Voice Plus Visual Tech: The Secret Sauce for The Age-Friendly Home

Multimodal technology is creating new, meaningful experiences for older adults aging at home.

By: Cindy Phillips | Managing Partner, K4Advisors

January 30, 2022

The sentiment of wanting to age in our own homes (vs. moving to a senior living community or moving along a continuum of care within a senior living community) has not changed during the pandemic. In fact, comparable AARP surveys from 2018 and 2021, both show the consistent pattern of three out of four adults 50 and older wanting to remain in their homes. 

What keeps evolving is how people want to live as they age, what is important to them, and how providers can effectively serve them. Given the labor shortage is likely to only get worse, we know technology is part of that solution. 

Unfortunately, several obstacles still stand in the way of realizing the full potential technology has to improve the lives of older adults. Many are without the necessary Wi-Fi to support it, others lack the skill to use it, do not trust the payment model or have privacy concerns. Even those who are willing find it cumbersome or complicated to navigate the disparate pieces or to keep up with the pace of change.

One of the challenges for providers in this AgeTech space is not only meeting the needs of today’s diverse customer base, but a more sophisticated one five years from now. It’s easy to get discouraged, believing older adults are not “ready” for this yet. But we must keep innovating with one eye toward the future, and one on more effectively serving the needs of today. 

We start by asking two questions – Why aren’t they ready? What is the key to advancing the use of tech that we know could help? I believe it’s simple (not to be confused with easy), we must deliver solutions that are so beneficial and so easy to use that anyone  –whether 50 or 85 years of age– will embrace them. We’ve got to flatten the adoption curve, providing value immediately recognized by the user. So much value, they are willing and committed to pushing through the challenges of early use. 

As an example, look at one combined set of technologies poised to be a positive force in the lives of seniors if designed and integrated in the right way. Evolving as a cousin to smart speakers, smart displays (e.g., Amazon Echo Show, Facebook Portal, or Google Nest Hub), are an incredible combination of intelligence (AI), human-like voice controls, with the addition of a visually appealing touchscreen. 

This voice-plus-visual technology may appear complex on the surface but is oddly similar to the television and the telephone, both devices that older adults have successfully adopted. In fact, I would argue that a device like the Echo Show can provide a more intimate connection than a telephone – showing the face of a driver before they arrive, providing a personalized reminder of the pick-up, or even sharing the estimated time of arrival to offer peace of mind as they wait near the door.

The technology is also more interactive than either the television or the telephone. For example – if the appointment is to attend an event, the Echo Show device can display lunch options (with rich color and even nutrition info), ask if they plan to stay for the meal afterward, place their order, and remind them what to bring along in the way of supplies or a sweater if the venue is chilly.

In a more passive way, the Echo Show can work with smart home technology to send a private note to the daughter when her father has left home and when he returns. Additionally, it can automatically turn on the outside and living room lights at sunset to ensure it is safe and welcoming when they get home.

The above is just one scenario that feels valuable. There are others that make ordering groceries or meals easier (through the voice and screen interfaces). Arranging household services such as house cleaning, snow removal or plumbing repairs through a pre-screened set of vendors accessible with a voice request or the touch of one or two buttons.

The key to any of these is not the display box, it’s the content. Customized to deliver value to the user in a frictionless way. It is the one-time set up, easy voice or single-touch commands, and a trusted means to personalize that content and/or to pay for items as needed. The average 70+ year old may find value in many of these services but does not want to create a notebook of passwords to remember, nor learn a device designed for a 20-year old. 

The answer lies in how we marry the simplicity and familiarity of the old TV remote and the telephone or the calendar with handwritten reminders, with the advances of newer tech such as fingerprint and eye scanners, motion sensors and AI predictive capability that can recommend or offer intelligent prompting instead of cumbersome typing. That is the secret sauce that will make voice and visual technology a building block of the age-friendly homes of tomorrow!

K4Connect Quarterly Product Update: NEW Dining and Menu Communication Feature Makes Its Debut!

Learn about four new, impactful K4Community updates.”

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

January 18, 2022

K4Connect is proud to deliver exciting new technologies and features to senior living communities and operators through our K4Community solution. 

This quarter, our team focused on features that benefit residents, their family members and community staff in the areas of:

  • Dining and Menu Communications – a NEW offering for community staff, residents and their families
  • Segmenting content based on care setting in K4Community Plus
  • Enhanced calendar widgets
  • Integration updates

Here’s how our newest features and updates improve the lives of residents and increase staff efficiency in senior living communities.

1. NEW Dining and Menu Communications

Reduce redundant, time consuming work with our new menu communication feature. Following  our “create (enter) once, publish everywhere” philosophy, staff members now have a quick and simple way to communicate menu information via K4Community Plus, Voice, Digital Signage and Direct Broadcast. This robust and highly customizable feature enables senior living staff to save time as they create and share menu information. 

 

Highlight features include:

  • Repeating menu options available to accommodate common menu cycles and reduce repetitive data entry
  • Ability to automate dining and menu information via our newest integration with Grove Menus

2. NEW Content Segmented by Care Setting(s)

Ensure you are getting relevant content to the right group of residents with the added ability to segment based on resident care setting. Community staff can designate a piece of content, event calendars and/or menu information to be shared with desired resident groups. Additionally, this update enables more robust reporting and data insights around residents and staff usage.

3. Calendar Enhancements

Increased customization options with calendar creation widgets allows staff even more flexibility as they design calendars while still benefiting from time savings that comes with the automation of event data. Over 20 new designs were added to the content calendar giving staff more options to choose from.

4. Integration Updates 

In addition to seeing their dining/meal balance, residents can now see their FullCount and Volante transaction history in K4Community Plus. This gives residents easy access to their full transaction history enabling them to review information like date/time, amount and location of a transaction as well as image receipts, line items descriptions if applicable. 

Ready to learn more about K4Community? Book a demo today!

Top 5 PR Strategies for Senior Living Communities

Cost-effective and time-efficient strategies to leverage the value of public relations for your community.

 

By: Lindsay Hull |Director of Media, Zer0 to 5ive

December 8, 2021

Public relations is a fantastic way for senior living communities to raise their awareness in the market through the credibility that comes through the press. At the same time, tight marketing budgets and already stretched staff bandwidth can make a potential public relations campaign seem out-of-reach.

However, there are several ways senior living communities can embark on an affordable and easy-to-implement public relations plan to help generate local and regional visibility — and, most importantly, drive occupancy. We’ll dive deeper into a few of them below.

1) Develop a simple process

While there are many routes a PR campaign can take, the best strategy for a team with limited resources to take is to keep it simple. Know from the beginning what you can and can’t do — how much time you can devote to public relations (you’ll find out that it’s harder than you think) and how much you can budget towards this type of work. That will help you formulate a manageable plan, which is the most important step to success in PR.

2) Think local, local, local

Much has been stated about the decline of regional and local news media. However, there is still a vibrant audience for this type of news — and it’s an audience filled with potential prospects interested in finding a senior living community to eventually call home. 

According to Pew Research Center, an estimated 35.6 million Americans had either a print or digital subscription to a daily newspaper in 2020. A separate survey found that 24 percent of people above the age of 65 and 38 percent of those between the ages of 50-64 said they followed “local news” very closely. These findings are a good indication that local news is still alive and well and likely your greatest asset. 

3) Contacting local news

It does take effort to reach out to local news outlets. While there are services that can help you quickly find contact information for reporters, the cheapest and most effective way is to scour the names of reporters at local newspapers and TV affiliates. Most newspapers (like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) have an easy-to-access online list of reporters, what they report about, along with their contact information. Local TV stations (like WCCO-TV in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market) also have the same kind of contact information.

Where to find contact information for local publications online:

  • Staff lists 
  • Reporter bios (often hyperlinked in articles)
  • Media or advertising kits 
  • Newsroom general contact (this contact is often the hub for disseminating information to the appropriate reporter or writer)
  • Tag news outlets or specific reporters in your social posts of local happenings at the community

However, it’s also important that you know who covers what. Research what reporters have covered the types of stories you’d like to appear in — reaching out to a sports reporter about the opening of a new community is simply wasting your time.

4) What’s a good story?

Local news outlets want news that focuses on people first. Keep that in mind when approaching reporters about a new community opening or a big happening in your community. 

It’s very possible to pitch a specific news event that impacts the lives of your residents. For example, a Raleigh TV station did a quick piece about seniors at The Cardinal at North Hills receiving 150 free Amazon Echo Dots that included video of residents opening these gifts — plus a mention of how it became the first voice-enabled senior community in the country.

Another way to attract local news is by inviting the local press to an event — like this article about a Halloween visit to an equestrian center planned by a California senior community and this segment about a tea party held at Georgia community during this past Mother’s Day. 

Examples of newsworthy community happenings:

  • Community grand openings or campus expansions
  • Promote your seasonal or unique programming; bonus if the local community can join to experience it! (new fitness programs, celebrated chef joining the dining team with a local inspired menu)
  • Tech implementations impacting resident life (how residents are using tech to create new friendships, engage in new experiences)
  • Leverage holidays to tell unique resident stories (Celebrate a resident veteran on Veterans Day, a former bakery owner on National Cookie Day)

5) Leverage Any Press Coverage

Getting coverage – placed articles or news segments – from your PR outreach is great. But what’s even better is knowing how to leverage your media coverage to drive interest in your community.

It’s certainly possible that someone might read an article or watch a local news segment about your community and decide to check it out. But it’s more likely that you’ll have to use your own efforts to translate a media appearance into occupancy.

The best way to do so is to make sure you have an “In The News” area located on your website that’s easy to find. (While this might seem simple, you’d be surprised how often this is not the case.) Those articles and segments will give visitors to your site a good idea of what to expect at your community — and if they like what they see, they may take the next step and ask you for more information about a possible move.

Also, including these appearances in any email blasts or newsletters you send out to prospects and potential residents can also have them click on a call-to-action. Newspaper articles and TV segments are almost always kept on an outlet’s website permanently, meaning you can always recycle any stories about your facility over time.

Technology Trends Driving Resident Safety, Wellness and Satisfaction

“Understanding the role technology plays in improving resident quality of life, augmenting staff challenges and creating meaningful community experiences.

By: Natalie Jones | Director of Marketing & Communications, K4Connect

November 17, 2021

Over the past year, resident safety, wellness and satisfaction have been increasingly top of mind for both residents and staff. As senior living operators continue to navigate post-pandemic life in their communities, it is critical to understand and value the role technology can play in improving resident quality of life, augmenting staff challenges and creating meaningful community experiences.

In the K4Connect Fall 2021 Insights Report: Technology Trends Driving Resident Safety, Wellness and Satisfaction, data and survey responses strongly point to technology as a way to strengthen safety measures in resident homes, increase community-wide visibility and team productivity for staff, and expand wellness offerings for residents. The report also explores how residents measure their personal satisfaction and happiness in a senior living community. Check out the infographic for highlights of the report, and head to this webpage to download the report in full. 

What Really Makes Residents Happy? You Might Be Surprised!

“Resident happiness is key to your community’s success. Do you know what residents say contributes most to their happiness?” 

By: Dr. Cindy Phillips | K4Advisors Managing Partner, K4Connect

November 15, 2021

For decades, most senior living communities have conducted resident satisfaction surveys. And for decades, the leaders in those communities have worked diligently to digest and plan initiatives to improve their scores. I was one of those leaders, and it proved difficult to move the needle on results.

After reviewing the results from our recent resident survey (administered via the K4Community App), I think you might be surprised by the gap uncovered in what residents say, “makes them happy”, and what the staff shared “they are doing” to drive resident satisfaction. It might be time to change some of your strategies to match the most important drivers of resident happiness.  Let’s dig into the details.

The good news first – the majority of residents polled (89%) believe their community “cares about my happiness.” An excellent reflection on the industry’s service mindset! The surprise findings reveal an apparent disconnect in knowing what the highest contributors to that happiness are.

Our survey’s top 3 contributors to happiness from resident respondents:

  1.       Clean living environment (86% said this greatly/strongly contributes)
  2.       Feeling safe (86% of residents said this greatly/strongly contributes)
  3.       Having friends/connection with others (84% said this greatly/strongly contributes 

Our survey’s top 3 things community staff is doing to contribute to resident satisfaction:

  1.       Meeting with residents, encourage their input/feedback – 47%
  2.       Having good community activities/events – 25%
  3.       Increasing resident interaction with staff/Making staff available for residents – 18%

 It should concern us that nothing matched in the top 3 of the two groups. Actually, not one community staff listed “clean living environment” or “feeling safe” as drivers of resident happiness. One could argue that these two go without saying in senior living, or that COVID-19 has brought these to the forefront. Whatever the reason, they remind us of what is top of mind right now for community residents.

But an even more subtle (but extremely important) disconnect is around the social component of resident happiness. Our resident respondents ranked “having friends/connection with others” as their highest social driver of happiness (86% more residents indicated this is a stronger contributor than “Being involved in my community”.)

In my mind, this isn’t about the number of activities, nor the interaction with staff (both in the staff top three). This important component of resident happiness is about personal connection with others (maybe just one). It can happen at an event, but it is more likely to happen with a more intentional approach.

I believe the message in this data is for communities to make it their primary goal to foster these connections. Look for more opportunities, not just with activities or events, but across every resident experience (sales, dining, volunteering, spiritual services, etc.), to facilitate these relationships. Think of yourselves as match-makers!

If you want to learn about more about what makes residents happy, check out our Fall 2021 Insights Report.

K4Connect Summer 2021 Product Update: The Importance of Listening to Senior Living Residents and Staff

We asked and our residents answered. Learn how our latest K4Community release addresses some of the most common feedback we heard.

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

August 31, 2021

The summer months have been busy here at K4Connect. We’ve gathered feedback from hundreds of our users and as a result, we’re proud to deliver exciting new technologies and features to senior living communities and operators through our K4Community solution. 

This quarter, our team focused on features that benefit residents, their family members and community staff in the areas of:

  • Newly released Community Insights, a data offering for community staff and operators
  • Streamlined layout in K4Community Plus and the addition of a What’s New content section
  • Enhanced resident engagement and communication with notifications for community events and announcements

Here’s how our newest features and updates improve the lives of residents and increase staff efficiency in senior living communities.

1. NEW Community Insights
New data-driven reporting tools are available to all K4Community Team Hub users. Staff members now have easy access to data and usage metrics for residents using K4Community Plus, Voice, Resident Check-in, Smart Home and more. This feature enables senior living staff and operators to view key insights related to resident adoption and engagement, as well as staff engagement. The ability to track, measure and analyze community-wide technology usage means staff teams can create even better experiences in their communities based on timely data.

What types of data do communities have access to? Sample insights include:

  • Residents onboarded to the K4Community Plus App
  • Daily app interactions per resident and trending data
  • Daily posts via Team Hub by community team members and trending data
  • Most popular app features and event/activity popularity
  • Resident Check-In alert information
  • And more!

2. Enhancements in K4Community Plus:

  • Introducing a fresh new look on the Home Page. The addition of the What’s New section ensures residents always stay up to date on the newest information and content that has been shared since their last visit to the app. The Library section is where residents find an organized collection of content shared by the community. 
  • Dining also has a new home in our Web app making it easier to quickly find and view menu and dining balance information.

3. NEW Push Notifications – Increasing communication and community engagement for residents and staff.

  • Community staff members now have the ability to send residents a push notification (or alert) when publishing an important post to the K4Commuinty Plus App — whether that is a building notice, a new menu, a change to an event, or any other important information residents should be aware of.

  • Residents will also receive push notifications for community events/activities they have signed up for 15 minutes prior to the event.

We love the recent feedback shared by residents using the K4Community Plus App!

Check out Summer 2021 Release to get more information about all of this quarter’s updates. Ready to learn more about K4Community? Book a demo today!

How COVID-19 Turned Older Adults Into Tech Enthusiasts

“As the pandemic closed the doors of senior living communities, residents turned to technology.

By: Natalie Jones | Director of Marketing & Communications, K4Connect

July 1, 2021

The pandemic brought immeasurable challenges to people around the world. How do we get the information we need? How do we stay connected to people while in quarantine? How do I stay active and social?

Now, think about asking yourself these questions as an older adult. There is no doubt this demographic was hit harder than most by the impacts of the coronavirus. But, what we also saw was an inspiring shift in how older adults turned to technology to overcome many of these challenges. Particularly in senior living communities, residents leaned on technology to maintain personal connections, stay up to date on the important information and find creative ways to virtually socialize and connect.

We recently released our Summer 2021 Insights Report, “Trending Technologies To Navigate Life and Work In Senior Living During and Post-Pandemic,” that explores this very topic. We found that residents were leveraging various types of technology to successfully navigate daily life in their communities. Check out the infographic for highlights of the report, and head to this webpage to download the report in full.

Infographic describing how older adult residents and senior living community staff are using technology to navigate life and work post-pandemic.

K4Connect Spring 2021 Product Update: Expanding the ways technology improves the lives of senior living residents and staff

Learn about three new, impactful K4Community features and updates.

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

June 3, 2021

We’ve been hard at work the past three months to deliver on our mission to create simpler, healthier and happier lives for residents, their families, staff and community operators. At K4Connect we are relentless when it comes to innovation. And the result of that? We are constantly delivering exciting new technologies and features to senior living communities through our K4Community solution. 

This quarter, our team focused on improvements to features that benefit residents, their  family members and community staff in the areas of:

  • Enhanced communication and engagement capabilities in K4Community Plus
  • Expanded Resident Check-In functionality
  • New integration partners and additional capabilities with existing partners – content, dining and POS

Here’s how our newest features and updates improve the lives of residents and increase staff efficiency in senior living communities.

1. Enhancements in K4Community Plus:

  • Highly requested and highly anticipated updates to the Directory make filtering residents, family/friends and staff a breeze. Staff members can control whether or not they want to be included in the Directory as well as what contact information they want to share. 

  • New event updates make signing up for events and managing a calendar even simpler. Residents can now sign-up a guest for an event and join the waitlist if the event is full. They can also add community events to their personal calendar (iCal, Google Calendar) directly from the Event section of the resident app, eliminating the need to manage multiple calendars.

2. Expanded Resident Check-In functionality: Now, K4Community Alexa skill interaction(s) can be designated as a “check-in” event increasing the robust capabilities of our industry-leading K4Community Resident Check-In solution. That’s right – residents simply interacting with their Alexa device registers that they are up and active for the day with our automated check-in tool. 

3. Integration Updates
K4Community now offers the most expansive content integration options in senior living. In addition to our existing content partners; CuriosityStream, Coro Health and Spiro 100, we have two exciting new content partners that allow your residents to access even more dynamic content. It’s easy for staff to share and even easier for residents to experience.

  • Eversound Select programming provides curated, interactive content and programs that give residents instant access to unique experiences and allows them to connect, learn and discover new interests. Eversound Select offers topics like art, entertainment, history, fitness and more. Residents can access endless content anytime, anywhere from the mobile and web applications that are available through K4Community Plus and enjoy programming from the comfort of their own home through Direct Broadcast

 

  • One Day University provides access to over 500 fascinating TED talk-style lectures, from over 200 of the greatest professors from the world’s top schools. Together, with K4Community, the One Day University on-demand video library can be shared directly with your residents to encourage purposeful engagement and inspire life-long learning. 

  • An update to the Spiro100 integration allows staff to select and share specific content from the industry’s largest library of exercise and wellness programs through K4Community Plus and Direct Broadcast (the in-room TV channel). In addition, staff can save time by automating Spiro100 courses to display ahead of time or on a specific schedule. 

An exciting new Point of Sale (POS) integration and useful updates to our current POS partners were also prioritized this quarter. 

  • Our newest POS integration with ServingIntel enables residents to place meal orders in K4Community Plus, giving residents increased independence and eliminating the need for phone calls to staff and paper methods of meal ordering. ServingIntel is a leading provider of transaction management solutions for dining, retail and ancillary activities that enable senior living operators to increase Net Operating income (NOI) and best serve residents, resident’s families, guests and staff.

  • Our FullCount and Volante integrations have been streamlined to improve resident management and staff control in the K4Community Team Hub. Both POS integrations allow residents to view dining balance information directly in K4Community Plus.

 

Check out Spring 2021 Release to get more information about all of this quarter’s updates. Ready to learn more about K4Community? Book a demo today!

Older Americans Month: Meet Our Residents!

Older Americans Month

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Celebrating Older Americans Month by celebrating the lives and stories of a few of our community partner residents!

May 19, 2021

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In tough times, communities find strength in people—and people find strength in their communities. In the past year, we’ve seen this time and again in communities across the country as residents and staff have found new ways to support each other.

In senior living communities, older adults are a key source of this strength. Through their experiences, successes, and difficulties, they have built resilience that helps them to face new challenges. When communities tap into this, they become stronger too.

Each May, the Administration for Community Living leads the celebration of Older Americans Month (OAM). This year’s theme is Communities of Strength, recognizing the important role older adults play in fostering the connection and engagement that build strong, resilient communities.  

When people of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and talents share experiences—through action, story, or service—we help build strong communities. And that’s something to celebrate!  Together, we can find strength—and create a stronger future.

This year, one way K4Connect will celebrate Older Americans Month is by highlighting some of our amazing community members (residents). 

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Meet Don Homer

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What was your first job?

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Delivering prescriptions on my bicycle at 14 years old. My first career job was as an electrical engineer with GE.

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What are your top 3 movies of all time?

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Gone With the Wind, Star Wars and The Godfather

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If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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Italian food

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What world event(s) had the most impact on you?

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Vietnam

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What are you most proud of? 

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My career and family.

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What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

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When you think you have problems, look over your shoulder, someone you see will have real problems.

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What would you tell your 20 year old self?

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Pick a goal and get started.

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What do you think the best age to be is? Why?

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30 – 40. You are no longer teenage impulsive; you’re working, healthy and settled with a family, and still invincible.

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Meet Deanna Hill

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What was your first job?

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My first job was at age 14 working at J B Ivey’s, a retail department store in Charlotte NC, making 50 cents an hour.  They were not open on Sundays and even closed the display windows so that people could not window shop on Sundays.  I worked in the boys’ clothing department and in greeting cards and gift wrap.

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What are your top 3 movies of all time?

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‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’, which I have seen 8 times including once here at the Cardinal, is my all-time favorite.  I’ve also read the book and been to Savanah to visit the actual locations shown in the movie.  Watching so many times was somewhat like shopping in a wonderful gift shop where you can’t see everything in just a few trips.  I also like ‘Pretty Woman’ and any movie Kevin Spacey is in.

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If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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Well, it would be hard to do without my favorites: strawberry shortcake, anything lemon, Jiff Extra Crunchy peanut butter, and Kettle popcorn.  But being a vegetarian and wanting to feel good as long as possible, I suppose it would be a toss-up between Thai food or a salad with lots of fruit, veggies, onion, and beans or eggs for protein.

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What world event(s) had the most impact on you?

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Like most people near my age, I remember exactly where I was when J F Kennedy was shot.  Then his brother Robert and Martin Luther King along with the civil rights movement.  We have come such a long way from those days but have much further to go.  

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What are you most proud of? 

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My response will be in addition to my children and grandchildren, of course. As a volunteer in 1981 I helped organize a team of wonderful people to build a swim and racquet club and served as its first president.  That club brought families from several neighborhoods together for such fun, for the competition and good sport of swim meets, and for pool parties, laughter, and special celebrations.  I still love to ride by or visit and see children and young people enjoying time there.

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What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

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Don’t double trouble by wasting time or energy worrying.  Don’t make decisions out of fear.  Even in difficult times look for all the things to be grateful for, trust God, expect the best but be prepared for the worst, practice patience and kindness, show compassion.

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What would you tell your 20 year old self?

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Learn the skill of being assertive instead of aggressive. Many want to be attractive or smart but the most important thing to be is kind. Don’t be so rigid and intent on doing things right; find the joy and have fun.  Be grateful in all things even through pain and heartbreak. Try always to be true to your values; forgive yourself when you fail and do better the next time. Remember you will be ‘less young’ one day yourself.

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What do you think the best age to be is? Why?

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For me at age 48, having reared my children and learned to enjoy being ‘single again’, I experienced a freedom I had never felt before, not even in childhood.  I was in good health mentally and physically.  This was also a time of reinventing myself once again and starting another career that challenged me and helped others.  

If we ignore the health issues, life as a senior citizen is full of good memories, hopefully some wisdom gained throughout life, and others who are on the journey to the same destination we are and who support one another on that journey.  Opportunities abound to do the things one loves to do.

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Meet Alec Jablonover

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What was your first job?

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 My first job was with IBM Corporation in engineering development.

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What are your top 3 movies of all time?

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My top 3 movies of all time : West Side Story; The Longest Day; My Fair Lady.

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If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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If I could only eat one thing it would be dark chocolate.

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What world event(s) had the most impact on you?

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The Birth of the State of Israel had most impact on my life because it opened the door for my family to escape the Romanian and soviet life and emigrate to Israel.

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What are you most proud of? 

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My biggest accomplishments are the development of my family and my professional accomplishments in management and use of languages.

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What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

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Maintaining social network, continued learning and finding ways to help others.

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What would you tell your 20 year old self?

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Learn all the time from school, friends, family and develop sources of pride in yourself.

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What do you think the best age to be is? Why?

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I believe the thirties because by then one has a pretty clear career path and a family may be developing to achieve a happy life.

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Meet Jim Cochrane

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What was your first job?

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Setting telephone poles in hot summer.

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What are your top 3 movies of all time?

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My Fair Lady, Mary Poppins and The Magnificent 7

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If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

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Ciopinno

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What world event(s) had the most impact on you?

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The fall of the Berlin Wall

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What are you most proud of? 

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Raising two super children

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What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in life?

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Never give up (Winston Churchill)

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What would you tell your 20 year old self?

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Take more risks

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What do you think the best age to be is? Why?

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Today’s age – tomorrow’s age will be better!

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We hope you enjoyed learning a bit about some of these fantastic residents. For more resources, visit the official OAM website, follow ACL on Twitter and Facebook, and join the conversation via #OlderAmericansMonth.

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5 Things To Consider When Reopening Your Senior Living Community

Utilize the technology you have at your fingertips to help resume vibrant resident life in your community.”

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

April 14, 2021

Spring is here! As flowers emerge and trees bud, we see the beginnings of a fresh start all around us. And thankfully, senior living communities are also seeing the opportunity for new beginnings as our society transitions back to a sense of normalcy post-COVID. There have been, without a doubt, many learnings over the past 12 months and some key takeaways.  As you look to reopen your communities here are five things to keep in mind: 

  1. Keep communication high with your residents. There are still changes happening in your community as you roll out new processes and provide ongoing guidance as various restrictions are lifted. Your residents all absorb information differently so be sure to find multiple ways to provide updates. For the most important updates, remember the “Rule of 7” — communicate the information multiple times and across various platforms to ensure the message is heard and remembered. Our community partners are leveraging K4Community Digital Signage and Direct Broadcast (in-house TV Channel) to quickly and easily share written or video updates. Community staff are also creating posts in our staff tool, Team Hub, to share information via K4Community Plus (resident app) and through Alexa. 


  2. Continue to ensure your resident’s loved ones and community visitors stay informed. Share updates with friends & family through the K4Community Plus app. If you still have community visitor limits in place, give them opportunities to sign-up for a spot to visit their loved one through simple tools like Google Forms or JotForm.

  3. Give your residents a voice. Before you simply shift back to some of the old ways of doing things in your community, find out from residents if there are things you started during the pandemic that they would like to see stick around. Create an online survey and share the survey link with residents in the K4Community Plus App.
    Ask questions like: 
    • Do they want to continue to have meal delivery as an option and what would they be willing to pay for it?
    • What new events introduced during quarantine did they enjoy most?
    • Did you roll out new content and programs through a third party provider such as Spiro100, CuriosityStream or Coro Health?  If so, what programs do your residents want to continue to be able to access? 

  4. Remember all residents may not feel safe being out and about the community or being in group settings quite yet.  Ensure they have opportunities to be engaged in community events and happenings, as well. Use Direct Broadcast to live stream community meetings and various activities. Continue to create virtual events that residents can attend and participate in by simply clicking a link in the K4Community Plus app. Many of our community partners have found great success in creating virtual clubs that residents attend via Zoom. Using YouTube streaming for community meetings, religious services, concerts and fitness programs is another popular way to provide engagement opportunities to all residents, especially those that prefer to remain socially-distant as your community reopens.



    Limiting the number of residents for certain events and requesting residents sign-up to attend can create an environment where residents feel safer. Encourage residents to use the K4Community Plus app to sign-up for events in an effort to save staff the time required to manage paper sign-ups. 

  5. As you work to maintain and increase your occupancy, know that the technology you have deployed in your community and the many benefits it offers differentiates you from other senior living providers, and what is often your biggest competitor: a senior’s current home. Be intentional in finding ways to highlight how technology — such as K4Community Smart Home, a resident app, Alexa and Direct Broadcast — enhance your residents’ lives. Create a demo apartment to compliment prospective resident tours that showcases the innovative things that are part of your community’s different and better story.  And don’t forget that many of your leads originate from the internet so be sure that your website and social media platforms highlight the use of technology in your community as well.

Learn more about how K4Community can partner with you as your senior living community reopens.