Written by: Alexandra Cohl
How many of you at the start of coronavirus-related lockdowns immediately thought of family members who were living in some type of assisted living facility or nursing home? I know I never thought I’d be using Zoom with my 91-year-old grandparents, but then the pandemic happened. They live in an independent senior living community and as soon as outbreaks emerged inside that facility, everyone was on strict stay-at-home orders (home in this case could mean anything from a one-bedroom apartment to more care-heavy rooms). They quickly became isolated, and their situation is not unique from many older adults living in a similar setting.
While self-isolating from fellow residents or family visitors protects the body, it brings about other challenges, such as cognitive decline or emotional and mental distress. Take my grandmother, for example. She is very social, often attending activities like her writing group and visiting with my parents, but that was all stripped away or moved online, and it was and still is challenging for her.
Lately, I’ve been thinking more about schools and the recent conversations around “pandemic pods” or what some people are calling “nano schools” for children. What would it look like if we applied that to senior living spaces? Or, somehow shared the burden across generational lines? Many parents are determining whether to hire teachers or take on the teaching load themselves within their pandemic pods, and I began to think about how useful the cross generational approach could be. What if these pods included seniors? Much of the argument toward the pods relate to cognitive development and emotional well-being of children; not unlike that for older adults. By including seniors into the pods, this could lessen the load on working parents and also allow for children to get the socialization they need.
This “pod” mentality could also be applied directly to senior living spaces, identifying both groups of residents and staff members to become “quarantine buddies” with each other, perhaps reaching up to 10 within a group. This, of course, would require that those buddies also enact mask wearing and social distancing outside (and within) the community. Understanding the risks of pods is also essential to ensuring that those within the pods are keeping exposure risk low. It would also depend on the resources within the facility and whether regular testing can be done.
These aren’t the only pods to consider, though. The coronavirus has challenged spaces to become more innovative in their approach to design. In Boulder, CO at the Frasier Retirement Community, a partnership with Pinkard Construction has created what they call the “Lov Pod.” These pods are made with plexiglass to provide a sitting area for individuals within the retirement community to visit with their loved ones without sharing the same air. They can sit within the same room, separated by glass, and later cleaned between sessions. Something I know my grandmother would much prefer to any Zoom chat.
Regardless of the approach chosen, something that is clear through these innovations and trial and error approaches are that we, as a collective group, are going to need to rethink the way that we interact across generational lines. It will provide a chance for creative communities, like the Live Together™ model, to consider how we are constructing modes of living for older adults and how we can ensure that two of our most vulnerable groups are tended to.