressful and enhances well-being.
Our mission at Chorus is to empower families with the tools they need to manage caregiving responsibilities efficiently and with confidence. We understand the challenges that come with caregiving and offer a solution to remove the obstacles to care by providing support, guidance and peace of mind through seamless access to trusted resources.
— Don Vetal is CEO of Chorus