Life Plan Community has been chosen,
after a multi year effort, to replace Continuing Care Retirement Community
(CCRC) as the primary description of communities for older adults. For
most people, their first question would be, "Why change?" That
is a good question. The best way to answer it is to first look at history
and then look at the present.
Communities for older adults have been labeled with various terms over the past
hundred years that today seem unbelievable. "Asylum" was
probably the most heinous label. Of course when asylum was the popular
term, residents were referred to as inmates; so the terminology was offensive
from all aspects. "Homes for the Aged" was used regularly
replaced by "Convalescent Home" and "Nursing Home."
When these terms were no longer acceptable, new, modern terminology took their place. The modern terms were cool and very business like.
"Skilled Nursing Facility" and "Rehabilitation and Skilled
Nursing Center" are two of the more popular terms that are still in use
today. The term facility is ubiquitous. It appears in the news and
even in regulations. It is often the term used to describe a community by its
own residents and employees. Facility is the opposite of home. No
one calls the home they grew up in a facility. The most basic definition
of facility is space or equipment
necessary for doing something. It is a very functional term; but does not
describe the key reason we create communities for elders: caring,
compassion, love and fellowship. Center has a similar connotation.
Back in the seventies and eighties, as retirement communities began to appear
across the country, the term continuing care retirement community became
popular and has come to define the type of living arrangement that
offers multiple levels of care in one location. Even the accreditation is
named Continuing Care Accreditation (CARF-CCAC). This terminology has
served well for the past three decades or more; but its shortcomings have begun
to appear. As the new generation of elders approach the decision to move
to a community, they have expressed displeasure with the term, CCRC. Two
of the four words elicit negative feedback. Care and Retirement are both
unpopular with the boomers.Even continuing is institutional sounding.
Leaders in the"Life Plan Community" field recognized this
problem and began a deliberate effort to identify new terminology that best
describes what we offer. After two years of hard work including market
testing, the term "Life Plan Community" has been chosen. It was
announced at the annual LeadingAge conference in Boston in November. The public
relations information included with the announcement includes the tag line,
"It's my life; it's my plan; it's my life plan community!" Use
of the term in place of CCRC is voluntary; but it offers a new and fresh
take on what communities such as Homestead Village offer those who choose to
make us their home.
Homestead Village will embrace Life Plan Community and do its part to
facilitate the transformation in language and thought.
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