Learn free tips and advice from a senior living expert who has walked the journey with thousands of seniors in four states. Diane Masson’s professional and personal senior living experience includes:
Identifying the important considerations of staying home versus moving to a retirement community.
Helping her own mom plan ahead and move to a Continuing Care Retirement Community, before she had dementia.
Supporting her in-laws when they were simultaneously in hospitals and had to be put into different facilities (assisted living and skilled nursing).
Self-driving cars are here. The first self-driving taxi was launched in Singapore, only navigating in a limited portion of the city. Google has logged more than 1.5 million miles in self-driving cars in four states here in America. The Ford Company announced its plan to have a driverless car by 2021. USA Today, stated experts believe that driverless cars will be available to the public in 2020. We are just a few years away – wow!
Seniors who have vision or other health challenges can become independent again with these state-of-the-art cars. But with 50% of seniors having dementia at age 85, a driverless car may strand disoriented seniors who can’t remember the make and model of their car or where they parked it.
Some seniors base their decision to move into a retirement community on when they can’t pass the driver’s license exam.
At first glance, it seems that retirement communities that offer transportation will be able to eliminate the driving staff. Right? Wrong!! Don’t be so fast to downsize these crucial senior assistants.
Can a driverless car at a retirement community help seniors:
In and out of the cars and buses as a senior becomes more frail?
Load and unload groceries?
Locate their doctor’s office in the medical building if the senior has dementia?
Make sure he/she can return safely to their home after an appointment?
Only drivers at retirement communities can help with all of the above scenarios.
Join the conversation and share your Tips2Seniors here through comments.
Diane Masson is an award winning author who passionately educates seniors about senior housing options through television, radio, a Tips2seniors.com blog and Southern California seminars (at 55-plus retirement communities, churches and Continuing Care Retirement Communities like Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet). “Your Senior Housing Options,” just won the 2016 Mature Media Award.
Learn valuable tips to differentiate quality retirement communities from mediocre ones in an interview with author and senior housing expert, Diane Masson.
Answers for seniors, adult children and family members in “Your Senior Housing Options,”authored by Diane Masson. It’s available on Amazon.com with a 5-star rating.
My mother moved into a not-for-profit Continuing Care Retirement Community. That’s where I started my senior housing career. I sold the not-for-profit status as better and more mission driven than the money grubby for-profits, because that was what all the not-for-profits said and did.
I was naive for three reasons, because later I learned:
A non-profit board that did not understand seniors or senior housing made financial decisions for the entire senior living community.
Most of the profits at the non-profit went towards other ministry work instead of being reinvesting back into the senior community.
A resident was sexual abused by a non-profit staff member, even though every employee professed to be Christian.
Then my senior housing career switched to for-profit. It can be pretty dog-eat-dog aggressive at some companies. It really varies in the senior living industry if the resident is number one or the stockholders are the primary concern. So you better find out before you consider moving there or working there.
If a sales person can’t hit the required sales numbers, you are simply fired at some for-profits. Maybe that’s why so many sales people are impersonal and just want to know if you are ready now? If a senior is not ready now, the sales person has no interest in calling a senior back after they have toured. This is sad, because most seniors need to come back several times before making a decision to move. A relationship needs to be built.
At for-profit senior living communities, most financial decisions go towards the benefit of the stockholders. But there are some amazing administrators that love, adore and would walk on hot coals for their residents and staff. So resident centered communities can vary by location and not the owner in my opinion.
There are actually two types of for-profits: Those on the stock exchange and boutique communities that are run by families or attentive owners. I am lucky to work for a for-profit that is run by attentive owners. They have the heart of a not-for-profit and are completely resident centered and mission driven.
The communities I represent do something very unique for Continuing Care Retirement Communities.They offer a Guarantee of Care for life, if a resident outlives their resources. Every resident has the same offer, it is not limited to 5 or 10 residents on a good Samaritan fund or foundation.
Do you agree with my analogies or am I completely off base? How would you evaluate the differences?
Your Senior Housing Options,”has a simplistic title, but what’s inside this new book can save a you months of research time. Hear Diane Masson’s interviewof how her mother and in-law’s faced the pivotal decision to plan ahead or wait until a crisis. Learn the pitfalls from transitioning from your home to senior housing. Understand what questions to ask, insider tips and dirty secrets revealed. For weekly tips join at: Www.Tips2Seniors.com
Diane Masson has worked in senior housing for 17 years and is the regional marketing director for two debt-free Continuing Care Retirement Communities in Southern CA (Freedom Village in Lake Forest and The Village in Hemet). Her first book “Senior Housing Marketing – How to Increase Your Occupancy and Stay Full,” is being utilized by senior housing professionals across the country. Both her first book and second book, “Your Senior Housing Options,” have a 5-star rating on Amazon.com.
Almost everyone wears a mask out in public. It can be exhausting to hide behind a fake exterior and pretend we have it all together. I meet seniors and sales people everyday that seemed poised and polished to the world and yet they are terrified inside.
Many seniors and sales people have lost the ability to be real and authentic. They have worked hard to create the illusion that everything is fine, because they fear showing their vulnerability.
Seniors walk into retirement communities everyday announcing that he or she is fine and “not ready yet” to make a move to senior housing. If you could pull off the mask, you might see a frightened senior who knows their memory is slipping, had a recent fender bender in the car or is just extremely lonely. That’s why they are exploring senior housing options.
Is this you?
Sale people may be dealing with an angry teenage daughter, a new baby, or ailing parents. They have to leave their breaking heart in the car and arrive for work with a mask of happiness.
Is this you?
Here are the three most common masks:
The I’m Fine Mask: You smile and say that everything is fine when your heart is breaking. It appears that you have it all, but you may feel lost inside. It is safer to hide, because people expect it.
The Performance Mask: You have the “to do” list. You keep up a frantic pace. If you stop performing then you are not worth anything at all. You want to matter and count.
The “I don’t care” Mask: You don’t bother with your looks. You do not seem to care. You are desperate to not be seen. You are certain that others will reject you.
Masks can be exhausting.
I know because I am usually wearing the performance mask. On top of working full time as a regional marketing director at two Continuing Care Retirement Communities:
A radio interview last week with AM 590 and the California Senior Guide will turn into a broadcast on Sunday, Oct 4th at 11:00 AM.
Four TV interviews over the last several months are all on my YouTube channel.
My personality has always been driven. I have always increased the occupancy of any senior living community I was working with. I love achieving goals. It’s also important to create balance in my life so I don’t burn out. I just started a women’s bible study called, “Keeping the Balance.” It is already changing my life and helping me recognize the real me, so I can be authentic with you. Today, I had some me time. What a treat. Tonight I will be dancing with my husband at Oktoberfest.
Balance in life is important. The opposite of wearing a mask can be seniors and sales people who over share. They want to dump all their problems on you and it may not be at an appropriate time.
When my mom was in in later stages of dementia, her mask of pretending to be okay was gone. She just said whatever was on her mind.
How about you? What’s your mask? Have you found your balance?
Diane Masson has 19 years experience, both personally and professionally in senior housing. She is an author of two books with 5-star ratings, a weekly blogger and a regional marketing director of two Continuing Care Retirement Communities. Follow her newsletter on Tips2Seniors.com or Tips2Seniors on Facebook.
