Episode 8: The Top 10 Trends in Senior Living Communities
“Episode 8: The Top 10 Trends in Senior Living Communities” Released: 2022. Track 8. Genre: podcast.
Transcription
Sue Lanza:
Hi everyone, and welcome to another episode of House Guest, the podcast about all things related to The House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown, New Jersey. I’m Sue Lanza, the CEO and I’m joined today by my co-host, the Rev. Shawn Carty, who is our chaplain. Please enjoy. Shawn good afternoon?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Hi Sue. How are you doing?
Sue Lanza:
I’m doing great. I think we are on episode number eight today, which is hard to believe.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. We’ve zipped right through these episodes so far.
Sue Lanza:
We have. And I think that it’s hard to believe that we’ve done all this talking. No one really wants to hear us, I don’t think, but somehow we’re making them listen to us.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We may be casting our voices into the universe and nobody’s actually listening.
Sue Lanza:
Oh no.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Who knows? You never know. It’s like when I preach a sermon. I have no idea what actually lands in people’s parts and minds.
Sue Lanza:
That’s so… I feel sorry for you about that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Don’t feel sorry.
Sue Lanza:
Oh, alright. Okay. So today we thought we take a little bit of a different term. We’re trying to keep it, Mixing it Up and Keep it Interesting. One of the things that we had, and this is… By the way, you’re listening to House Guest and we welcome you. Shawn Carty is our chaplain and I’m Sue Lanza, I’m the CEO. And we’re always trying to bring some different and interesting topics to you. We’ve covered a lot of ground and there’s a lot more to cover. So today we thought we would do the top 10 trends that people see in retirement communities. And because we’re a retirement community here, we are a CCRC. We’ve told you that in some of our other episodes. And Shawn, do you remember what a CCRC is?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh, pop quiz. Continuing care retirement community.
Sue Lanza:
Were you reading that off of your little dictionary that you’ve made yourself?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s entirely possible.
Sue Lanza:
It is. Okay. And so what that means is, a continuing care retirement community means that we’re a community that has a number of levels of care, as well as living arrangements for people. So we have independent living, assisted living and skilled care, so people can move through the continuum. Talking about The Top 10 Trends, I got this information for anybody who’d like to read it yourself from Senior Lifestyle. It says your life, your style. And it was top 10 retirement community trends to look out for. And it looks like they’re out of Chicago, Illinois in case anyone wants to look it up on the internet.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The Windy City.
Sue Lanza:
The Windy City, which is fun if you ever get to go.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. Yeah. So, Sue, but the other thing we should mention at the offset at the start is that you have seen trends because how long have you have been in this work of retirement [crosstalk]
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, we were talking about this. I started in activities before I became an administrator. I did that for six years. And that was in 1980, which is what… 500 years ago or something like that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, it sounds about right.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. It’s a long time ago. Things have changed a lot. I think the people that we used to see in skilled nursing and it wasn’t even called skilled nursing back then, the people we used to see are the same people we see now in independent living, which is really a shocking change.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah just different levels of care and different levels of ability and need and things like that. But I was just thinking, so 40 years you’ve been in this world, that’s a lot of games of bingo. Let me say.
Sue Lanza:
It is. Well, I did that for six years. It is a lot of bingo. But bingo is very popular.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It is. Every-
Sue Lanza:
It’s crazy.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Every Tuesday and Thursday we hear bingo being called and folks love it. It’s great.
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s a good way to spend an afternoon.
Sue Lanza:
It is. People love it. You can’t take it off the calendar.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s right.
Sue Lanza:
No matter what.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s right. So as you are looking at this list, I’m curious what-
Sue Lanza:
Start at the back. You know how they do. David Letterman used to do his top 10. We always start-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Top down.
Sue Lanza:
… With the last one. [inaudible]
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Starting with number 10.
Sue Lanza:
And what is number 10? What would you say it is according to this?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Personal expression and growth is what I see listed there. But I think in terms of the ability, the opportunity to grow in ways that perhaps you hadn’t had the experience before. And I’m thinking, in particular, of folks that I’ve got to know here in my work as chaplain, who have never really had either the time or the inclination or the opportunity to study the Bible or study history or study something else.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And now they’ve got the time and they’re really interested. In fact, I was just talking about somebody recently, who is watching things on YouTube and it wasn’t that didn’t exist until fairly recently, but-
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What kind of opportunities there are for that growth and understanding and knowledge. And then also the expression in that as well.
Sue Lanza:
And I think it’s perfect because my activities background long, long ago, this is always something that I think about because we always thought about “What are someone’s leisure needs? What are they wanting to do recreationally, spiritually, educationally?” What are all the things that people want to do to make sure that they are being fulfilled in every facet of their lives? Just like you said, “Somebody might have thought their whole life, boy, I wish I could dance or I wish I could work on a Potter’s wheel or something.” In a retirement community, you have that time that you talked about, but you also have these opportunities that wouldn’t exist. Or go on a bus trip. You always wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and it wasn’t available to you because you just were working all the time. So now you’re able to do that and it makes a huge difference.
And just the expression or going to a show or having a show come to you. We know of a campus near us that has their own theater. And that’s really an exciting thing to be able to have. Any of these things where you can have a community that offers a wide range of things. I know our group just went out to a show for Christmas and it was just so exciting, especially in these COVID times where we’ve been somewhat trapped in our facility, our house, whatever it is. It’s been good to do that. So, that’s number 10. So what if we keep going down the list a little bit?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So number nine says, trips of a lifetime and exciting excursions. And I noticed they even indicates skydiving which-
Sue Lanza:
Oh yeah, we’re doing a lot of that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I don’t know that we’ll be doing that but, there are opportunities to learn about some things that you hadn’t learned about or do to see things. For us, a lot of it… And again, the pandemic really restricted what we can do, but to find out about local history or things that are interesting in this area, you mentioned you not by name, but it’s Centenary University-
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… Here in Hackettstown. Learning and doing things through that as well.
Sue Lanza: Yeah. And residents have talked to me sometimes and it’s something simple. It’s not often some grandiose idea, but “Hey, I’m working on my wish list, bucket list, going through things.” And sometimes it’s as simple as, “Hey, I wanted to go see the Rockettes in New York City” or something like that. And these are the things that you can often fulfill in these areas. But yeah, the skydiving maybe is not for us although I’ve heard of one of our residents here who had done skydiving and there was a video of him. Somebody that I’ll have to fill in later on that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh.
Sue Lanza:
Also-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
A friend of mine, by the way, went skydiving for her 70th birthday.
Sue Lanza:
Oh my goodness.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It’s not exactly what I would choose to do for my 70th birthday when that comes.
Sue Lanza:
And I remember my dad, you just reminded me. We paid for him to have a balloon ride in Hunterdon County for his 65th birthday. We get there and he’s like, “Oh, I’m not going in there.” And we’re like, “Oh yeah, you are because we paid for it.” And he did go up and he had a great time, but he needed a little coaxing.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Of course.
Sue Lanza:
But I remember we were talking about this the other day, that we had heard and we weren’t here at the time, neither you, nor I. Our residents here had been on a cruise years ago.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. I was fascinated to hear about that. And a couple of staff members went and-
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The fact that it was possible to do those things… It’s hard right in the middle of the pandemic for us to even imagine those things but-
Sue Lanza:
You can’t imagine it right now.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
To be able to have those trips, which… I think that’s great. [crosstalk]
Sue Lanza:
But that’s what our staff should be trying to help people fulfill whatever their dreams are and helping them get there. Even if it has to be some virtual reality way to go see Tibet or something.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
We want to try to figure that out.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
This list doesn’t include the word, but the word I would use in my experience is pilgrimage. The idea that you might make a journey that would have some spiritual impacts for you. And that can be a local thing, can make a pilgrimage to a particular place. But the idea that it would be a prayerful experience and that you might along the way have some reflections. I think of those as trips of a lifetime as well.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We may not be organizing trips to Jerusalem or Rome or Canterbury, but those are just examples of that.
Sue Lanza:
But you know what? You just made me think again. Think of the people who’ve gone on the Appalachian Trail or gone on some of the trails in California that are popular up in the Northwest. Sometimes they’re not doing it all at once. Somebody’s going on a short hike, but they patch them all together and they really have done the whole Appalachian Trail or part of it from here to there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I know a couple of residents here who have hiked all of the New Jersey portion of the Appalachian Trail, which is not a… It’s an accomplishment. It’s not-
Sue Lanza:
Sure is.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… It’s not the whole trail, but to be able to say, “Yes, I’ve hiked the whole Trail in our state.”
Sue Lanza:
I think it’s great. I think it’s great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So we might look at things like that down the road.
Sue Lanza:
So what about the next one? What do we come to next?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Community involvement and volunteerism. I’m curious, how have you seen that in places obviously before the pandemic, because we haven’t been able to do that much?
Sue Lanza:
Well, I think it’s great when residents can still participate in the same clubs that they were in. Just go to their club meetings like rotary, girl Scouts and we have independent living residents here still do clergy work outside on the campus and that’s certainly serving the community. And we happen to live in a community here in Hackettstown where community involvement is very big. It’s really pervasive. All the organizations work together very well. They keep each other informed when they’re going to have events. So it’s not competitive, it’s collaborative, which is really nice.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and the word service comes up. And I think, for example, back to when we were working on the mission statement and revising that from here at The House, we included that word service in there, which at the time I remember we were thinking could apply to residents being a service to the community. It could apply to students, for example, coming to be in service here, because we used to do that.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And I hope we’ll be able to do it again?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The idea that we are serving one another in various different ways through volunteering and things like that.
Sue Lanza:
Well, even allowing clinical teams to come in to do… The nurses or the certified nursing assistants to do their clinical rounds here is another connection to the community. And even the independent living residents to volunteer and have leadership roles here. That’s not always for everybody, but it really keeps things going. They have their own council, they have officers that are elected and they each have duties that they follow up on. And that makes things lighter for everybody. Or even some places have auxiliary and other organizations that serve out in terms of another volunteering out to the community.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. So the next one is outdoor and boutique fitness. What would you say about that for us?
Sue Lanza:
We have got it made here because we’ve got the built in fitness trail right outside going along the river, but we’re going to be redoing our wellness center because we expand it, realizing that this is such a big part of resident life, but we also have opportunities where now we’re able to do it again. We’re able to bring in the yoga teacher and the Tai Chi instructor or the horticultural therapist or the art therapist. There’s a lot of folks that can do this because fitness really isn’t just about the physical aspects of moving your body although that’s important. It’s the mind, it’s everything. Hiking, walking. We have such a beautiful campus here to be able to take advantage of meditation on your own. Go sit down by the river and feel some good vibes that are coming off the river.
Rev. Shawn Carty: Yeah, exactly. And as you and I have both seen other number of residents for whom sitting by the river is one of those ways that they get themselves to be grounded and centered and all of all those good things. I think in terms of fitness too, one of the things that we’ve been very creative with here is drumming.
Sue Lanza:
Oh yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Some folks will have seen pictures either online or in our newsletter. I think in fact there’s a video someplace, but the drumming group that we have was very creative and I forget exactly who was instrumental in getting that started. But those are large exercise balls that sometimes people will sit on to keep their backs nice and straight, that are in a large kind of a packet.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. That keeps them steady so they don’t roll round [crosstalk]
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. And then, I was talking… They do the drumming group right before the Bible study that I teach.
Sue Lanza:
Oh my God, they get them all riled up for you.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well they get their blood pumping and then they’re ready for some good thoughtful conversations. So that’s been interesting to watch that and they have a lot of fun with that.
Sue Lanza:
Sure. No, that’s been a great group. I’m thinking maybe something to do with eating is coming up on the list?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Sophisticated dining, indeed.
Sue Lanza:
And it’s a lot about dining options really, because it’s not the old thing like “This is a cafeteria and you come through and you get your meals for the day’s breakfast, we give it to you on a tray and if you go…” No, we are independent living residents. Have an evening meal here. We’re feeding the other areas of the facility three meals a day for independent living, which is what we’re talking about in a retirement community. It isn’t one size fits all. It’s whatever you need. So do you need the evening meal? Maybe some people don’t or maybe you want to go to the cafe where you can get a sandwich or you need a snack, or maybe you make arrangements with the kitchen because you want breakfast as your meal for the day. All these things are possible. And we want to make sure that there are lots of options.
We’re going to be renovating. It’s in process right now. See the pictures that we have. We’ve got a lot of stuff happening. We’re going to be redoing our independent living dining room. Will have a bistro area where people can come in before the meal. And maybe there’s a little [inaudible] something. They can sit and chat. There’ll be a spot over by the fireplace where they can relax and enjoy. And then we have a beautiful dining experience where we’re going to even expand the windows. So they’re even larger. And they have the great view of the river.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right out there. Yeah.
Sue Lanza:
It’s right out there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
No. And I saw this on our list. I was thinking my daughter has graduated from college.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What are your dramatic difference between the food that I had when I went to college-
Sue Lanza:
I know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… and the food that she has?
Sue Lanza:
Isn’t it annoying we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
And oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
It was basic. It was fine.
Sue Lanza:
It was basic.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But I guess in a different arena that is to say in education, it’s a place where our tastes as a culture have shifted and we don’t just eat the cafeteria food, the way that some of us remember when we were in school and things.
Sue Lanza:
And remember all those back when we were in college. There were no such things as gluten-free or vegetarian.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right.
Sue Lanza:
I know you’re a vegetarian.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I am.
Sue Lanza:
These things now we cater to all the specialty menus and the needs of everybody. So everybody can get what they want. Somehow you may have to have us help you tailor it, but we’ll get you there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Exactly. Now I like the next one on the list. Pet friendly spaces.
Sue Lanza:
Now, why do you like that?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, because right now in my office, there’s an 80 pound dog taking a nap named Ranger.
Sue Lanza:
Ranger.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
He’s one of the resident. Well, not right.
Sue Lanza:
He’s a mascot.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Really? In many ways he is. Most folks, when they see me, they say “Hello Ranger.”
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. I’m like, “Okay.”
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And if they don’t see him, they say “Where’s Ranger?” And he is not the only dog here. There are… I want to say if I, by my count, probably four or five or six of our residents have dogs and a couple of cats I think.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. There are a few cats. Yep.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But that’s one of the things that… I was actually surprised when I first started working here that we did have pets. I don’t know why that was surprising. I guess I just assumed because we’re a place with medical care that somehow is not, but it is. And people love it.
Sue Lanza:
No, it’s wonderful. It’s wonderful to have… I know the facility I came from before this didn’t. They did not have any pets at all and they were uncomfortable with the pets. So we had once in a while, we’d bring in a petting zoo or something. But beyond that, we couldn’t do it. And it’s a missing element to many people’s lives, but we have the added bonus because we’re in this rare, rural setting next to the park that we do have wildlife.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Indeed we do.
Sue Lanza:
Running around and-
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Bears and-
Sue Lanza:
Bears.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Eagles and all kinds of [crosstalk].
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. Ducks and geese. And we’ve even had a raccoon. Try to get in one day. But it was all good. The staff took care of it, but we’ve had it all. We’ve had sightings of things and it’s just part of life here. We have a lot of bugs and things floating around, but everybody’s well protected. It’s just fun to be out really in nature and have the indoor pets and outdoor wildlife.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And the outdoor runs as well. And I know bird feeders are going to be, I think, part of-
Sue Lanza:
The river walk.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… Some of the river walk work that we’re doing. So I think that’s wonderful.
Sue Lanza:
No, it is. We really feel like we embrace all animal. The animal kingdom is here.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Again, we have not been able to do it, but in the past I know because I’ve seen it in the chapel records that we’ve had the blessing of the animals every October, which is right around the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi.
Sue Lanza:
Oh yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Which is a very, very familiar thing in churches. For us to do it here, I hope, again, someday.
Sue Lanza:
Yes.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We’re able to do those things.
Sue Lanza:
That would be great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The next one on the list, access to healthcare. Tell us about that.
Sue Lanza:
Well, this is something that people in retirement communities, they come in, usually at the independent living level, although you could enter really at any level. When they’re coming in, one of the biggest features that’s not just even a trend, it’s something that everybody likes is the fact that if you need some other level of healthcare, even if you need it temporarily, it’s available here because the staff is the same staff all through the building. You get that good sense of being taken care of. And these aren’t strangers that you’re seeing. You know the people up in skilled nursing, even if you don’t go up there very frequently.
So when you are being admitted, let’s say you just need a couple days before you can go back to your apartment, it’s really a nice thing to be able to go up there, get the care that you need and then get transferred back down. It’s possible. So we’ve had people move between all the levels of… There’s three levels and they can go from independent, to assisted, to skilled for skilled nursing care. And they can stay at those levels if needed. Or in many cases we see people moving between the levels back and forth as care needs change.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. And then of course we are just down the street from the Hackettstown Medical Center.
Sue Lanza:
That’s a good point. True.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
As many people will know, very often around a medical center, you’ll get lots of doctor’s offices.
Sue Lanza:
True.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And that’s three minutes away. So it’s really-
Sue Lanza:
You could walk there.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
You could. Yeah. And I know from conversations with residents that being able to find the eye doctor and find a place to get your checkups and all of those things particularly for independent living residents who don’t receive direct medical care from us-
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Because that’s the distinction between independent living and assisted living as I understand.
Sue Lanza:
Look at you learning things?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’m trying.
Sue Lanza:
You are.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’m trying. It’s nearby. It’s not that far away.
Sue Lanza:
No, it is. That’s a very good point. I think that our proximity and there’s also a senior center nearby. These are great things to have really makes us a robust community.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
On the list. Next number three is where we are now.
Sue Lanza:
Wow. We’re moving up.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Thoughtful design and architecture. And boy, do we know about some of this right at the moment-
Sue Lanza:
We should.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Because we’re in the midst of renovations.
Sue Lanza:
… Do. Yeah. And actually, we were just having a meeting today to talk about, now that we’re going to be doing renovation on the first floor for our independent living residents, what are we going to do for the artwork? Well, how do we want it to reflect the architecture that we’re going to be changing around? I told you we’re going to be having large windows and different spaces that can be configured so that the evening meal isn’t just in one spot. We’re using all the aspects and the windows with the beautiful nature to come in. So it’s really an upgrade to our common spaces.
And the whole point is to make it a more welcoming environment so people don’t just come down there for a meal. Maybe they’re going to do a card game or maybe they’re going to use it for some other purposes. But even having that bistro that I mentioned where we’re going to have an area where chef can do a demonstration or do preparation of the food right in front of the residents, in some cases, instead of having the salad bar, which was outlawed during COVID, we’ll be able to offer a different type of participatory situation so that they’ll be able to enjoy it and the smells and the sounds and things like that will be great. So the design and architecture is going to feed into that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. Which is honestly more like what you would experience at home. You would know what was cooking in the kitchen before-
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Some of that [crosstalk]
Sue Lanza:
You’d smell it. You’d walk in and say, “Oh, we’re going to have that for dinner. I’m so excited.”
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Right. I was thinking too, on this particular point, there’s an old saying, and I forget who said it. We shape our buildings and then they shape us.
Sue Lanza:
Who said that? That’s great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I’ll have to look at that.
Sue Lanza:
I love that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But the idea is that we create buildings and then we are affected by them for good or for ill. So in other words, if we have a building that has plenty of spaces that include gatherings and conversations and places that have natural light, this is not architectural, but house plants and things like that are living, I don’t know about you, but that just… You feel different when you’re in a space like that.
Sue Lanza:
You do. You do. It feels very welcoming and you just feel like sitting down. Even the space that we have, that’s not in the building, this screen house it’s down by the river. I don’t know, whoever thought of that had it right on point because that space just draws you in and you don’t want to leave once you go in there. Because it sounds great. It looks great.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Sit by the river for the whole afternoon.
Sue Lanza:
You definitely could. But I love that quote you gave, Shawn, because I think that really spells it out that you start to find out how you think the spaces are going to work a certain way and then they change. We talked in a different episode about the front of our building having changed at one point. I’m sure for the people who lived through that change, that probably was crazy for them.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Oh, very disorienting I’m sure. That’s-
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. They were used to it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, and we’re feeling that right now with the renovations keeping in sight that-
Sue Lanza:
The big picture.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
The big picture that’s what will happen-
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Maybe in a few months?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah, definitely.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Next one on the list, number two is, days made simpler through technology. And you know that I have given quite a bit of thought to this question.
Sue Lanza:
I know. So why don’t you talk a little bit about some of this stuff? We know that we offer, for instance, computer services… Once a week we have a computer guy come in and our residents take advantage of that. And some of our staff do too, of having the ability of somebody to hook them up, make that last little connection so that something technology wise is working better. But what can you think of Shawn?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, what I’ve observed, I can tell you is that in terms of our residents who have taken advantage of smart speakers and a few-
Sue Lanza:
Alexa.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… Alexa and Google has its own. And even though I have some misgivings about-
Sue Lanza: Cortana. Cortana.
Rev. Shawn Carty: That one’s the one on our Microsoft PCs, I think but.
Sue Lanza: I don’t know.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. And even though I have some misgivings personally, about some of the-
Sue Lanza:
Siri.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
… Privacy stuff… Oh, Siri, that’s Apple, right?
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Some of the privacy stuff. I often… When I’m chatting with somebody, I’m like, “I’m wondering if the smart speaker is listening to us right now?”
Sue Lanza:
Of course it is. Are you kidding?
Rev. Shawn Carty:
But let me tell you the advantages of those speakers. If someone, for example, has some visual challenges, vision problems, they can simply ask, “What time is it?” Without having to look at a… If they have difficulty looking at a clock.
Sue Lanza:
Sure.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
They can ask to have a song played. They can ask for a joke for the day. I think one of the more creative ones that I’ve seen is that people can control lights-
Sue Lanza:
I love that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
With smart speakers.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So, in the middle of the night, you need to get up, you can say to your smart speaker, “Turn on desk light” or whatever it is.
Sue Lanza:
Right. [crosstalk] or find your way to the bathroom or something.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah, exactly. And that’s one example. The other thing, and I’ve noticed this many times, is that there are residents who have tablets, iPads, or Surfaces or whatever the Google Chrome kinds of things, tablets. You don’t have to have a full-blown desktop computer these days. An iPad or something like it is perfectly suited for what you need to just look up what the weather’s going to be or be able to see what the news is for the day. And then the extension of this too, is that I know a couple residents who are quite adept at using video conferencing, Zoom or Race Time, things like that.
And I’m thinking of one resident in particular who, every Sunday, has a video call with their dispersed family from around the country. And they’re able to do that and really look forward to it. And on occasion, if it doesn’t happen, they’re a little disappointed because they don’t get to do that. The other thing that I’ve given a lot of thought to is that particularly in this pandemic, oh my goodness. Have a camera in the chapel. And in some ways that has been a lifeline.
Sue Lanza:
I would say.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Our residents have been able to at least watch a chapel service or we’ve had some folks in our recreation department who have really wonderful voices sing. There’s a lot of stuff you can watch on TV or YouTube videos or anything like that. But when it’s somebody you know, and you know it’s in your building and it’s happening live, it’s a much different experience than just watching a video.
Sue Lanza:
No, you’re right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We’ve tried and we’ve used that very creatively over the last couple of years. And I had no idea when I first started here would be such an important aspect of what we’re doing over the last couple of years.
Sue Lanza:
Thankfully we had it in place to be able to take advantage of it and not have to figure out how to do it. Well, even all the Zoom calls that you mentioned in other ways that we’ve had to stay in touch with families. Or using technology has been something that we’ve learned and financed and now it’s just part of our routine how we do it.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And the one thing I guess I would add in this is that we, I think, sometimes those of us who are younger assume that folks who are older don’t understand technology. And I’m here to say that’s not true. I have been… And I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. But I’ve been surprised many, many times by residents who have found very creative ways to use technology. And we need to be careful about the assumptions that we make about our residents.
Sue Lanza:
You’re right about that.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
What about the age of someone and how they might be able to use things? And there are, I should say too, I’ve done a little bit of research on this, but there are companies that have technology specifically for seniors and they’re able to simplify things so that you don’t have quite so many options that you have to sort through to get to what you want.
Sue Lanza:
And the phone like Jitterbug, they have the Jitterbug phone that’s [crosstalk] got bigger things.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
I think they’re in fact some tablets that are very simple, that folks might want to look into.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. One more thing about technology before we move on to the number one situation is that, a lot of dementia focus is coming from technology. They’re looking at that and how they can help enhance, for instance, people going to the bathroom, having a way that they can show if somebody’s crossing over a certain threshold electronically, they cross over something that could trigger something at the nurse’s station. All those types of technology are being looked at of what can we do to improve safety. So we don’t want alarms and things that are scaring people to keep them safe. There’s other ways to do it. And so technology is blooming in that area as well.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
So coming to our last one on our list. The first one on our list, number one, a focus on location. How do you see this Sue?
Sue Lanza:
Oh it… Real estate agents say location, location, location. And boy, do we have it going on here now? We’re very, very lucky, very blessed that our planners who moved our group, as we talked about in some of our earlier episodes, from the oranges out to Hackettstown in 1965, they found the most ideal piece of property. I just love it. When you first come down here, we’ve talked about this. It’s just gorgeous to come down and see that river every morning. It never gets old for me. And I know residents tell me the same things.
To be able to have some specialty feature on your location and have a location like ours that is accessible very easily from many main roads, but you can’t see what’s going on up at the top of the road. That could have some pluses and minuses, of course, because you don’t see how wonderful things are down there and maybe you won’t come down. But for those of us who are living and working down here, we’re okay with that because we got some fun stuff going on in a really neat spot. What can you say about… I know you have a lot of thoughts on this too.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Well, I do… Partly because I have a Ranger. I do. [crosstalk]. I do quite a bit of walking and I’m also a gardener. So being able to walk around and enjoy the natural location. There is something, I will say about a river that is really quite compelling in… There’s a reason… I mean, aside from the fact that historically people needed water to live, there’s something really about being close to flowing water or just water generally, but flowing water that is really restorative and I’ve even heard… And I think there was reading something about this in the United Kingdom, something that they call blue therapy. Which is to say being around water. BAW.
Sue Lanza:
Oh.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And so simply being around water reduces your blood pressure. It reduces your anxiety. Just simply watching the water flow by, makes a big difference. And I remember initially thinking when I started working here, “Oh, Bio River can be a little scary because I’ve been in places where rivers are flooded. Thankfully that’s not part of our story here.
Sue Lanza:
No.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
We actually have a fairly high bank and then we’ve got this state park across the other side of the river, which of course means the view is undisturbed and it’s not going to become condos next month.
Sue Lanza:
Right.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Really… I don’t know of any other retirement community that is quite like this one in that… And I compare it, from my background, working with camps. You have these camps that are drop-dead, gorgeous locations, but you have to go quite a ways to get there.
Sue Lanza:
Of course.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Not here. We’re 10 minutes from downtown Hackettstown and all the amenities that somebody might want. But I don’t know about you. But I do feel when I pull in the driveway in the morning that there’s this sense of “Oh.”
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I always feel that too. And I’m convinced the river has a personality of its own because sometimes it’ll be, we’ve had not recently, but we’ve had storms and lots of rain. And then when you come in the day after all that, you just listen and the river is angry.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. It’s a lot. It’s like it’s living. It’s alive.
Sue Lanza:
Yes. So you can really see what’s going on and hear it by how it’s responding to mother nature.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
One funny little story, early on when I started here, one of the residents who, particularly in the summer would be sitting by the river regularly. I stopped by to say hello. And she said, “Can you see the elephant?” And I said, “What do you mean?”
Sue Lanza:
Oh, I know who this is. Yeah.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Yeah. I said, what do you mean? She said, “Well, if you look at that rock over there, it looks a little bit like an elephant.” Sure enough it did. You could see this, the crack in the rock made it look like the ear of the elephant. And there was a spot that was like an eye. And what she was really pointing out to me was that you can gauge what the level of the river is by how much her little of the elephant is visible. And so this particular resident and I very often, when we see each other, we’ll just say, “Have you seen the elephant lately? Or “No, the water’s up. I can’t see the elephant today.” And so just being aware of those natural rhythms around us, I think is part of being human. But in terms of the benefit to us to be able to engage with those environments that we’re around. So, that’s part of our location.
Sue Lanza:
It is. And it’s everything. It really is everything. And I think too, when I looked at this list, I have to say, we hit it on all cylinders with this list. So that’s what compelled me because I thought, “Well, let’s talk about this because we have so many of these elements here and it’s a home run. We are a great place to work and live in. So we’d love to have you come and take a tour whenever you’re around.”
Rev. Shawn Carty:
That’s right.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. So thank you, Shawn, for another great episode.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Thank you, Sue. Good to be here and talk.
Sue Lanza:
Yeah. So I’m Sue.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
And I’m Shawn.
Sue Lanza:
And we’ll say goodbye for this time from House Guest. Bye.
Rev. Shawn Carty:
Bye.
Sue Lanza:
Thanks for listening to this episode of House Guests, the podcast which is dedicated to all great things about The House of the Good Shepherd, a retirement community in Hackettstown New Jersey. To learn more about us, please visit our website hotgs.org. Thanks for listening. See you next time.