Working towards a ‘noble cause’
Seniors’ housing is a crucial part of modern society, but it is more than just finding a place where a loved one can live out his or her life in comfort and safety.
Working to benefit more than 35,000 seniors across Alberta through helping the myriad owners and operators of seniors’ housing, the Alberta Seniors Communities and Housing Association (ASCHA) continues to work towards its “noble cause.”
“We want to create a world where seniors have choice and a life of purpose where they’re valued, honoured and respected,” explained Irene Martin-Lindsay, ASCHA’s executive director.
While ASH CA runs a publicly accessible housing directory of seniors living facilities in almost all Alberta communities, Martin-Lindsay said most of the association’s work pertains to representing and serving its members, and it is not involved in placing seniors into housing.
However, there are still many ways ASCHA works with the public to help seniors as they age and their needs change. One example is an ongoing survey about terms used in the seniors housing realm, since different organizations use different words for the same thing.
“We’re trying to determine how the public views it to try to come up with a simpler terminology that would be more clear,” Martin-Lindsay said.
This survey is available on ASCHA’s website, and has close to 600 responses so far—Martin-Lindsay said the goal is to have at least 1,000 responses before compiling a comprehensive list of terms.
Another way ASCHA is getting the public more involved in seniors housing is its Charlie and Hazel blog, which chronicles a couple’s changing life as they move from their own home on an acreage into assisted living. The blog is updated weekly and readers can give their comments that are used to direct the couple’s story.
Those two aspects, plus many more, are all about crafting a new future that works, Martin-Lindsay said.
“If what we’re doing in building and planning for the future doesn’t meet the needs of the population now and going forward, then it doesn’t make sense,” she said.
ASCHA will be at the Sept. 23 Seniors’ Housing Forum, where it will continue promoting all it does, as well as speak with people in person to better get a handle on what the public wants.
“We’re trying to figure out how we can really support seniors well through their aging process,” Martin-Lindsay said. “We want to engage, we want to understand, we want to share.”
Beyond what ASCHA wants to achieve for itself at the forum, she added it’s also important the association give something back to those who visit its booth.
“We would hope they would be inspired to look around to see what kind of options are in their community and to become more informed,” she said.
Getting informed early means people will be more prepared when the time comes to make the move into some form of seniors’ housing.
Martin-Lindsay explained it’s about helping people “to make the decisions while they’re theirs to make,” and not have it foisted on them in a crisis.
People need to be well informed of the options available, and they need to acknowledge that they will age and may not remain independent for their entire lives.
“It’s to get them thinking about wanting to know and be excited about the possible options,” MartinLindsay said.
And if everything goes well, the end result is often that people are surprised how well the transition can be.
“The most common statement made by people when they move in is, ‘Why did I wait so long?’” MartinLindsay said.