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Speaker 0 00:00:00 You're listening to senior moves.
Speaker 1 00:00:02 Welcome everyone to this Thursday's release of the podcast, where we're talking about ways to manage the impacts of distance and your parent project. And specifically this week, uh, here at senior moves, we've been focused on empowering advocates, um, with a series of value added topics that help you manage distance between family members. When that comes into your parent program. Today, I'm joined by John Scott Williams. He's a certified senior living services professional. He's the executive director of Christian care, uh, at their fellowship square Mesa, Arizona campus. He's a dear friend, uh, and I would tell you, he's not just leading edge, but bleeding edge in technology into the senior living environment. He's really found a passion is a champion for the use in technology that creates the most empowering, safe, and the connected campuses than I've ever seen.
Speaker 0 00:01:00 You're listening to parent projects, a senior moves podcast production. Now here's your host, Tony CBRE's
Speaker 1 00:01:09 John Scott. Welcome.
Speaker 3 00:01:10 Oh, thanks for asking. I appreciate ya. Uh, your reputation comes before you,
Speaker 1 00:01:16 Uh, but Hey, so, uh, you really get into this technology stuff. We're going to be introducing like we normally do some articles that have come from our parent projects magazine. You can find that hosted over at, uh, our flip boards on off of senior moves.org. I also find it down below in the show notes in particular pay attention. There's an article out there on five tips for helping on aged loved one use technology that was done by Jessica Fairbank's, who started in, in runs Tom care assistance. Um, so, uh, take a peak at that. And outside of those, John Scott, give me level set. I mean, you're, you're here in the senior living community. You've seen it. What is the direction of technology as you see it in the senior living environment that families need to think about
Speaker 3 00:02:02 Right now, there isn't any senior living executive that isn't trying to figure out how to catch up to the leading edge of the boomers who are coming in. Uh, this group of people are pretty similar to the silent generation, except they're a hundred percent, uh, technology minded five years ago on this campus. And I have 333 units. I had, uh, maybe six people under 75 on the property and virtually all six were there because of a medical trigger. There was something that required them. Um, you know, had heart problems, walking problems. They were younger. Now I have 45 through COVID. Uh, we have 45 people that are between 76 and 80 wasn't there before and now and have those, none of them were the moved into the campus without, uh, enterprise grade wifi. Um, they understand streaming. They understand, uh, smartphones, uh, our entire phone system and our emergency locating system had to be converted because they, they had everything in the past used telephone lines. And we would piggyback on the, uh, U S west or century link telephone system, all of our equipment. Well, they don't come in with, uh, they don't need landlines. They're coming in with smartphones, right? We're, we're moving everything that we have. So that, that screen or any screen they use can use our resident portal,
Speaker 1 00:03:48 But that's gotta be a huge day of pole. I mean, there are, and I imagine that's immediately going to separate. Um, if, if technology is something that means something to your family, that's immediately going to start separating places. You're, you're headed in places you're not is what, what, what would be a threshold you think, um, maybe in today's day and it's, it's, uh, you know, 20, 22, uh, what do you think today you should be looking for? Um, and, and that the market really should be providing in a, um, for speed,
Speaker 3 00:04:20 Oh, enterprise grade wifi. And it doesn't really matter what the, it has to be encrypted. You have to be able to do your banking online. My residents are coming in during their banking. It used to be, they had to have the TV hooked up. When did you get the TV? I want to watch my favorite channel. Now it's when you get the wifi hooked up and they'll get the wifi hooked up. They'll both be eating their sandwich, both of them on separate screens and they're doing their banking and their shopping online. This looks
Speaker 1 00:04:53 Like a teenage table. The same,
Speaker 3 00:04:56 Every change now is 75. Plus every gauge in the community used to be 90. Uh, since COVID it's 87 and a half. And the average agent moving was 86. Now it's 84 and a half, but with a big cohort of the, uh, oldest boomers moving in and they will move horizontal and they will move up, but you're not going to get a boomer to move into a community that doesn't have a wifi enterprise grade. And that's more than a access point in the dining room, right? Not a Starbucks here. This is enterprise grade, completely encrypted, and they want to know that it's safe. They don't have to understand it. You have to know that it's safe and they want to use their own screen.
Speaker 1 00:05:46 Yeah, the, uh, okay. So access is a huge piece. It looks like there's a focus on, I do recall, you know, even a couple of years ago, even when we were doing a, um, shooting some video, uh, I remember seeing, uh, an application into the medical side, uh, technologies that could, uh, utilize predictive analysis of, of trips and falls or things that could maybe help indicate when someone was going to need some, some additional assistance or, or proactive assistance, uh, with helping gait or something to that nature. Am I remembering correctly?
Speaker 3 00:06:19 We're constantly working on fall detection, fall prevention. Uh, we have software that our residents, when they move in, uh, with 12 steps, we can measure 28 data points in their gate. And we can predict that, uh, based on those 12 steps in the 3d camera that is used in that in the process comes out of Peoria, Illinois, but we're able to determine if they all have a fall in the next 30 days.
Speaker 1 00:06:49 That is incredible.
Speaker 3 00:06:51 Now, once, you know, if you're going to have a fall, you say, what do I do? Well, let's say it starts out red. We can develop with their doctor's permission and exact physical therapy that will strengthen what they're favoring. And many people go from red to green in a six weeks time. This is part of the wellness program. There's no additional costs. And that's the other part of the new group coming in. They're used to going to physical fitness places, and they're used to having instructors. They're used to the traders and we have all of that in our community. Plus we're able to send the results of that test to their physical therapist, to their insurance company. And, um, if it's, if we have a physical therapist do the test, it's reimbursed and it's, uh, Medicare will pay for that test. And, uh, we, we provide that and we're, we're open to anybody in the community as a public service come out and have your gait tested. We will do that at no charge and send it to whoever you want to look at the results.
Speaker 1 00:07:58 I love that. Oh, we'll have to put some information about that down in the show notes down below, and, and maybe even a side, um, some side comments for it. That's fantastic. A top, top thing, uh, blow your mind. What do you think your, you know, the John Scott Williams prediction in 2022, by the end of the year, what's that thing that you think is going to finally come to market, uh, that excites you most?
Speaker 3 00:08:22 Um, with our, uh, we have a robust Alexa program that we went to because many of my residents pass codes, uh, uh, secret codes getting onto a screen was very complicated. Over the last three years, we've developed an Alexa program that the equipment is the same thing that you buy in the store, but the software is completely different. And in this, we now have the ability to do drop in as well as two way telephone calls. So, uh, everybody can have an additional phone number and we're able to drop in now during COVID, this is very important because I can drop in with your permission and, uh, view your condition, uh, without having to expose my staff to a COVID. If you're a quarantine, I don't have to go in every time we need to check on you.
Speaker 1 00:09:18 Well, that's like a, like a super smart Intercom type system where traditionally you had that, but you've got some predictive analysis and some AI behind that can, that can help develop when it might be time to make that connection by voice.
Speaker 3 00:09:31 Exactly. And it's done with voice and it's, it has nine 11 capabilities. So it's a regular telephone system. Well, uh, that's just all based on a enterprise grade wifi system, but I'm able to call both directions by the end of this year. That will be common. You could do a one way on Alexis and everybody had to have a, uh, Amazon account, uh, Amazon phone and all this sort of things. None of my residents, they can't charge a penny on my Alexa programs. They can't buy anything on it, but they're able to communicate with it for any distance in that, by the end of the year, it will be very, uh, well-known and Amazon working with us, and one other community, uh, the Admiral in Chicago, uh, we're there to beta sites and we have worked with them closely, and they are going into communications in a big, big way nationwide.
Speaker 1 00:10:37 That's fantastic. Um, so that's going to bring us into the next major topic, uh, which is, and we see that at senior moves, by the way that I think the answer that I was hoping for out of that is that the senior moves senior moves connect is going to come out. And that's just going to blow everybody's mind as an app, but, but I love the Alexa side, um, now, and, and I'll just, or in all seriousness, um, data privacy, right? AI, data privacy, uh, the senior moves. We, um, we really work on that, uh, that idea that, uh, long-term, uh, we're, we're developing solutions for people where, uh, their information is theirs, uh, ownership, meaning, uh, you have the right to destroy it very, very cleanly, much more like what they have in Europe. If you can't destroy it, you don't actually have ownership of it.
Speaker 1 00:11:25 You, you have access to it. Uh, and so setting up those data structures, I know are an end state for a lot of us trying to figure this out. Um, and it's what we're delivering on so that you, um, you own your data long-term, uh, with you guys. So there's, there's now the more and more we get into this, the more we're going to start seeing information and data, um, HIPAA comes into play in people's minds right away. And I know that that's got very, that applies in some situations of senior living and not in all situations of senior living. Um, maybe let's, um, let's start there. What are the data privacy, uh, considerations? What are the laws people should be thinking about and what should families and advocates be thinking about when they're looking at data privacy?
Speaker 3 00:12:07 A lot of our, uh, our lease agreements are made up that, uh, residents can protect their privacy, uh, all sorts of reasons why seniors want to do that. There could be estranged, family members, uh, people that, uh, there may be some, uh, mental acuity that's affecting the senior and family members may be trying to prey on that. Um, we have had our system set up. Um, I had a relative of my own that, uh, they could call anybody that they chose to because that's their freedom. But every call that came in, we had to cross connect to the apartment and we were able to protect the person's privacy. That way we have an, our, uh, HIPAA agreements. Uh, uh, we have directories, we take pictures, we make commercials. Uh, in addition to having them sign specific, uh, uh, agreements. We also disclose that unless they say otherwise, uh, we will put their name in directory.
Speaker 3 00:13:17 We will put their name on the front door. Uh, one of the things we do is we have a sign with a person's name. So when they walked by, it doesn't look institutional, this is Mary Mary's apartment. And, uh, but if they don't want that, they tell us and we take, we don't put it up, but it's a way of knowing you're living in a community and it's an easy way to remember their name, whatever you're going through the doors. So I'm pretty good at reading the door names. And we have, like, I wear a tag here that same tag. We provide the same size to our residents, and it allows me to know their name and I can address them, uh, properly. Uh, and they can address me. I I'm, there's only one of me, but there's 10,000, uh, Dorothy's living in our community.
Speaker 3 00:14:08 So all of this information, they, they agreed to, but if they chose not to, then we, uh, take them off the list, their name isn't included when the telephone directory comes out, the, that, uh, is blank because they don't want their phone number available to outsiders. And we don't put it on the resident portal, but you have to look at those things and ask the questions and not HIPAA agreements are not universal. We all have to have a HIPAA policy. Independent living as a rule does not require a HIPAA policy, although, because our company does assisted living and skilled nursing. We have a HIPAA policy that we disclosed for independent assisted and skilled nursing, and they're all universal, but, uh, the HIPAA policy is something that you want to read because in my case, we have an agreement or I disclose it. Uh, if we, in our best judgment, if you're called to the hospital and you evacuate the hospital and your family shows up and wants to know where you are, uh, we will use our best judgment in letting family members know. But if your HIPAA policy is, we're not going to start, buddy, then they're, they're frustrated where's mom, and we're not telling them because of our HIPAA policy,
Speaker 1 00:15:38 But that's that great solutions you're thinking about what you're looking to accomplish. Um, and the best ways to accomplish that, and then walk into, it sounds like you walked into a HIPAA policy that, that supported that what you were trying to do, rather than starting with a policy that sat out there and then trying to map all of your business processes necessarily to that blind document. So, um, that would you, I think you could, I've seen quite a few of those agreements, uh, when, as a senior move manager, uh, and, and I could see, um, yeah, you could see, I think you could see that sophistication and you can feel it as well. I mean, you, uh, in the community, I think when you walk in,
Speaker 3 00:16:16 Uh, part of it is we are a faith based community and are required to be any faith to live here. But part of it is supporting one another in prayer. If you don't have an agreement and a HIPAA agreement that allows your name to be used, we're praying for someone who's in the hospital. Uh, it it's much easier. So, uh, on that list, again, we have them sign a second time that they want their prayer requests. No, but we do support our residents with prayer and prayer requests.
Speaker 1 00:16:48 Yeah. That's fantastic. So jumping into, um, into introducing, uh, the technology, once we get comfortable with that, we, we know what it is we're trying to do. Now. We know how to protect against that or how, how HIPAA or other things might come into con or, um, into play there. Now we know we're thinking in ahead of time. So you've got an opportunity. You're talking to family members before they've come to your front door, uh, and, and getting where they're just getting organized or trying to clarify what the picture looks like, what their project looks like. They're looking to simplify how they communicate with each other. Uh, and before they hit your front door, what, what can families do best to start? Um, you know, from, from your perspective to start engaging with technology or introducing technology into family members, what do you see in that works well?
Speaker 3 00:17:38 Uh, they'll you, when they ask us, we say, you want to get a smart TV and new smart TVs allow them to hook up wifi. And the old previous, I'm going to say five years ago, uh, before the advent of wifi enterprise grade wifi on communities, uh, your only, uh, TV programming was whatever channels you had, which in Arizona was primarily cost, was 65 channels. Nobody watched. And we changed that back in 2005, where we went with our own satellite and we have 77 channels for the resident, virtually all of them are HD. So, uh, they're very clear. And I said, you will be happy that you bought a, uh, a smart TV and the bigger, the bigger, the screen, the better, the picture, so that you can walk in and you have 10 80 digital, uh, screen. You're able to walk into that picture.
Speaker 3 00:18:40 And even a person who has poor vision, their experiences much better. So, uh, we, we all tell them that, uh, the new TVs are better. And then as they're downsizing or we call it right-sizing as their right size in their life, a screen that's mounted on the wall, uh, as much better than something that's, uh, two feet thick. That's taking up space in the apartment. So they, they are benefiting that way. Our personal preferences, all technologies should be invisible. It should be natural. And, um, so that's why we have used the Alexis for, um, uh, my, I have a lot of people are vision impaired. They use their voice to adjust the thermostat. They just say, increase temperature two degrees, or cool it down two degrees or five degrees, whatever they want. And, uh, we found that beneficial and my, uh, people that have Parkinson's, uh, trying to handle a remote control.
Speaker 3 00:19:46 And you have the tremors. Whenever you can say, Alexa changed the channel channel, Haiti six or Alexa, when does Gunsmoke come on? And it gives you the choices. Then you say, Alexa, remind me at two o'clock channel 35, all of that gives you dignity back. And, uh, all, all technology should be over the denominator, dignity. It should be done to where a resident. It feels good. And it's what they want to do. We have found that we start with independent living. So the muscle memory is there as they move into a higher level of care. So our biggest emphasis is on getting people to use the technology when they first move in and we start with the Alexa, that's hooked up to their thermostat. You don't know how many times that's such a problem for seniors. Every thermostat's different. Now you just say the temperature. So now Yeah, you get hooked on it there. Then they'll see their neighbor. Alexa play me some, uh, Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra automatically plays that music. Then they want to upgrade and they improve their technology to turn lights on and off to change the channel. And, uh, we go into it slowly.
Speaker 1 00:21:11 Those, those are great applications. So going into it slowly, right? That, that is one of the things that Jessica Fairbank's lays out is in fact, that's her number one, start slowly off of that. Her number five, which I mean, you just perfectly laid out is, you know, talking about the small benefits, but those benefits from their perspective, as opposed to what we're looking for, we think about, I want to stay in touch. I want to do these things so that then you may or may not come into a conflict. But when you're talking about, you're going to be able to see this, you're going to be able to in the middle of the night, without getting out of bed, tell the thermostat what you want it to do, uh, to adjust the temperature. You're going to be able to, you know, th those are things they're looking to do.
Speaker 1 00:21:48 They improve their lives and their independence off of it. Um, that, that is great. Is there, um, one of the points that, that, uh, just makes is getting the whole family involved that sometimes earlier up in the cycle. So before they're, they're down into a senior community, uh, if they're being introduced to technology, sometimes they might have pushback of having a family member, an adult family member, teaching them, uh, you get somewhat of a benefit of, of being a professional. You're, you're somebody who's supposed to have answers to that. So maybe they listen easier. Um, Jessica makes a recommendation of kids using grandkids, um, even letting somebody just watch them and watch those. You let your grandparents watch the grandkids interacting with technology. So just to your point muscle, they start thinking about what that is. They get comfortable with it, uh, and they can move past the fact that technology is cold. Um, in, in that mindset, what, what are things that have helped you be successful? Doing things like that?
Speaker 3 00:22:50 Uh, what, what, uh, the, the grandkids are the easiest to teach the parents or the grandfathers and all, uh, what we found was there has to be a reason, whenever I say, Hey, would you like be able to do this? That's they know that they're not interested in the abstract, but when I say, and, and this started out, whenever we first went to computers, fellow says to me, why should I spend? And this was back 20 years ago. Why should I spend $600 for a computer that a 37 cent stamp will take care of? And I said, well, yeah, you got a point there. But look at this, whenever he saw that he can get pictures of his grandkids and instant, then he saw the reason to use technology, um, where you and I are talking on zoom right now, we can see each other. Every time I have a zoom meeting, and this may just be the ladies, but the ladies cameras never work.
Speaker 3 00:23:53 But the ladies like seeing everyone else, they want to see the grandkids. They don't want to be seen. And I don't know what that is, but I know that, uh, the video is important because as a, I want to see my family. I may not think that I, my hair is just right. And, uh, there may be, um, uh, personal reasons why, but they certainly love communicating with their family. So you have to give, why do this? If it doesn't make sense, like in our case, the Alexes allow them to change the channel. If you have, Parkinson's, you try to wrestle with a remote control black letters on a black remote control on an inch by two inches or three inches long. Whenever you just use your voice, you don't even know that you're doing a very complicated process. Our library is set up, you walk into a library, all the shelves, light up.
Speaker 3 00:24:55 You're the clicker, uh, your body, whenever you're done looking and leave the lights, go back off. All of those things make it so natural. So anything that you're doing with family to teach them about, they've got to see the reason why, whenever I'm instructing a seniors on how to use their streaming, they didn't know they get the TV from their Alma mater or from their hometown. But that app makes it worth learning because they want to see their hometown. We have, we have 3d, uh, devices that the first thing we do is say, all right, where are you from? And most people are from shoot 'em up Creek, Kansas, or someplace like that. So you can go to their town in Kansas and they can walk 3d looking around and see that that's the old general store. That's that used to be where the dairy was. Now, look at that. They're able to walk in their own town,
Speaker 1 00:25:57 And it's a participation, it's that participation in the community and not just the community in which you're building there, but participation in the rest of the world. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:26:07 You're part of the world. And that's why it is interesting. Cause I can do something, although I might not be able to walk 45 minutes. Like I could, whenever I was in my twenties, now I can see the world and we can take trips in real time and real places, things they know
Speaker 1 00:26:26 When I only see as, as the metaverse finally takes hold, and they move into a web 3.0 structure, um, where people can not only retrieve information or publish information, but now they can own own things in this other place. I, I don't see it as a place. People will escape and be gone completely from, I think it will become a bridge. And, um, and one thing I think you're doing just, just really, really well, really well, John Scott, uh, is you're making, you're finding those things that are out there in the world. And then you're ensuring that they're intuitive to seniors and that they're working based off that, the design thinking that your, you extend that design thinking into what looks like a niche today, but you and I both know that it's an overwhelming wave of expectation coming from the aged behind us. And, uh, and I think because of that, um, not just, uh, Christian fellowship, square Mesa with Christian care and, and senior living as a whole benefits from the work that you do. So congratulations. And, and it really was, it was awesome having you here. How, how can, um, how can people learn more, uh, about you and about fellowship square Mesa?
Speaker 3 00:27:30 We're on the, well, wherever you just put in fellowship square, Mason will usually show up on the Google. Uh, we have a website fellowship square mesa.org, and you can download and see all of the many awards we've had and all of the activities where we, we liked that to be the library of Congress, about what we're doing, but fellowship square, mesa.org. And, uh, we're easy to get ahold of, uh, uh, we enjoy very high community participation. Uh, we have a lot of families and friends. A lot of referrals is most of the people that move in 89% are, um, families and friends of existing risks.
Speaker 1 00:28:17 That's great. I appreciate it. God bless you. God bless the work that you're doing. And thanks again for joining us today. Thanks
Speaker 3 00:28:23 For asking.
Speaker 1 00:28:26 Well, that's it for the senior moves team this week. And thanks for joining us. If you've enjoyed the content, remember to subscribe and to share this episode on the app that you're using right now, your reviews and your comments, they really help us expand our reach as well as our perspective. So if you have time also drop us a note, let us know how we're doing for tips and tools to clarify your parent project, simplify communication with your stakeholders and verify the professionals that you choose. You can find us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram and Facebook and join [email protected]. Thanks again for trusting us until our next episode behold and be healthy.
Speaker 0 00:29:05 Thank you for listening to this senior moves podcast production to access our show notes, resources or forums go to senior moves.org. This show is for entertainment purposes only before making any decisions consult a professional. This show is copyrighted by Phoenician partners, LLC, and senior moves written permissions must be granted before syndication or rebroadcast.
