New Models for a New Generation

GSI’s 12 Principles for Planning the Future

Written by Maria B. Dwight (President of GSI)

1. Ask (nicely) and you will be told.  We, of the western societies, do not seek advice from our elders.  We are wrong.  When we ask older people what they want, they tell us, and then they do just what they said they would do (like not move into a one bedroom apartment).
   
2. Listen to “What” and then ask, “Why?” When they say, “I’m not ready for this,” find out what “this” is, and why they are not ready.
3. After you find out the “What” and “Why,” do it! Listen to your market, not to your past, to your pastor, or to your board chair.  If your mission is to serve older people, then be prepared to serve them their way, not yours.  Don’t just do what you want to do or have always done.  Do what they want you to do.
4. You are not selling a “life style,” you are selling the rest of their lives. When the brochures talk of continuing care and the “famous “if and when you need it”) nursing home, they speak to illness, decline, decrepitude, and dependency.  The market wants to live life to the fullest, not to its marginal edge.
5. You can attract or repel markets by design and/or program. The contracts, unit sizes, amenities, services, opportunities for self-enrichment and self-direction, all influence the self-selection of the potential resident.
   
6. People are looking to enrich the quality of their lives, not to diminish it. They are seeking opportunities for healthy living, personal and spiritual growth, life-long learning, and meaningful participation in the community’s life.  They are also looking for bridge and golf games (and some are looking for husbands).
   
7. Older people are more demanding than in the past, and this is a precursor of the future. There are more choices for retirement living than ever before.  This generation of the young old (with memories of a depression childhood) is seeking convenience and service.  Their children, the blessed boomers, will demand much, much more.
8. Resident centric communities, assisted living facilities and nursing homes will flourish. Management must reshape its thinking from the old, paternalistic, controlling model to a resident-first concept.  This will effect physical design as well as program and service packaging.
9. Listen to your staff, if you have one, or if you don’t , find someone else’s to listen to. The staff knows the itty-bitty, picky, everyday challenges of working in an environment.  Empower the line staff to guide you, and you will learn.  If they don’t speak “computer,” teach them.  If they don’t speak English, teach them.  The staff is the lifeblood of the program.
10. Technology is a necessary tool, not an end to itself. The increasing complexity of service delivery, accelerated demands of the market place, decreased supply of a trained and professional workforce, and the need for outcome data, all indicate that we must become much more technologically proficient and aggressive, if we are to survive.
    
11. Environmentally-friendly and responsible design and programming are worth the capital costs. The capital costs of a project are a sliver of its lifetime costs.  Value engineering should take into account the operational costs over time.  It’s also good marketing, for this and coming generations.
12. Form follows finance, a tenet of development for 30 years, will outmode new programs if it is retained. Understand the skills that the financial community brings to assuring your success.  Understand that they are not service or housing providers.  Educate them to the rationale for new ways of doing things.  Let them educate you in the ways of monitoring and assuring your financial success.  They are your partners, but you need to understand the shoes in which they walk.