Five More Important Trends For The Ages

Since I last talked to you about innovative trends in health care technology, I thought I'd continue the theme and give you five more important trends that will alter the field of aging.

Ever since I wrote Death of the Continuing Care Retirement Community on our Mature Market Experts blog, people have been asking me what the future holds for our aging population. Here are some trends I see that will change the lives of aging baby boomers and seniors:

1. Virtual communities - With the help of technology, organizations such as the Village to Village Network are successfully changing how seniors age in place. By offering a wide variety of services - from in-home preferred vendor lists, cultural and social events and member-to-member volunteer opportunities ... to health and wellness programs, educational and special interest programs and community service - all accessible via phone or computer - organizations such as these are making it easier for people to successfully age in place. Beacon Hill Village in Boston, founded in 2001, is a great example of this, as is the newer Mill City Commons.

Please note, that I said, "successfully" age in place. Adding elements such as common dining tables and happy hours at local partnering dining establishments, along with the transportation to get there, adds an important social element that was previously missing from this sort of offering.

Baltimore/Washington has become a hotbed for these villages. According to a recent Washington Post article, there are six in Washington, DC, at least two in Fairfax County and eight others in various stages of development in Montgomery County. I expect the rest of the country will soon follow important trend.

2. New Urbanism - This "new" trend was supposed to happen a long time ago. I think a couple of things are finally conspiring to make it more likely to happen now:

- Urban land values have dramatically dropped, allowing creative developers to take advantage of better pricing

- Towns and cities have become desperate for tax revenue making them more amenable to developers' designs

- The recent recession has altered the "bigger is better" mindset that had taken over housing ... which means the more modest square footage available in urban living is becoming more acceptable (that being said, I wouldn't build anything less than 2 bedroom floor plans if at all possible)

- Boomers don't want to move to a "retirement" community and understand the benefits of urban life

Again, smart retirement community developers will understand these trends and meld them into their plans. A perfect example of this is the The Cardinal at North Hills, which is a full-service retirement community being built in the heart of North Hills, a newly revitalized part of Raleigh, North Carolina. North Hills' wonderful array of new shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues become tangible amenities of The Cardinal and a key component in their marketing.

3. Technology - The key to executing excellent ideas like virtual communities is efficiencies. Technology provides the efficiencies that allow models like this to work for the very first time. Just as important, the technology now allows for the monitoring of a senior's vitals (and non-vitals). According to a recent report, Care giving in the US of 50+:

- 23% of caregivers reported utilizing an electronic organizer/calendar

- 16% use an emergency response system

- 12% utilize electronic information with their doctor or care manager,

- 10% reported using electronic sensors to detect safety problems

- 7% said they use website/software for health records

Just as important is the use of technology for social contact, for example email and Facebook. Recently, my children introduced visual Skype to their grandparents. It is advances like these that mitigate some of the risks associated with social isolation.

Look for investors to continue to pour money into health care/social issue technology.

4. Mini-retirements/lifelong employment - Boomers tell us they're going to work far beyond age 65, for two reasons; necessity and fulfillment. Yes, boomers and seniors have been hit extremely hard by the recent recession ... but I also believe that people are beginning to understand that life "engagement" is essential to good health (this is particularly important for the brain). As a result, I believe many boomers who would have previously turned to retirement will turn to "mini-retirements," meaning vacations of one month or more. These longer vacations allow for the opportunity to invigorate the mind and soul in a more meaningful way than the traditional vacation (this concept was first espoused by Tim Ferriss, who wrote an interesting book called the 4-Hour Work Week).

Today, it's a lot easier to slip between the world of work and play, thanks to technology. It's now just as easy to get most work done from the sunny Caribbean as it is from DC, New York, Chicago, or LA. I predict that we'll see this as a growing trend ... longer careers dotted with mini-retirements.

If you operate a retirement community with monthly service fees, make sure you offer an adjustment for these long lapses in their occupancy. Otherwise, you might be scaring off some of your younger residents who like to travel. In addition, make sure that your community offers administrative services, that working residents can utilize at a cost. Making it easier to maintain their business, will make it easier to choose your community.

5. Health care plans will begin to pay for prevention - as I discussed in the point above, research is beginning to show us that if you don't use it, you lose it! Health care companies will begin to focus on preventive health care rather than reactive health care. Expect to see more health plans adopt programs like Silver Sneakers. Why? Because it saves the plan money, helps with new member recruitment, while at the same time assisting in member retention.

Brain fitness will be a key component of this plan, as the costs of Alzheimer's and dementia threaten to ravage the US health care system (there are now nearly a half million new cases of Alzheimer's each year; and by 2050, it is expected that there will be nearly a million new cases per year).

Developers of retirement communities and active 55s would be wise to partner up with these preventative programs, as they will become an increasingly important marketing "amenity" in your community. Note: I recommend reading The Anti-Alzheimer's Prescription.

Remember, when it comes to marketing to boomers and beyond, it's all about control. A person who is tackling the aging process is looking to remain in control of their life. That's hard to do, when your body is letting you down. Anything you can do that enables them to maintain that goal gets you closer to a sale.