I will never forget grandma Mary’s 85th
birthday in 2009 to celebrate our family
went to our favorite restaurant for
generations gather around a long single
table you can hear the clanking of
glasses too poetic toasts made in
grandma’s honor smiles when everyone’s
faces life could not have been any
better and then in one single moment our
life would change forever
my mom was the first to notice that
during the main course grandma had
become unresponsive
my wife leaped out of her chair and
started administering first aid i called
9-1-1 and minutes later the paramedics
arrived with a stretcher and rushed
grandma by emergency ambulance to the
hospital the physicians in emergency
they conducted a battery of tests and we
were in the waiting room the neurologist
came to see us to give us the bad news
grandma had had a stroke but there is
hope there was good news
a clot bursting medication would be
administered to Grandma and literally
days later before beans trip discharged
from hospital we would learn that
grandma had been diagnosed with vascular
dementia this meant she could no longer
live independently she would require
care at first we tried home care as well
as family visits but after several weeks
of this we discovered this is too
difficult for us to manage and grandma
we talked to her and we decided that it
was best for all of us as she moved into
an assisted living facility and as her
dementia progressed she eventually moved
into a nursing home next door grandma
like one in three people over 85 will
require care in old age that means that
one third of you in the audience today
will require a care if you live to be 85
the other third of you will be caring
for that person now the lucky ones
they’re the ones who never experienced
life inside a care home
because they’re dancing they’re
romancing and they wish the music would
never stop
but what if a revolution swept through
the aged care sector such that the
people who live in those nursing homes
that they were the lucky ones back to
Grandma story I would go visit grandma
and I usually find her in her bedroom
knock knock
grandma it’s Dan your favorite grandson
I’d open the door I’d see grandma there
and she would say it’s good to see you
Dan my only grandson she divided me into
her room I’d sit down next to her and
I’d say grandma how was your day grandma
would say oh they’re so good to me here
Dan I have my own space it’s my comfort
zone
and I have friends here grandma tell me
about your friends well I have friends
that come to visit me tell me about this
friend that comes to visit you he’s a
gentleman who lives in the assistive
living building they spend time together
think fifty shades of gray hair now
because I was 40 and 45 years away from
my 85th birthday I really wanted to know
what it’s like to live with that nursing
home so I said grandma tell me about
your daily routines like what’s it like
in the morning when you wake up she
would tell me that the staff are very
good to her
they wake her up in the morning they
take her out of bed they transfer her to
the toilet they help her get dressed
they groom her she always looked
graceful and then they escort her there
Porter her to the multi-purpose room
where she waits outside of the closed
door in the cafeteria dining room to
wait for breakfast to be served promptly
at 8:00 a.m. I would say grandma if you
had a choice if you could sleep in or
you could have breakfast in your room
and eat what you want when you want to
eat it would that be an improvement to
your quality of life she would turn to
me with a straight face and she would
say I’m content with my lot
the truth is that most seniors living in
nursing homes they have very little
influence on the rhythm of the day the
rhythm of the day is determined by the
institution not by the individual then
grandma would say to me dan why are you
asking me all these questions
by all accounts from her family members
grandma was lonely helpless and bored
now despite being a gerontologist since
1994 and despite working the aged care
industry for over two decades there was
very little I could do to influence
grandma’s life now life in the nursing
home wasn’t always so good in that very
same nursing home grandma Mary’s dad
grandpa Abe he lived there too he had
Alzheimer’s disease it was 1980s back
then the situation was a little more
archaic I remember visiting residents
who lived there and they were wearing
seat belts in the wheelchairs they were
sitting in to make sure they didn’t fall
out and hurt themselves
I also remember seeing somebody wearing
a heart a harness with a elastic rope
tethered to a pole so they wouldn’t
escape the movement to transform the
nursing homes that came about in 1987 in
the United States from a legislation
package called the nursing home reform
Act in it it guaranteed the rights of
seniors to be free from abuse and
neglect most visible in physical
restraints and less visible in chemical
restraints psychotropic medications and
since that legislative package was
proclaimed we’ve seen incredible
improvements in the nursing home
industry back to grandpa ape story he
spent most of his time confined to that
wheelchair and he was disengaged from
the world around him mainly because of a
culture of warehousing seniors except
when his children would come to visit
him including grandma Mary then he was
himself he was his he was grandma’s dad
he was a grandfather but I wondered had
grandpa Abe been given chemical
restraints
to control his unwanted his undesirable
behaviors that were the result of
Alzheimer’s
disease and that I thought to myself he
was no longer able to reminisce about
his life history about living through
the Russian Revolution about taking a
steamship across the Atlantic with his
beautiful wife rose and his daughter
Mary it was no longer able to talk about
his family business or how I used to do
headstands at family functions to
entertain us no longer able to talk to
walk to feed himself or recognize us he
was really disengaged but we believed
that when his family was with him he was
himself and he had quality of life and
he had a life worth living he was living
that nurse whom I was going to school at
University of British Columbia I was a
psychology student studying for many
years at university and while I was
there I came across a research study and
I’ve been doing this research because I
really didn’t want to see what happened
to Grandpa Abe happen to other seniors
you know in that research study these
two psychologists Ellen Langer and
Judith Roden they went to a nursing home
in New England and in that nursing home
they gave the residents a plant the
control group were told that the staff
would care for that plant just like they
cared for the residents when those
researchers came back three weeks later
the residents had not got better they’d
actually gotten worse by 71% in their
quality of life indicators and their
care indicators meanwhile the floor
where the residents had a plant and
we’re told that they’re responsible for
the plant they’re responsible for caring
for the plant for watering it
fertilizing it make sure it gets Sun
make sure it grows those residents
ninety-three percent of them actually
improved they were more alert they were
happier more engaged in the world around
them and they did better so that means
that if you want to improve the physical
health and mental health of a senior
give them choice give them purpose
meanwhile a feeling of helplessness can
contribute to social disengagement
illness
disease and even death knowing this led
me to him to one become a gerontologist
and to see that we can make a difference
in the lives of seniors in the lives of
seniors that people who were physically
or mentally challenged from no fault of
their own we could certainly do a better
job than we had we’ve seen incredible
improvements in the way that nursing
homes have evolved from the time that
grandpa Abel if the one the time that
grandma Mary lived in one and that that
journey that evolution is only getting
faster and if you think about it the the
way that we’re aging and living longer
that we have more seniors today than
young people our life expectancy is
increasing and we will be living being
dependent others for long periods of
time I recently asked the residents in
the nursing home where I worked why
women live longer than men it’s true
that women live six years longer usually
than men and one of the residents had
the answer she pointed at me and she
said mr. Leavitt I’ll tell you why you
women live longer than men because we
deserve to
nursing homes are being replaced by
centers of living around the globe and
we’re seeing them being designed around
small households they don’t feel like
warehouses or institutions or hospitals
they feel like home
seniors there they dine together a one
around one table they eat together they
have access to the kitchen 24/7 and they
get to do what they want when they want
to do it and if you look at the design
elements in those households there is no
distinguishing features that would tell
you that you’re inside a nursing home if
you look at that picture you can’t see
anything that tells you it’s an
institution there’s no central nursing
station there are no long corridors or
some of us say no long corridors you
won’t see shiny floors reflecting
fluorescent tubes above and you
certainly won’t see a staff member
wearing hospital scrubs pushing a
wheelchair trying to get to the dining
room on time in some markets these new
household model homes they are
disrupting the indices so much that
we’re seeing those old-age nursing homes
that inscribed earlier they are either
choosing to shut down or they’re
converting themselves to become the
smaller household design we’re seeing
homes of the age now built in the middle
of neighborhoods they become community
hubs these vibrant town centers are
complete with libraries with skating
rinks with swimming pools with fitness
centers childcare centers adult daycare
centers and this is not just for seniors
these for middle-aged people young
people and for children they have all
the community amenities that you would
want in one location you may have heard
of the university that had
oversubscribed dorms students had
nowhere to live so they went to the
neighboring nursing home that had vacant
seat challenges and the students moved
in and they invented a
multi-generational
community right there students are
teaching seniors new tricks they’re
teach them how to be computer literate
it’s only an Aegis myth that purports
that seniors can not
learn new things you may have heard of
this idea of apartment buildings being
built across the Greenway from a care
home and in those apartments the
families who live there part of their
tenancy agreement is that they volunteer
in the nursing home and their children
they adopt the seniors living there as
grandparents in the Netherlands there’s
a place called dementia village it’s a
short train ride away from Amsterdam six
seniors live together in one household
sounds more like a family to me
and those seniors have access to a
complete village in that area there’s a
secure perimeter around that community
and the most innovative part of this
community is a general store they took
the old storage room and converted it
into a place that you’d want to go
shopping this senior in this picture is
buying the groceries for her household
that’s lunch and dinner and breakfast
the next day it also includes
incontinent products and other clinical
supplies these seniors are at the
forefront of a wave that’s sweeping
through the aged care industry a
revolution that’s a there this community
is a generation ahead of its time now
across the Pacific in Tokyo Japan ten
centenarians people over a hundred who
have dementia live together part of
their daily choices includes eating
1,500 calories of delicious
Japanese food drinking a minimum of 1.5
liters of their favorite beverage
exercise programs and meaningful Tiffa
tease the seniors who live there who are
incontinent their toilet retrained no
more diapers that brings back a sense of
control dignity usefulness and quality
of life the seniors who arrived in
wheelchairs the physiotherapists assess
them and they start to walk again using
the assistance of a mobility aid
including seniors in our communities is
critical if you think about the
inclusion movement we call it the age
friendly and dementia friendly
that means that regardless of the year
you were born you’re an equal citizen
your lives matter your understood your
valued and your part of the surroundings
and the neighborhood where you live
dementia and age friendly it goes from
abbotsford to singapore the village
movement which started in boston which
is very popular online virtual villages
are popping up around America
they’re very popular with aging baby
boomers it’s a low-cost alternative to
assisted living these people may never
have to move into a nursing home because
they support each other it’s the most
innovative part of this program is a
referral program a referral system a
concierge like program where you can get
assistance with your yardwork your
household chores
perhaps repairs to your house maybe
walking a dog prescription pickups
transportation to the local store it’s
an innovative model and the last one I
want to share with you is called
cohousing where seniors live together in
one neighborhood that they design and
they create and it’s all about
neighborly support they call it Co care
they also hire help as they need it and
the seniors who live there while they’re
supporting each other they’re focusing
on physical accessibility and the
principle of this environment is
sustainability in terms of social
responsibility environmental
responsibility and social sustainability
we’ve come a long way since the time
that grandpa Abe lift and care we’ve
come even further since the time that
grandma Mary experienced her aging
journey and I just hope about that by
the time I’m living in one those
innovative models when I’m celebrating
my 85th birthday along with a third of
you that there’ll be a student in
university who wants to come and
gerontologist who will continue the
revolution in aged care thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
birthday in 2009 to celebrate our family
went to our favorite restaurant for
generations gather around a long single
table you can hear the clanking of
glasses too poetic toasts made in
grandma’s honor smiles when everyone’s
faces life could not have been any
better and then in one single moment our
life would change forever
my mom was the first to notice that
during the main course grandma had
become unresponsive
my wife leaped out of her chair and
started administering first aid i called
9-1-1 and minutes later the paramedics
arrived with a stretcher and rushed
grandma by emergency ambulance to the
hospital the physicians in emergency
they conducted a battery of tests and we
were in the waiting room the neurologist
came to see us to give us the bad news
grandma had had a stroke but there is
hope there was good news
a clot bursting medication would be
administered to Grandma and literally
days later before beans trip discharged
from hospital we would learn that
grandma had been diagnosed with vascular
dementia this meant she could no longer
live independently she would require
care at first we tried home care as well
as family visits but after several weeks
of this we discovered this is too
difficult for us to manage and grandma
we talked to her and we decided that it
was best for all of us as she moved into
an assisted living facility and as her
dementia progressed she eventually moved
into a nursing home next door grandma
like one in three people over 85 will
require care in old age that means that
one third of you in the audience today
will require a care if you live to be 85
the other third of you will be caring
for that person now the lucky ones
they’re the ones who never experienced
life inside a care home
because they’re dancing they’re
romancing and they wish the music would
never stop
but what if a revolution swept through
the aged care sector such that the
people who live in those nursing homes
that they were the lucky ones back to
Grandma story I would go visit grandma
and I usually find her in her bedroom
knock knock
grandma it’s Dan your favorite grandson
I’d open the door I’d see grandma there
and she would say it’s good to see you
Dan my only grandson she divided me into
her room I’d sit down next to her and
I’d say grandma how was your day grandma
would say oh they’re so good to me here
Dan I have my own space it’s my comfort
zone
and I have friends here grandma tell me
about your friends well I have friends
that come to visit me tell me about this
friend that comes to visit you he’s a
gentleman who lives in the assistive
living building they spend time together
think fifty shades of gray hair now
because I was 40 and 45 years away from
my 85th birthday I really wanted to know
what it’s like to live with that nursing
home so I said grandma tell me about
your daily routines like what’s it like
in the morning when you wake up she
would tell me that the staff are very
good to her
they wake her up in the morning they
take her out of bed they transfer her to
the toilet they help her get dressed
they groom her she always looked
graceful and then they escort her there
Porter her to the multi-purpose room
where she waits outside of the closed
door in the cafeteria dining room to
wait for breakfast to be served promptly
at 8:00 a.m. I would say grandma if you
had a choice if you could sleep in or
you could have breakfast in your room
and eat what you want when you want to
eat it would that be an improvement to
your quality of life she would turn to
me with a straight face and she would
say I’m content with my lot
the truth is that most seniors living in
nursing homes they have very little
influence on the rhythm of the day the
rhythm of the day is determined by the
institution not by the individual then
grandma would say to me dan why are you
asking me all these questions
by all accounts from her family members
grandma was lonely helpless and bored
now despite being a gerontologist since
1994 and despite working the aged care
industry for over two decades there was
very little I could do to influence
grandma’s life now life in the nursing
home wasn’t always so good in that very
same nursing home grandma Mary’s dad
grandpa Abe he lived there too he had
Alzheimer’s disease it was 1980s back
then the situation was a little more
archaic I remember visiting residents
who lived there and they were wearing
seat belts in the wheelchairs they were
sitting in to make sure they didn’t fall
out and hurt themselves
I also remember seeing somebody wearing
a heart a harness with a elastic rope
tethered to a pole so they wouldn’t
escape the movement to transform the
nursing homes that came about in 1987 in
the United States from a legislation
package called the nursing home reform
Act in it it guaranteed the rights of
seniors to be free from abuse and
neglect most visible in physical
restraints and less visible in chemical
restraints psychotropic medications and
since that legislative package was
proclaimed we’ve seen incredible
improvements in the nursing home
industry back to grandpa ape story he
spent most of his time confined to that
wheelchair and he was disengaged from
the world around him mainly because of a
culture of warehousing seniors except
when his children would come to visit
him including grandma Mary then he was
himself he was his he was grandma’s dad
he was a grandfather but I wondered had
grandpa Abe been given chemical
restraints
to control his unwanted his undesirable
behaviors that were the result of
Alzheimer’s
disease and that I thought to myself he
was no longer able to reminisce about
his life history about living through
the Russian Revolution about taking a
steamship across the Atlantic with his
beautiful wife rose and his daughter
Mary it was no longer able to talk about
his family business or how I used to do
headstands at family functions to
entertain us no longer able to talk to
walk to feed himself or recognize us he
was really disengaged but we believed
that when his family was with him he was
himself and he had quality of life and
he had a life worth living he was living
that nurse whom I was going to school at
University of British Columbia I was a
psychology student studying for many
years at university and while I was
there I came across a research study and
I’ve been doing this research because I
really didn’t want to see what happened
to Grandpa Abe happen to other seniors
you know in that research study these
two psychologists Ellen Langer and
Judith Roden they went to a nursing home
in New England and in that nursing home
they gave the residents a plant the
control group were told that the staff
would care for that plant just like they
cared for the residents when those
researchers came back three weeks later
the residents had not got better they’d
actually gotten worse by 71% in their
quality of life indicators and their
care indicators meanwhile the floor
where the residents had a plant and
we’re told that they’re responsible for
the plant they’re responsible for caring
for the plant for watering it
fertilizing it make sure it gets Sun
make sure it grows those residents
ninety-three percent of them actually
improved they were more alert they were
happier more engaged in the world around
them and they did better so that means
that if you want to improve the physical
health and mental health of a senior
give them choice give them purpose
meanwhile a feeling of helplessness can
contribute to social disengagement
illness
disease and even death knowing this led
me to him to one become a gerontologist
and to see that we can make a difference
in the lives of seniors in the lives of
seniors that people who were physically
or mentally challenged from no fault of
their own we could certainly do a better
job than we had we’ve seen incredible
improvements in the way that nursing
homes have evolved from the time that
grandpa Abel if the one the time that
grandma Mary lived in one and that that
journey that evolution is only getting
faster and if you think about it the the
way that we’re aging and living longer
that we have more seniors today than
young people our life expectancy is
increasing and we will be living being
dependent others for long periods of
time I recently asked the residents in
the nursing home where I worked why
women live longer than men it’s true
that women live six years longer usually
than men and one of the residents had
the answer she pointed at me and she
said mr. Leavitt I’ll tell you why you
women live longer than men because we
deserve to
nursing homes are being replaced by
centers of living around the globe and
we’re seeing them being designed around
small households they don’t feel like
warehouses or institutions or hospitals
they feel like home
seniors there they dine together a one
around one table they eat together they
have access to the kitchen 24/7 and they
get to do what they want when they want
to do it and if you look at the design
elements in those households there is no
distinguishing features that would tell
you that you’re inside a nursing home if
you look at that picture you can’t see
anything that tells you it’s an
institution there’s no central nursing
station there are no long corridors or
some of us say no long corridors you
won’t see shiny floors reflecting
fluorescent tubes above and you
certainly won’t see a staff member
wearing hospital scrubs pushing a
wheelchair trying to get to the dining
room on time in some markets these new
household model homes they are
disrupting the indices so much that
we’re seeing those old-age nursing homes
that inscribed earlier they are either
choosing to shut down or they’re
converting themselves to become the
smaller household design we’re seeing
homes of the age now built in the middle
of neighborhoods they become community
hubs these vibrant town centers are
complete with libraries with skating
rinks with swimming pools with fitness
centers childcare centers adult daycare
centers and this is not just for seniors
these for middle-aged people young
people and for children they have all
the community amenities that you would
want in one location you may have heard
of the university that had
oversubscribed dorms students had
nowhere to live so they went to the
neighboring nursing home that had vacant
seat challenges and the students moved
in and they invented a
multi-generational
community right there students are
teaching seniors new tricks they’re
teach them how to be computer literate
it’s only an Aegis myth that purports
that seniors can not
learn new things you may have heard of
this idea of apartment buildings being
built across the Greenway from a care
home and in those apartments the
families who live there part of their
tenancy agreement is that they volunteer
in the nursing home and their children
they adopt the seniors living there as
grandparents in the Netherlands there’s
a place called dementia village it’s a
short train ride away from Amsterdam six
seniors live together in one household
sounds more like a family to me
and those seniors have access to a
complete village in that area there’s a
secure perimeter around that community
and the most innovative part of this
community is a general store they took
the old storage room and converted it
into a place that you’d want to go
shopping this senior in this picture is
buying the groceries for her household
that’s lunch and dinner and breakfast
the next day it also includes
incontinent products and other clinical
supplies these seniors are at the
forefront of a wave that’s sweeping
through the aged care industry a
revolution that’s a there this community
is a generation ahead of its time now
across the Pacific in Tokyo Japan ten
centenarians people over a hundred who
have dementia live together part of
their daily choices includes eating
1,500 calories of delicious
Japanese food drinking a minimum of 1.5
liters of their favorite beverage
exercise programs and meaningful Tiffa
tease the seniors who live there who are
incontinent their toilet retrained no
more diapers that brings back a sense of
control dignity usefulness and quality
of life the seniors who arrived in
wheelchairs the physiotherapists assess
them and they start to walk again using
the assistance of a mobility aid
including seniors in our communities is
critical if you think about the
inclusion movement we call it the age
friendly and dementia friendly
that means that regardless of the year
you were born you’re an equal citizen
your lives matter your understood your
valued and your part of the surroundings
and the neighborhood where you live
dementia and age friendly it goes from
abbotsford to singapore the village
movement which started in boston which
is very popular online virtual villages
are popping up around America
they’re very popular with aging baby
boomers it’s a low-cost alternative to
assisted living these people may never
have to move into a nursing home because
they support each other it’s the most
innovative part of this program is a
referral program a referral system a
concierge like program where you can get
assistance with your yardwork your
household chores
perhaps repairs to your house maybe
walking a dog prescription pickups
transportation to the local store it’s
an innovative model and the last one I
want to share with you is called
cohousing where seniors live together in
one neighborhood that they design and
they create and it’s all about
neighborly support they call it Co care
they also hire help as they need it and
the seniors who live there while they’re
supporting each other they’re focusing
on physical accessibility and the
principle of this environment is
sustainability in terms of social
responsibility environmental
responsibility and social sustainability
we’ve come a long way since the time
that grandpa Abe lift and care we’ve
come even further since the time that
grandma Mary experienced her aging
journey and I just hope about that by
the time I’m living in one those
innovative models when I’m celebrating
my 85th birthday along with a third of
you that there’ll be a student in
university who wants to come and
gerontologist who will continue the
revolution in aged care thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause] [Music]
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