CHANGING THE NARRATIVE

For decades, society placed a stigma on the process of aging, the effects of which are still felt today. But by the

year 2030, one in five people in the United States will be retirement age, according to the Census Bureau. People are living longer and, as they do, they will demand care from those trained to work with older people.

There is this idea that “the elderly are at the end, they’re not producing anymore,”

says Monique Eliezer, a member of the ex-ecutive team at Ingleside, which operates three continuing care retirement commu-nities in the DC metro area. People com-plain “they cost Medicare. They cost the government, and so forth. So there’s less investment,” Eliezer says. At Ingleside, resi-dents aren’t costs, though. They’re engaged citizens. For Eliezer, it was the people who drew her to a career working for, and with,

senior citizens. “We have a great popula-tion of aging older adults who have stories that are incredible,” she says. Ingleside is pioneering what they call “engaged living.” “It’s something that represents a change, be-cause nowadays you can be engaged until the day you die,” Eliezer says.

Eliezer says society’s attitude toward the ag-ing is changing with help from programs that engage older adults throughout their lives—to

NEWtheAGE (ing) A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN AND MOMENT

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shift the narrative of aging from one of sick-ness to engagement and independence. This engagement manifests in the Six Dimensions of Wellness, a popular model first developed by Dr. Bill Hettler, co-founder of the National Wellness Institute, that emphasizes a balance of spiritual, physical, social, emotional, occu-pational and intellectual wellness. “What is a new thing is the ability of helping older adults to have the infrastructure to continue to en-gage throughout life,” Eliezer says. “They don’t need to stop. They continue to grow.”

As both an Ingleside resident and an ex-pert in the study of aging, Enid Portnoy brings unique perspective to the topic of ag-ing. She moved to Ingleside in May of 2017 af-ter a 43-year teaching career as a professor of communication and gerontology (the study of aging from a humanistic point of view) at West Virginia University. “Even though I’ve taught gerontology classes for many years it’s different when you are the one who is now in the position of being an older person,” she says. But although she’s had to make some adjustments, she’s found a home at Ingleside.

“I knew this was for me. I’m a people per-son and you couldn’t find more friendly and warm personalities and so many people who are so interesting,” Portnoy says. “Every-body’s friendly.” And that friendliness is not a coincidence. At Ingleside, all staff offices have open doors, and Portnoy, an academic expert in nonverbal communication, says it sends a message that residents are always welcome—that the staff is always there for residents.

The architecture of Ingleside’s buildings also promotes engagement. “We know that we have to bring the outdoors indoors,” Eliezer says. This is done through natural lighting, open spaces and large windows. “The same way that we want to bring the outdoors to the indoors, we want to take the indoors to the outdoors,” she says. Ingleside is working toward building more outdoor spaces for residents to eat, paint

Stereotypes dictate that senior citizens and the latest technol-ogy don’t mix, but at Ingleside, around 50 residents talk to Amazon’s Alexa on a regular basis. She helps them record

their favorite shows, make dinner reservations and even sign up for Ingleside programs and trips.

When Ingleside piloted the project, giving 50 residents Amazon Echo (the speaker that Alexa is attached to) in early January, “The long-term goal was to explore how voice recognition devices can contribute to improving or augmenting the wellbeing of residents,” says Dusanka Delovska-Trajkova, Ingleside’s chief information officer.

At first, there were concerns that residents would find the new tech-nology challenging. “We were not even sure if the residents were going to use it,” Delovska-Trajkova says, “but now we know that more than 90 percent of the pilot group use it daily,” while the other 10 percent use it two to three times a week. Some use it to create shopping lists, and others have connected their phone contacts to the speaker and use it to make calls.

One creative group of Ingleside staff members programmed Alexa to engage cognitively impaired residents by using the speakers to read books or play music. Since last year, the AARP Foundation has been testing a voice-assisted technologies program to build community in senior housing settings. One of its main goals is to test whether the technology can help combat loneliness—and according to AARP, anec-dotal evidence shows a speaker like Alexa can provide companionship.

George Freeland, a resident at Ingleside, says he is less dependent on Alexa because he’s more computer-savvy. Still, he finds the gadget fun. “You can ask it different kinds of questions, but I haven’t really found a use for it beyond ‘What’s the weather in Tokyo?’ or ‘How old was Ernest Hemingway when he died?’—those sorts of things.”—Lara Moehlman

Spiritual Physical Social Emotional Occupation Intellectual 6dimensions of wellness

Portnoy also enjoys interacting with Ingleside’s long and short-term care residents—the older residents who do not live inde-pendently. “I enjoy listening to them. They have wonderful knowl-edge and really fascinating stories that we would never know” Portnoy says, “That’s true even of the people in independent living here—I don’t know these people very well, and the more I get to know them, I think the richer I become.”

Looking forward, Eliezer is an optimist. For starters, baby boomers seem to be working and volunteering with their elders at a higher rate than the generation before. This intergenerational programming is crucial, Eliezer says, to maintaining engagement and wellness among the elderly. But the word “intergeneration-al” goes both ways, and on any given day, residents of Ingleside

or sit with friends by a fire pit. According to the American Journal of

Psychiatry, 34 million Americans over the age of 65 suffer from a form of depression. “Loneliness is a major issue,” Eliezer says. “Lonely people who stay in their houses don’t have any social contact,” she adds. Often, they fall into depression, which takes a phys-ical toll on their bodies. Ingleside’s extensive programming tries to combat loneliness and foster community. Residents can take classes through the Osher Lifelong Learning Insti-tutes, a partnership with Johns Hopkins that

brings learning to retirement communities. There’s also a variety of fitness classes at the Center for Healthy Living throughout the day, from swimming to yoga. Movies, gar-dening, trips and cruises also fill the social calendar at Ingleside. Eliezer says these ac-tivities build communities for residents.

In addition to tai chi classes and participat-ing in a play-reading group, Portnoy directed the community’s first dramatic production: a compilation of celebrity impersonations with an interactive twist (audience members had to guess who the actors were impersonating).

might travel to an elementary school to read to kindergarteners, plant trees or sing. On other days, student volunteers visit the campus and serve food, discuss politics or share stories.

But it’s not only engaging programs that can help change the narrative; Eliezer says a change in language is needed to destigma-tize the process of aging. This starts with younger people speaking to older ones from a place of equality rather than authority. For example, she’d rather hear someone tell an elderly person “I hear you. I understand you,” instead of something along the lines of: “Everything will be okay, honey.” “It’s not because you are a mid-dle-aged person and you are talking to an older person that you need to patronize or you need to treat them as old people,” she says. “They’re people.” —Lara Moehlman

F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N

Ingleside Rock Creek: infoIRC@inglesideonline.org | 202-596-3083

Ingleside at King Farm: infoIKF@inglesideonline.org | 240-499-9019

Westminster at Lake Ridge: infoWLR@inglesideonline.org | 703-496-3440

Alexa, The New Resident on the Block

INGLESIDE IS SURROUNDED BY THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF ROCK CREEK PARK

CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE BRIDGES THE OUTDOORS AND THE INDOORS

“ALEXA, PLAY “WAIT WAIT, DON’T TELL ME!”

WHEN GENERATIONS COME TOGETHER, LIFE IS FAR RICHER

Hogewyk, the “Dementia Village” The Netherlands has made headlines with Hogewyk, a village outside of Amsterdam created exclusively for people with severe dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Complete with a movie theater, grocery store, café, bar, restaurant and beauty salon, Hogewyk is staffed with nurs-es and trained helpers who are indistinguishable from the residents. Houses and gardens of varying styles—urban modern, country chic and even Indonesian—are designed to make seniors comfortable. Residents can safely roam through the streets, squares, gardens and park, and there are no locks on the doors. It is a place where residents are able to feel at home and live their lives to the fullest.—Molly Cooke

Japanese Mailmen Check In on the ElderlyTwo of the biggest problems facing aging populations around the world are loneliness and isolation. To combat these problems, the Japanese postal service, Japan Post, created a unique service that helps keep an eye on seniors when family and friends can’t. In the “Watch Over” ser-vice, mailmen visit elderly citizens who live along their route once a month. They sit with them and talk, maybe over a cup of tea, and ask how they are feeling and if they need anything. The postmen then write up a report that is delivered to the senior’s family. This innovative pro-gram costs families $20 a month.—Jake Biderman

Hope Meadows: It Takes a VillageThree generations live at Hope Meadows: children adopted from foster care, their parents and seniors (the “community’s grandparents”). The planned neighborhood includes about 40 homes and sits 120 miles outside of Chica-go. The elders take care of the children while their parents are at work in ex-change for a rent reduction, while younger adults help care for the seniors. This half-community, half-family arrangement is successful because “all the generations take care of each other,” says Brenda Krause Eheart, founder of Hope Meadows. The “intentional neighboring” communities are organized by the non-profit Generations of Hope, which currently supports six such neighborhoods and is developing three more.—Jake Biderman

Students and Seniors Live Together in IsraelKan Garim, which means “Here We Live,” is a program that matches uni-versity students with seniors who live alone and have a spare bedroom. In exchange for housing and a tuition scholarship, students spend at least four hours a week with their older roommates—which can include ev-erything from going to the movies to browsing the internet. Participants in this unique arrangement (both young and old) say their lives are richer and more rewarding. The program has doubled in size in one year, now enrolling over 400 students and pensioners. Countries such as the United Kingdom and Spain are planning to replicate the program.—Anis Modi

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Aging Around The World According to a 2015 report commissioned by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), 17% of the world’s population will be 65 and older by 2050. Countries and communities are creating innovative programs to give their aging citizens every opportunity to live life to the fullest.