We get a lot of calls from people wanting to develop senior housing.  Sometimes those calls turn into fabulous projects that truly help make communities places where people can grow up and grow old.

A number of these calls, however, come from starry-eyed speculators who really don’t understand the complexities of building a high-quality, vibrant senior community.  For those truly interested in learning more about senior housing development, we have a new white paper that you can download (It’s on the left-hand side of the page link above).  It looks at key things to think about before delving into a senior housing project. 

Michael Graves, the renowned designer who has created many cool wares for Target, was in Minneapolis this weekend to receive the National Courage Award from the amazing  Courage Center, which empowers people with disabilities.  

When he received his award, he commented on the people in the audience with wheelchairs and walkers, saying “I love it, welcome to what will soon be the new normal.”  He, of course, is talking about the age wave.  Michael Graves became paralyzed three years ago when he contracted a viral infection.  It changed his life and, undoubtedly, because of that, he’s going to change the lives of many others.

AARP Magazine recently announced it’s top cities for successful aging in the United States.  Minneapolis and Saint Paul didn’t make it.  Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts’  recent editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune sheds light on why.

AARP’s top 5 livable communities for seniors are Atlanta, Milwaukee, Portland, Boston and Chandler, Arizona.  Atlanta’s regional commission is all over successful aging.  In Milwaukee, they hosted a very cool senior housing design competition at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  The Milwaukee Aging Consortium and Aging Maven also highlights what’s occurring in Milwaukee in creating a livable community for all ages.  Great stuff here for the Twin Cities and other communities.

Parmly LifePointes, an Ecumen community in Chisago City, Minnesota, is embarking on a very cool new journey built upon successful aging.

Their new Vitalize! Wellness Centre, opening this fall , will have all the bells and whistles . . . TechnoGym weights and TechnoGym aerobic fitness equipment that digitally measure one’s personal progress, a warm-water lap pool, a warm water pool with a treadmill, herbal teas and great food, exercise rooms, massage, plus classrooms for lifelong learning that helps people explore, personalize and enhance dimensions of successful aging.  Oh, don’t let me forget the feng shui garden.

Here’s a movement that is quickly picking up speed and is only going to get more fervent as the age wave rises - the desire to package products and services that enable a person to age in place (More people are calling it “aging in community” because they see themselves as being connected to the larger community, not just one place.).

Ecumen leader Kathryn Roberts wrote about this in last week’s Minneapolis Star Tribune.  Here you can access her article.  Today the New York Times has an article about a group of people it says is part of a movement to make neighborhoods comfortable places to grow old, both for elderly men and women in need of help and for baby boomers anticipating the future.

Below is an article from today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune where Ecumen CEO and president Kathryn Roberts discusses how the age wave is an opportunity for the Twin Cities and other communities to create liveable communities that promote successful aging.

You can feel the winds picking up. Last week’s cover story in the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis asked: “The Age Wave is Coming, Are We Ready?” Saturday’s Star Tribune discussed the explosive growth in parish nurse programs. And soon the Department of Human Services, which has a wealth of statewide research, will hit the road with public forums that compare our coming age wave to Hurricane Katrina. The inherent message: We’re not ready for what we know is coming.As the Twin Cities metro area sprawls, rows of homes rise like islands, with inhabitants needing wheels to leave them. Many area cornfields have been replaced with housing that pretends people don’t grow old.

There was an interesting article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune the other day on the explosion in popularity of parish nurses.   Some of the words that were used are insightful.

 For example, Rev. Granger Westberg, a Lutheran minister in Chicago, wrote a book in 1984 called: “The Parish Nurse:  Providing a Minister of Health for your Congregation.  He said that “parish nurses should be focused on ‘wholistic’ health, which he intentionally spelled with a ‘w’ to stress that it should involve the whole person.

Interesting and very good news from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.  It is launching Catholic Senior Services — an “umbrella” organization that will use the network of Catholic senior care organizations and parish programs in the Twin Cities to become a one-stop resource center for seniors and their families.

Catholic Senior Services, which has been in the planning stage for four years, will begin with its four founding organizations:  Catholic Eldercare of Minneapolis, the Franciscan Health Community of St. Paul, St. Therese’s New Hope and St. Therese’s Southwest.  The goal is to have a Catholic Senior Services center in every one of the 12 counties that make up the archdiocese.  This is a coordinated response from teh Archdiocese to prepare for the age wave.

Ian Morrisson is a futurist who deals a lot in healthcare and has spoken at a number of long-term care conferences.  He’ll be one of the headliners at Mayo Clinic’s 2008 National Symposium on Health Care Reform.  It’s kind of interesting to take a look back at what a futurist says and then what actually happens.  Check out this excerpt from a 1999 Nursing Home magazine interview with Ian:

 Changing demographics related to an increase in the aging population continue to fuel the post-acute care industry. What are your thoughts on public policy in this area as we look ahead?

It won’t be a surprise when , one of the pioneers in developing Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs), enters Minnesota.  They have a lot of appealing features that people would dig here.

Check out this Erickson Retirement Communities  commercial.  It hits directly at what a lot of what people are thinking, . . . they want something different.   

What are your thoughts on the commercial?