Paper Examines How Adult Children of Current Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) Residents View CCRCs in Light of Their Parents’ Experiences

September 20, 2012

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, September 20, 2012
Contact: Biba Aidoo, baidoo@nic.org, (410) 267-0504

Paper Examines How Adult Children of Current Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) Residents View CCRCs in Light of Their Parents’ Experiences

Wins Prudential Real Estate Investors Award for Best Research Paper in 2012 Seniors Housing & Care Journal

Annapolis, Md. – The white paper “Adult Children of CCRC Residents: Their Perceptions, Insights, and Implications for Shaping the Future CCRC,” was announced by the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry (NIC) as the winner of the Best Research Paper from its annual call for applied research papers, sponsored this year by Prudential Real Estate Investors.

The article, written by Linda Hollinger-Smith, PhD, RN, FAAN; Kathryn Brod, MBA; Susan Brecht, and Mary Leary, MS, presents an exploratory analysis of how adult children of current continuing care retirement community (CCRC) residents view CCRCs in light of their parents’ experiences. The study’s results based on a national sample of 3,647 family members of residents living in CCRCs, show that a significant portion of respondents would recommend their family members’ CCRC to others and were very likely to consider a CCRC lifestyle for themselves.

Major findings include:

  • Of those very likely to consider a CCRC lifestyle for themselves, 74% of respondents reported that their family members’ experiences living in CCRCs influenced their interest largely compared to 21% indicating these experiences had little to no influence on their future living plans.
  • Respondents who agree that CCRCs provide quality services at good value, have a high reputation, and who are most willing to recommend their family members’ CCRCs to others are significantly more likely to indicate that CCRCs afford greater opportunities for what they may be seeking for their own future residential and lifestyle needs compared to single-family homes.
  • Across all age groups of respondents, increasing health care needs is the most significant factor prompting consideration of a CCRC lifestyle.
  • Factors related to health promotion and wellness were also important to respondents in their consideration of a CCRC lifestyle.
  • Of respondents very likely to consider a CCRC lifestyle, nine of ten respondents indicated that a CCRC lifestyle affords the greatest opportunities for personal safety and security, social activities, ability to “age in place,” convenience, staying fit, and lifelong learning in comparison to living in a single-family home.
  • Of most interest is the finding that 59% of respondents who are very likely to consider a CCRC in their future indicated that this lifestyle offers more opportunity for independence compared to a single-family home. In comparison, 39% of respondents somewhat likely and 18% of respondents unlikely to consider a CCRC lifestyle felt that CCRCs would meet their needs for independence compared to single-family homes.
  • Factors predicting respondents’ likelihood of considering a CCRC lifestyle in the future were identified: willingness to recommend their family members’ CCRC to others; variety of social events; variety of educational programs; amenity areas; and availability of fitness equipment.

This is the 15th year the peer-reviewed Journal, published annually by NIC in collaboration with Mather Lifeways Institute on Aging, continues its tradition of disseminating empirically based research and commentaries about quality and progressive practices in the seniors housing and care industry.

In addition to the winning paper, a special commendation was given to the paper “Measuring Success in Seniors Housing Sales: Prospect-Centered SellingSMwith the ‘Stages of Change’ Model” by David A. Smith and Alexandra Fisher. The article provides a data driven rationale for taking a person-centered approach to seniors housing sales, as opposed to transactional selling, drawing parallels to the approach in a book written about baseball, Moneyball, they elaborate on their successful application of Prochaska’s “Stages of Change” model of health behavior change to sales opportunities.

The other papers included in this year’s Journal are: “Predicting Nursing Home Utilization at the County Level in Michigan: Influence of Demographic and Market Variables,” “Factors Associated with Long-Term Care Planning Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults,” “Ethnographic Evidence of Barriers to Resident Self-Report on the Decennial Census in Hospice and Skilled Nursing Facilities,” “Psychological Fitness for Older Adults: A Pilot Intervention,” “Does Functional Independence Influence Satisfaction Among Assisted Living Residents?,” “Understanding and Assessing the Impact of Nursing Home Approach to Care and Physical Design on Residents and Their Families: A Synthesis of the Literature.”

Copies of the 2012 Seniors Housing & Care Journal are available free of charge to users and institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.

Visit http://www.nic.org/SeniorsHousingandCareJournal/2012/ for Executive Summaries of the articles and to download the journal.

About National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing and Care Industry
The National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry (NIC) is a 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to facilitate informed investment decisions that create value and further the quality of seniors housing and care. Since 1991, NIC has been the leading source of research, data, and analysis for lenders, investors, providers, developers, and others interested in meeting the housing and care needs of America’s seniors. NIC has sponsored the Seniors Housing & Care Journal, a peer-reviewed journal for applied research in the seniors housing and care field, since 1993.

NIC is the leading provider of historical and trend data on the industry through its NIC MAP® Data and Analysis Service that tracks more than 12,600 properties on a quarterly basis in the 100 largest metropolitan markets. Proceeds from its annual conference and other events are used to fund data and research on issues of importance to lenders, investors, developers, operators, and others interested in meeting the housing and care needs of America’s seniors. For more information, visit natinvcenterdv.wpengine.com or call (410) 267-0504.

About Mather LifeWays
Based in Evanston, Illinois, Mather LifeWays is a unique, non-denominational not-for-profit organization founded 70 years ago to serve the needs of older adults. Dedicated to developing and implementing Ways to Age WellSM, Mather LifeWays creates programs, places, and residences for today’s young-at-heart older adults. These include providing continuum of living and care; making neighborhoods better places for older adults to live, work, learn, contribute, and play; and identifying, implementing, and sharing best practices for wellness programs, aging-in-the-workplace issues, emergency preparedness, staff development, and online education and programs empowering working family caregivers. www.matherlifeways.com.

About Prudential Real Estate Investors
PREI is a leader in the global real estate investment management business, offering a broad range of investment vehicles that invest in private and public market opportunities in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Headquartered in Madison, N.J., PREI has other offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York, San Francisco, London, Lisbon, Luxembourg, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Istanbul, Abu Dhabi, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo. In addition, PREI has representatives in Milan and is establishing a presence in Sydney (pending regulatory approval). As of June 30, 2012, PREI managed approximately $50.1 billion in gross real estate assets ($33.8 billion net) on behalf of more than 490 clients worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.prei.com.