Sugar Addict Seniors?

Sugar Addict Seniors?

Desserts for SeniorsDoes every assisted living and skilled nursing community in America serve a dessert to their residents for lunch AND dinner? Is this too much sugar? Can sugar cause or increase dementia and Alzheimer’s?

My mom lived in assisted living for 7 years and had desserts twice a day. Now, she has lived in skilled nursing for 17 months with desserts twice a day and don’t forget the occasionally ice cream snack or the birthday party with cake. She has progressed over nine years from some memory loss to full blown vascular dementia. Was it life, genes or could sugar have helped it along? What is your opinion?

Fact: It is very hard for me to walk away from a good piece of chocolate. I am a sugar addict. Then I started reading about sugar causing inflammation in the body according Dr.Daniel Amen and how sugar can lead to dementia according to New York Times’ best selling author David Perlmutter, MD. When I started eating more that 12 pieces a day, I decided to give up sugar.

Every month, I am a presenter at four or more marketing luncheons for prospective residents. The lunches are outstanding and always end with a spectacular dessert. This week it was a cheesecake with strawberry sauce. I said no thank you. As the excellent servers are glancing around and notice that I don’t have a dessert, they come over to offer me one again. Sometimes I have had to say no to dessert three times at one luncheon. It is tough to give up sugar!

Temptation is everywhere! There is always a birthday celebration with cake, candy in the office, bakeries and here comes Halloween candy. Do you nibble or eat as much as possible? Do think it will cause us to have dementia sooner?

How many of us working folks eat two desserts every day? Is it bad that we feed two desserts to our seniors with dementia twice a day in our assisted living and skilled nursing care communities?

Diane Twohy Masson writes this weekly blog to support and engage with other senior housing professionals.  Her first book is Senior Housing Marketing – How To Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full.  Many sales teams and organizations have used the 12 keys contained in this book for their weekly book review.

Diane Masson has recently created a New Guide for the Silver Tsunami. Her latest book offers a pro-active approach for a senior to navigate his or her way through the senior housing market. “Selecting Senior Housing Options for Seniors IN the Silver Tsunami” is coming soon to Amazon.com. www.tips2seniors.com

 

© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2014 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.
Are Your Senior Living Prospects Dying?

Are Your Senior Living Prospects Dying?

129413596436283875Morgue.svg.medSenior living sales people fall into two different categories:

  • Proactive
  • Reactive

Proactive sales people in senior housing call their database  – the hot ones, the warm ones and yes even the older cold leads.  Reaching out and touching a senior every three to four months can fill your building.

Did you know that a senior’s life can change dramatically every six months?  It’s true.  They may have just been diagnosed with a degenerate disease like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes or some type of cancer.  Suddenly they realize that they are vulnerable and may need to live in a more supportive environment in the immediate future.

A senior who once told you it would be at least five years until they move, can suddenly turn into a one month move-in.  For those of you that call your database regularly, your phone call will spur the prospect into moving to your community sooner.  For those of you that don’t call your database, you are missing out.  That prospect will move somewhere and the community who advertises to them first will probably get the business.

Anyone who has been in this business for any length of time has had a prospective resident die.  It sucks and you feel horrible for them.  Congratulations, you know they died, because you are a proactive sales person.

Yesterday, one of my retirement counselors shared that his hottest prospect, he toured last week, had died.  He found out after he called and left a message.  The woman’s son called him back to say his mom had passed away.  The good news was by the end of that same day the retirement counselor had holds for two other apartments.  They are putting deposits down next week.   Your occupancy can increase with phone calls period.  Do you know if your prospects are dying?

Please share your success, failures or comment below to join the conversation and interact with other senior living professionals on what is currently being effective to increase occupancy on a nationwide basis.

Diane Twohy Masson is the author of “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” available at Amazon.com with a 5-star rating.  The book is required reading at George Mason University as a part of its marketing curriculum.  Within this book, the author developed a sales & marketing method with 12 keys to help senior living providers increase their occupancy.   Masson developed this expertise as a marketing consultant, sought-after blogger for senior housing and a regional marketing director of continuing care retirement communities in several markets.  She has also been a corporate director of sales and a mystery shopper for independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled care nursing communities in multiple states.  Most recently Masson was recruited to consult for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern California – Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet, California.  Interestingly, this career started when she was looking for a place for her own mom and helped her loved one transition through three levels of care.

© Marketing 2 Seniors| Diane Twohy Masson 2013 All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog post may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author, unless otherwise indicated for stand-alone materials. You may share this website and or it’s content by any of the following means: 1. Using any of the share icons at the bottom of each page. 2. Providing a back-link or the URL of the content you wish to disseminate. 3. You may quote extracts from the website with attribution to Diane Masson CASP and link https://www.marketing2seniors.net For any other mode of sharing, please contact the author Diane Masson.