Assisted Living Facilities Missing the Boat. TRIAD can help.
As one of the older people at the TRIAD agency, Steve Johnston is deeply concerned about the care provided to our older citizens. Part of his concern comes from having cared for both his wife’s and his parents into their late 80’s, and part from his experience as an owner of a firm that provided in-home care for those seniors who were trying to stay in their homes.
Owning a homecare company provided Steve with a solid understanding of the forces at work in the eldercare market, and to see the interplay between families, their loved ones, and the management of the process.
There is a growing need for senior housing and care. The demographics are clear and indisputable. The challenge is to provide the required level of care in the most practical and affordable setting.
In the past 10-15 years, there has been a push to build Assisted Living Facilities (ALF’s) across the country. These facilities provide some needed services to seniors, and allow them some level of independence in a cozy and secure surrounding.
The challenge for ALF’s is that they have done a poor job of informing the marketplace exactly what they are and what they do. The seniors are convinced that ALF’s are the equivalent of “the home”, meaning a nursing home, often the last stop in their lives.
Actually, ALF’s are so much more than that, and they provide an active lifestyle opportunity for those that really need it. But they need to tell their story more clearly, and use more sophisticated marketing tools that help the families convince Mom that the ALF is the best choice for her, and one that may actually prolong her life because of the care, attention, and socialization offered there.
At TRIAD, we believe in helping clients increase their revenues. For the ALF’s in our area, we feel we can help them increase their census by doing a better job of portraying what life in an ALF really is, and how the senior who lives there benefit from its services.
Communication planning, creative execution, and attention to detail are what we do best at TRIAD. Telling the story for assisted living facilities is the kind of interesting challenge we seek.
