Retirement Communities: Are they actively transforming the way we age ?

     When I was first hired in 1996, as Executive Chef of a prominent retirement community in La Jolla, California, I was instructed to do "whatever it takes" to keep the 340 residents happy. In retirement communities, it is great food that keeps residents content, and motivated to continue. During the next 8 years, my residents enjoyed the highest resident satisfaction in the history of the company's very large portfolio.
    I took a year off in 2004, to do some travel, remodel aspects of my 85 year old mother's home in West Los Angeles, and pay more attention to my middle age health. Bouyant and re-charged, I returned to the job market, and was immediately hired by another corporation's "flagship property".  As Dietary Director, I was still charged with a similar mission, "do whatever it takes to keep the residents satisfied". Only this time, my company was for profit; the first senior corporation I worked for was not for profit.

      In eighteen months, I improved the resident satisfaction  from 50%, when I began my tenure, to 94% as of September 2007. My residents knew that I was not just a chef, but a nutritionist, focused on improving resident  wellness. They had no prior knowledge of quinoa, wheat berries, eating for antioxidant protection: but I took the responsibility seriously, for improving their understanding of nutrition and it's straight line correlation to their current state of wellness. My mission was to educate.

     To their credit, some retirement corporations are genuinely interested in positively influencing the way in which their residents age.  Sadly, most programming, in my experience, in the six dimensions of wellness programming are all grossly underfunded.

      The two corporations from which I draw my experience, and these conclusions, seemed to more of an interest in maintaining full occupancy, than in promoting wellness for the residents .   My corporate supervisor actually instructed me to use commercial high sodium meatballs, because they were "cheaper" than scratch; the same fellow instructed me when I first arrived, that I should not cater to special diets: "we do not cater to special diets". Nutrition was not a primary concern, but it should be.  Malnutrition is one of the primary reasons that adult children seek to move their parents into a community.  Malnutrition amongst the senior population is staggering, and omnipresent, even when adjusted for economic factors.

Commitment to wellness, and staffing expertise should be a common denominator for communities committed to housing seniors .  But it is not a common denominator.  In one community, I personally raised $20,000 from the residents to build a wellness and balance room, and the corporation matched these funds to help realize the goal of promoting active aging. This community was very interested to walking the talk.

The other community had excellent equipment, but had a Wellness Director with no experience or certifications in senior fitness. 

     Most of these retirement communities struggle with occupancy, because people come in with some serious challenges, and while in residency, usually go quickly downhill. So the corporations that profit from occupancy, spend alot of money on marketing, but much less money on regular programming that benefits existing residents.  This is my greatest concern.  Marketing is very important, but everyday programming for residents that actively promotes and fosters wellness and active aging shows a greater sense of corporate responsibility.
     My last employer made $11 million dollars in profit from 23 retirement communities; they spent $2.40 per resident per meal, based on two meals per day. Dining services had, by far, the largest budget for all the properties within the corporation: that will tell you how little is actually spent on housekeeping, wellness, environmental services, capital expenses. In September of 2007, the management team of my property had to discourage the corporate leadership from spending $250,000 renovating the front of the building for aesthetic reasons(stamped concrete, palms, glamorous entrance, walkways,lighting), when the residents were screaming about the level of noise in their dining room, and the discomfort of their upholstered chairs.
If you care about the way that your parent ages, there are many other  alternatives to these glossy retirement communities. At the very least, you should understand that the data supports the conclusion that people moving into retirement communities, actually decline faster than they would if they were at home with caregivers.

Retirement Community corporations must exercise more corporate responsibility toward active aging programming and creating more socially responsible environments.  Wellness, and activity programs must be properly funded. It is time for these corporations to properly commit funding for recycling, greening the dietary operations,  and  minimizing campus generated waste.  A funded commitment to wellness does not stop at the fitness room.  

A CALL TO SHIFT THE ILLNESS CENTERED PARADIGM IN AMERICA

     Birthdays arrive the same day every year. At fifty, we laugh, celebrate our stature as “almost over the hill”; and cheerily accept, and imply that whoohoo, we have arrived and are on our way down. Wow  !!………no wonder death is so welcome with seniors. After 35-50 years of accelerating decline, of simulating winters with decades of our unhealthy choices, I would want to be taken out back and shot as well ! The last five years has been explosive in research about aging: it is critical that everyone in America become educated.
As a society, we have made it easy for people to become unhealthy: it is socially acceptable to become sedentary: you are simply ‘not athletic’; your honorable commitment to your sedentary job excuses you from hunting and foraging (otherwise known as exercise); your parents had diabetes, so it is in your genes, and therefore o.k. for you to be diabetic as well.
As a society, we may be appalled at the high cost of health care, but we don’t see the connection between the outrageous checks we write each month to maintain our wellness coverage, and the cost to our ourselves, and our society of supporting the epidemic of commitments made to illness lifestyles.
As an individual who understands my nature, my evolution, and works hard to incorporate good science to optimize my own health, and quality of longevity, I am committed to seeing a cultural change in this country that shifts responsibility for illness back to the individuals whose personal choices are making them ill, and making me pay for their illness.
TransformAging is my vision for a cultural movement that seeks to establish ‘wellness is the only option’ education as part of core curriculum from elementary schools thru graduate schools. I think you should understand how to feed yourself, and how to care for your amazing body before your graduate high school. There is simply too little cultural pressure in this society against individuals who consistently make illness choices. 
Whether you like it or not, the way you choose to live your life, on a daily basis, determines your state of health. Repeat bad choices over and over again, day in, and day out, and your body, and brain will just make healthy adaptations to the environment that you are creating. These healthy adaptations take the form of deadly diseases, because your choices are telling your system to shut down and die: again, whether that is your intent or not, is irrelevant.
It is a proven fact that 70% of all premature death and aging is lifestyle related. Individuals who refuse to make wellness choices should be penalized by the society: their health insurance premiums should be ten times what mine are.
Obese adults, obese children should be taxed for taxing the society, driving up everyone’s costs because they choose to overeat, because they have a dollar in their pocket, an overabundant recreational (not nutritional)food supply; and they choose not to hunt or forage(exercise). In evolution, nature does kill off animals, and human animals that make these choices: but in the meantime, why are the wellness committed individuals paying the way for illness committed individuals to make these choices that work against our very nature ?
We have a huge medical and pharmaceutical industry that exists solely because we all support an individuals’ right to make choices: even unhealthy ones. Picking up the tab for someone else’s unhealthy choices is going too far, and it has got to stop.  It is up to this generation of boomers to stand up, and start to shift the paradigm from illness centered aging to wellness centered aging.
Health insurance premiums must reflect our focus on wellness: if you continue to be inactive, or obese , year after year, despite all the awareness, and education that passively surrounds you: your health premiums should go up. If your actively engage in growing younger, and making the time to signal your brain and body that it is springtime, a time to grow, no matter what your age: you should have lower premiums.
It is pathetic that we have the highest standard of living, and the highest incidence of illness and disability over fifty years of age, fifty percent of which could be eliminated by making lifestyle choices that are true to our true nature.