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Home » Exercise Programs » All the ways assisted living and senior housing could serve residents better – MarketWatch

Ron, my significant other of 25 years, is a retired psychologist withParkinsons disease.He lives in a small apartment in theassisted livingsection of the best continuing care community in the city, having moved there from independent living in October.He had begun to require more physical services but remained engaged in life and mentally alert.

When thecoronavirusbegan to invade south Louisiana, however, Rons assisted-living facility responded with a reaction that I would call extreme and absolute, no doubt derived from a fear of contagion and a concern for their own liability. They effectively closed down the campus. But they hadnt prepared for what that would mean to Ron and others like him.

All visitors except caregivers were barred; neither Rons daughter and grandchildren nor I could visit.We couldnt take him off campus, even just for lunch, or hed then be confined to his unit for two weeks.All residents were required to remain on the premises except for medical appointments, when the facilitys van driver would take them.

Three meals daily were delivered to Rons unit, so hes been eating alone all the time since the third week of March.Thereve been no more opportunities for camaraderie over fried chicken in the dining room or sitting down with two sweet-looking, powder-haired ladies and finding that they, too, would love to get into a regular poker game.

All scheduled activities were canceled.No more visiting performers from the LSU School of Music came to entertain; no more speakers held forth in the community room on subjects ranging from the challenges of the Middle East to climate change.Book-club gatherings were forbidden. So were religious services.

In this new regimen, mental stimulation became strictly do-it-yourself, which is infinitely more difficult when Parkinsons already saps your energy. And nigh on to impossible whenyourlife has been primarily analog.

Also read: Millions more seniors are likely to fall into poverty

Rons parameters were defined by where he could perambulate along the driveways and sidewalks on his rollator.But, of course, he needed to wear a mask and maintain a social distance if he encountered another resident, which made chatting challenging, with the requisite six feet of separation and the hearing loss many residents suffer.Pleasant interludes in the garden were reduced to a mush of Huhs? and What did you says?

And, as Ive noticed during our daily FaceTime visits, after Rons seven weeks in lockdown, in physical isolation with a lack of social and intellectual stimulation, he has suffered a noticeable mental decline. Sometimes, he seems like the old Ron, but at other times, he is unable to process things and its not just from the Parkinsons.

A few days ago, for example, while were FaceTiming, I told Ron I had a 1 p.m.Zoom ZM, +1.92% date with my grandsons. He looked quizzical and asked how I could talk to them when they were in school.

Theyre not in school, I told him.Think about it, I said, adding, Why are they not in school? He couldnt remember.After I reminded him of the ubiquity of the coronavirus shutdowns, he hit his head with his hand and groaned, embarrassed.I cant believe I could have forgotten that, he whispered, suddenly terrified of his own deterioration.

I suspect that the weekslong lack of social and intellectual stimulation not only affected Ron, but also others who live by themselves in assisted living.The lack of external connections led me to the conclusion that Ron should have had access to something similar to what my elementary school-aged grandchildren receive:In the absence of their normal school days, they have differing levels of digital learning, so their isolation is broken, at least virtually.

Dont miss: How to be the best virtual grandparent you can be

Before the next, inevitable pandemic, I believe that older adults and their loved ones wholl be shopping for a long-term care facility should expand their checklist of amenities to include the ability to connect to the outside world through the wonders of the digital one.

As Next Avenues recentarticle about senior housingattested, this is already in place at some senior communities.But I fear that many, like Rons, dont offer these services.

This, they should realize, is at their own peril because only protecting residents from physical harm can risk exacerbating their mental decline.

Care communities need dedicated tech assistants on staff available to instruct residents, even for something as basic as how to use FaceTime.

Ron had never accessed FaceTime on his smartphone.After I insisted we try, it took several frustrating rounds of instruction because I wasnt there to help him.But now he delights in seeing my face, as well as the young and enthusiastic grins of his teenage grandchildren and his daughter.

See: The nursing home COVID-19 tragedy how did this happen?

I had scheduled a Zoom happy hour with friends in Idaho and wanted Ron to participate, since hes devoted to them.But he didnt have the Zoom app.Also, hed forgotten his password to the app store, didnt know how to retrieve it and no one at his facility helped him do it.

I sent him a link, but that only confused him. In the end, he participated by audio through my cellphone held up to my desktop and repeatedly told our friends how wonderful it was to hear their voices.

A ready tech assistant could have helped Ron connect to Zoom or Microsoft Teams MSFT, +1.13% or another meeting format, through which he and his fellow poker players could hold virtual cutthroat games. That would have led the book club to meet and discuss the merits of their latest read, too.

When I recently told Ron that I was Zooming in to a religious service, one hed enjoyed with me on many occasions, he said, wistfully: I would love to do that.

Although Ive dropped off magazines and homemade scones at the facilitys gate during the tightly regulated two drop-offs per week, that hasnt extended his world or challenged his brain during this period of isolation.

With assistance from a tech staffer, he could seek out books hed learned of on public radio; connect to history, arts and culture websites bringing performances, lectures, and more. If hed been helped to add the necessary hardware for streaming capability, he could have been enjoying a spectrum of films, documentaries or travel videos about places hell now never visit, due to Parkinsons.

In years past, this intrepid traveler went with me to Vietnam, Turkey, Chile, the Republic of Georgia and more. I know the ability to virtually venture to places hes dreamed about could remove him however briefly from his confinement.

Senior residences should also have an intra-facility/inhouse television channel, to broadcast to TV sets in every unit.After all, TVs are the one piece of furniture everyone owns. A dedicated channel could show the same old-timey movies that would have entertained residents in the community room; exercise programs; and videos of interesting speakers or musicians.

A weekly guide could arrive with breakfast on Monday mornings, detailing the schedule of the weeks programs, a substitute for the chirpy calendar of monthly activities that they had posted everywhere in the facility during normal times.

I suspect that care communities like Rons might argue against my proposal because adding dedicated tech staffers for residents would be too expensive.The service would be difficult to enact, theyd say. And, they might counter, if residents wanted to be digitally connected, their families should have assured that they were when they moved in.

Senior residences cheerfully advertise themselves as the perfect place for the over-65 demographic.But the perfect place must include care for thewholeperson both body and mind.

These capabilities are already offered by the senior communities Next Avenue wrote about. Im sorry Ron is not living at one of them.

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All the ways assisted living and senior housing could serve residents better - MarketWatch

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Home » Exercise Programs » All the ways assisted living and senior housing could serve residents better – MarketWatch