Senior Housing and Services Leader Ecumen Highlights 10 Things Changing in an Aging America

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) April 2, 2009

(http://www.ecumen.org ) Senior housing and services provider Ecumen sees the aging of America as an opportunity for substantial innovation in our country. Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts highlights 10 emerging changes in a new blog post entitled "10 Things Ecumen Sees Changing in an Aging America." Readers are invited to share what changes they see or want to see in an aging America.

Businesses and organizations who fail to innovate for America's new demographic reality, risk failure, People over 50 currently represent 43 percent of all U.S. households and by 2020, the senior population in American will number 115 million. As Roberts explains, this rapidly aging demographic will not be one that stands for being warehoused in an institution or for living in a community that does not provide products and services in line with their wants and needs.

Among things changing in an aging America are:

•     Portable Personal Empowerment Technology: "Portable Personal Empowerment Technology" will become a major marketplace driven by America's seniors who desire to be connected, empowered, and living as independently and fully no matter their life stage. It will create new opportunities for senior service providers to combine high-tech and high-touch and serve people with challenges, such as Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
•     Neighborhood Villages: Multi-generational neighborhood-based "villages," will increasingly take shape as people desire to live fully at every age in their own homes and communities. Such villages include Beacon Hill Village in Boston and Mill City Commons in Minneapolis. Ecumen is a consultant to the Mill City Commons community.
•     Collaborative Senior Housing: The financing of long-term care will significantly change with more people paying a larger portion of their services. The Government simply can't afford to be the largest payer for such services.

"Aging is truly all about living," says Roberts as she concludes her post by offering an 'adios to ageism' "This holds true even at the very end of life."

"10 Things Ecumen Sees Changing in an Aging America" may be found by visiting the Changing Aging blog on the Ecumen website.

About Ecumen:
Ecumen (http://www.ecumen.org ) is based in Shoreview, Minn., and is one of the largest non-profit senior housing, services and senior housing development companies in the United States. The name Ecumen comes from the word ecumenical, which in turn is derived from the Greek word for home: "Oikos." Ecumen's mission is to create "home" for older adults wherever they choose to live. Ecumen is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and has 4,000 team members. Ecumen writes about news and ideas that are shaping the future of aging services at its Changing Aging blog: http://www.ecumen.org/changing-aging/ .

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