This industry is ripe with statistics about boomers, design ideas for senior living environments, and must-have amenities and services to keep seniors happy and on the go as they age. While it’s important to keep up on these issues and research, there’s another side to this industry that we find interesting.
The personal side.
We all have a connection or personal experience dealing with parents or older relatives transitioning to new care environments, learning to address issues such as dementia care, or addressing our own concerns about the future.
Just recently, I attended a one-day conference hosted by the local SEGD chapter and during lunch a woman sitting next to me starting talking about moving her parents into a retirement community and how difficult it was—even for a designer familiar with these spaces.
A lot of you have shared these moments during phone interviews, roundtable discussions, and conferences. We want to hear more of them and maybe even share them with our community through a new blog series we’re developing for Environments for Aging.
What was the moment or experience that got you started in a career in architecture, design, interiors, etc.? Or how did looking at facility design through the eyes of a loved one influence a project of yours—and how does it still carry with you today? Thinking about your own future, maybe it’s what inspires your work to improve senior care environments everywhere.
Let me know if you’re interested in contributing and I’ll send you our writers' guidelines. (Email me at [email protected].)
By sharing these stories, we hope to further connect the industry and provide an opportunity to learn from each other. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got to say.
