Environments for Aging - Fall 2020 - 25

Busalacchi says she expects large dining rooms to be designed with the ability
to be sectioned off into smaller spaces
using movable walls or structures, which
would allow communities to flex to varying
capacity or spacing needs while remaining open. Where possible, Schuler says
he anticipates communities will add more
decentralized dining services and multiple
options including bistros, coffee counters,
and smaller venues. These solutions would
not only appeal to residents' desire for
choice and variety but also could flex to
other operational needs, such as a coffee
shop becoming a takeout venue, during a
pandemic or other crisis.

2

Amenity spaces

As the senior living industry has
shifted away from institutional
models to deliver more homelike aesthetics
and settings, activity spaces have become
more intimate and specialized, Andrews
says. "What that means is when something

like COVID-19 comes along, those spaces
become unusable because you can't space
people out far enough to do anything
meaningful."
This past spring, many communities
canceled programming as they operated in
lockdown mode with residents remaining in
their bedrooms most of the time. Looking
to improve the situation, "even just for the
short-term," Andrews says she saw great
examples of staff creatively applying new
ideas to support some programming, such
as walking an ice cream cart down resident
hallways for an ice cream social or inviting
residents to sit in doorways to sing, play
bingo, or have remote-controlled car races.
While communities continue to make
short-term adjustments to programming,

lacchi says operators should also reconsider furnishings to support different activity
types. "Are the chairs nice so you can sit in
them longer than just 30-40 minutes to do
an activity but also to sit at a dining table
for longer, depending on how much time it
takes to serve and eat," she says.

there's an opportunity in the future to
rethink activity areas to support new distanced seating and air circulation or make
them larger to accommodate different
space or program needs, designers say. In
addition to space planning changes, Busa-

are beginning to allow limited visitations at
certain communities, the industry is nowhere close to normal. "Aside from the risk
factor, there's not a senior care community
around that doesn't want residents to see
their loved ones," Andrews says.

3

Family visits

Some of the most vivid images
from the pandemic have been
family members "touching hands" with
loved ones through window panes or sharing screenshots of Face Time sessions,
further illustrating the importance of reconnecting residents with family and friends,
many of whom have been restricted from
visiting for months. And while some states

Fall 2020 * EFAmagazine.com

25
http://thisendupcontract.com http://thisendupcontract.com http://www.EFAmagazine.com
Environments for Aging - Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Environments for Aging - Fall 2020
