Contract - October 2010 - (Page 86)

trends from illness care to wellness care Healthcare experts discuss the beneﬁts of wellness centers in senior living communities By Joyce Polhamus, AIA, and Sonia Johansen, SmithGroup Today’s seniors are independent, involved, and connected to the world. They have home gyms or health club memberships, visit salons, and embrace spa therapies. To attract these individuals and remain competitive, it is imperative that senior facilities adopt wellness more comprehensively. It is no longer suﬃcient for senior communities to provide a downsized home with increased levels of care, especially as new technologies are being developed that are designed to help people live longer and healthier lives. Senior living communities must capitalize on the quality of life issues involved in oﬀering full wellness programming and facilities that enable seniors to remain vital and healthy in a number of ways. As attitudes towards aging, health, and wellness evolve, wellness centers should be at the core of any senior living community. from passive healthcare recipients to active healthcare consumers, and prevention is less costly than treatment. Complementa medicine, the idea that an individual is in large part responsible for his or her own health and healing, is ascendant over traditional medicine. People have a greater sense of individual autonomy and an increased interest in wellness, self-education, and self-care. In this environment, identiﬁcation with a wellness product may be necessa to a healthcare system’s survival. Increasingly, hospitals are aﬃliating with ﬁtness or recreation centers, rehabilitation centers, and even hotels that oﬀer spa amenities. This same concept can be incorporated into the senior living model of care. Wellness centers can be a powerful marketing tool to attract active seniors, especially those for whom the type of social interaction a wellness center provides is not readily available in their current living situation. Providers have an opportunity to embrace the new wellness paradigm to lead senior living communities successfully into the next centu . New paradigm The experience of 21st-centu hospitals indicates a paradigm shi is underway from illness care to wellness care. Patients are transitioning 86 contract october 2010 www.contractdesign.com http://www.contractdesign.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Contract - October 2010

Contract - October 2010
Contents
Editor's Note
Industry
Resources
Focus: What's Next
Focus: A New Conversation
Materials: Cork and Circumstances
Green: Net Zero
Practice: The Office That Never Closes
Splashy and Sustainable
The Art of Healthcare Design
Best Foot Forward
Harmonious and Healthy
Of Sea and Stone
Live Long and Prosper
Trends: From Illness Care to Wellness Care
Process: On the Front Line
Designers Rate
Sources
Ad Index
Perspectives

Contract - October 2010