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Business Talk
The Demand For Senior Living Facilities Grows With Our Aging Population
Uncover the secrets to making informed choices in the senior living industry with insights from Tiffany Wieder, Brookdale Senior Living's Area Director of Sales and Marketing in Central Florida. In our conversation, Tiffany shares her personal journey and the diverse services Brookdale offers, including independent living, assisted living, and specialized memory care. As the demand for senior living facilities grows with our aging population, Tiffany guides us through the essential factors families should consider when selecting a community for their loved ones. She also sheds light on the current trends shaping the senior living landscape and highlights how her role helps meet the unique needs of residents.
Beyond online reviews, what truly matters when choosing the right assisted living option? We explore the importance of thorough research and preparation in making significant decisions for family members. Tiffany shares a touching story from Brookdale, where personalized advocacy made a world of difference for a resident. With this episode, gain a deeper understanding of long-term care planning and why it's crucial to address these needs before a crisis hits. Whether you're seeking guidance for yourself or a loved one, Tiffany's expertise offers a valuable perspective on navigating the complex world of senior living.
Welcome back everyone. We've got a great podcast for you today. I'm joined here with Tiffany Weider. She's with Brookdale Senior Living. Good morning, tiffany. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good morning Steve. Yeah, I'm great. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're very, very welcome. So, listeners, just to kind of recap here we uncover the stories behind thriving businesses and bring you expert insights straight from the source. Of course, I'm your host. We actually go behind the scenes and get valuable advice. This podcast is all about a go-to resource for learning about businesses that shape our communities and discovering how to make the most of their services. So if you like this content, you like this video, please comment, subscribe. With that being said, we're going to get right into speaking with Tiffany. So, tiffany, let's go with that first awesome question that everybody wants to know what inspired you to work for the senior living industry, which is a huge industry in itself, correct?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, yeah, it's senior living. Well, first of all, my role. I'm the area director of sales and marketing for Brookdale, so I work in the Central Florida market, I support the sales team at six different communities here in Central Florida. And then you know we are, we're a national organization, we have over 600 communities throughout 44 states, and so, honestly, I consider myself incredibly lucky that I almost fell into senior living.
Speaker 2:I was re-insuring the workforce, following, you know, kind of a life change during COVID times and needed a new career direction. So I found a position as a business development director with this organization and I thought senior living, okay. I've worked in healthcare previously. This has a healthcare feel to it. Let me check it out, and little did I know that this would be one of the most rewarding positions that I have ever had, working in senior living. It is a wild industry because it is growing by leaps and bounds and it's so rewarding though, helping seniors find, you know, placement for assisted living and memory care in their aging years and helping the families kind of help that transition for them.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and you can tell you're passionate about what you do, right, you can tell? And again, I speak to so many business owners and they're so passionate about their business and what they do to help their customers, their clients, so forth and so on. So as I was looking at your website, I know there's so many services that you guys offer, from independent living to memory care, to assisted living, to at-home care, skilled nursing. Can you kind of touch base for our listeners a little bit about a few of those services? Sure.
Speaker 2:In In the Central Florida market. We have primarily independent assisted and memory care, and so each community is really unique. It's like its own little city, and so I say all the time that if you walked into one Brookdale you'd walk into one Brookdale, because different communities offer different service lines, and so we have. For instance, we have two communities in Altamont Springs, florida, which is right here in the Orlando area, and they are about two miles apart from one another. And one is a freestanding assisted living and its sister community has independent living apartments, assisted living apartments and a secured memory care unit as well, like a wing that is safe for our dementia and Alzheimer residents.
Speaker 2:And throughout the United States we have communities that are called CCRCs, which is a continuing care retirement community that does encompass a skilled nursing component as well, which is more of a hospital-like setting where we can render more care to that individual. But typically those larger kind of complexes have independent living, assisted living, memory care and that skilled nursing facility as well on their campus. But that's the beautiful thing about our organization is that no matter where you are in the United States, if you have a family member or a loved one that's in need of that extra care and support, we can find a community that's close by that more than likely suits the needs that you're looking for.
Speaker 1:I love that. So there are and you know, well stated too in terms of explaining the difference between, you know, the memory care and, you said, assisted living, right, Two separate facilities. That's very interesting. So you know, for our listeners, let's talk about are there trends? If I'm looking to put my parents into an assisted living facility, what are some?
Speaker 2:things that I need to look at before considering. Well, you know, this day and age, assisted living is becoming kind of the hot new commodity. We, you know, as a society and as a culture, we have an aging population, that you know, and it's interesting. I had to pull up statistics for something else recently, and the U? S census Bureau states that there are, in the year 2025, because we're in the height of the baby boomers that 12,000 people are turning 65 every day, which means by the end of 2025, that there'll be 4.4 million Americans that are age 65 or older.
Speaker 1:That's a pretty big number.
Speaker 2:And 65? By no means, you know, because we are also a healthier society now. That 65 does not mean you know that's traditional retirement age, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you are in need of assisted living. The average age in assisted living is about 85 years old, and so people you know have a good 10, 15, 20 years of life, of independence and hopefully keeping their health at a level that keeps them as independent at home as long as possible. But we also know we're a little bit sicker of a society and so some of those comorbidities which a comorbidity would be like congestive heart failure or COPD or diabetes, which diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in our culture as well that that when people typically have some of those different diseases together, it becomes harder to live independent.
Speaker 2:You need to make sure that you're paying attention to your diet and your sugars and your. You know the things that we're always told when we go to the doctor, that you know diet and exercise. You know are you eating well, are you staying active? And you know and I know that even even for me that sometimes there's just those days where I'm like, you know, the easy way out is sometimes the most convenient, but if you compound that over years with perhaps not the best health makeup you'll lend, you'll lead yourself into needing some assisted living, in which case we are. We are there as an organization to be able to help.
Speaker 2:But one of the things that we encourage people to look at is that, because it is a hot new industry, that there's buildings popping up all over and adult children that are in their 40s or 50s we are sometimes drawn to those modern buildings that have kind of like a Ritz-like look or feel or a high-end hotel look, and that's great that they'll be beautiful on the outside, but if they don't have the care, if they don't have the staff, if they don't have the policies and procedures in place that is the real reason somebody is choosing to live in assisted living then they're going to be wowed by the chandelier but incredibly disappointed by the level of attention, and so those are the things that we really, you know, we encourage all the time our sales people to remind people that it's it's care over real estate.
Speaker 2:We're not selling real estate, we're selling care. We're selling the licensure, we're selling the experience of the individuals we have employed in our communities. We are looking for the people who really have the best training and support behind them for the clinical needs of the individuals that are living in the communities.
Speaker 1:Well stated.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 1:That was just like wow, that was a mouthful, but said very eloquently, very direct, which is awesome. But what I wrote down, which really caught my attention, when you look at your competition, like you said, there's so many assisted living facilities out there. I took away from that conversation care over real estate. That's pretty powerful. If you came up with that, that's pretty awesome. But it's good. It kind of puts things into perspective of how you differentiate yourself from so many other retirement companies or assisted living companies out there as well, or assisted living companies out there as well. What advice would you give someone who's just starting their search into senior living?
Speaker 2:Well, you know again, the research, research, research. I feel like you, you know, and even this you know this is the case for Brookdale too is that we have sister communities that might be a great fit for you, where the one down the street might not be the best fit for you, because the residents make up a huge, they make up the makeup of the community as well, and so if you walk into a community and it has a really vibrant population of people that are really active and that's the kind of environment that you're looking for your loved one, that's the place for you. If you know that your loved one keeps to themselves a little bit more and they're a little more quiet, or they might need a little bit more care, and you walk into a community and you see that with the population, that's the place for you. So, research what is best for you, but you have to get your feet inside the building.
Speaker 2:This day and age, people will rely very heavily on reviews you read online, which that's only. That's only a part of the story. I think of myself all the time that I read reviews for movies or for restaurants, but then sometimes the specifics of those reviews don't, they're not relevant to me to begin with, like somebody loves the Nokia at an Italian restaurant, I hate Nokia. I don't care if it's delicious or if they hate it, you know. So sometimes you have to go in and give give things a shot yourself.
Speaker 2:So open your eyes, make sure that you are aware and that you do the research of what's most important for you in the individual that you're looking for. Because what might you know? Even if you're talking amongst your friends, you know, I know a lot of people in their fifties and sixties are kind of stumbling into looking into assisted living for their family members and a lot of the times it's isolating. So you might not have a lot of friends who have also done this research. So make sure that you're talking about it with your friends and coworkers, loved ones, parishioners of church, people who might know what's out there and have good experiences with the communities that are in the market.
Speaker 1:Good advice and I guess a takeaway for one word, if I could say this, would be preparation.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So can you share a story? We all like stories, right? Can you share a story that has impacted the way one of your customers have benefited from your service?
Speaker 2:well and I and I'm I'm lucky in my role because I have the opportunity to go in and out of different communities. I really get to know the residents and their families and one of my, my favorites I can't share her name because-.
Speaker 2:No, no, yeah, yeah, don't share the name, she was a lovely resident of ours at our Conway community, which is down in South Orlando near the Orlando airport, and she was having some challenges with her wheelchair. You know, medicare is still involved in some things and getting access to certain things that are due to the individuals through their insurance are sometimes hard to navigate and sometimes their families don't know. Well, we have at Brookdale a program that's integrated into our organization called Health Plus and that is an RN care manager oversight program Health Plus and that is an RN care manager oversight program and we were able to have this RN care manager talk with and just stand in the gap as an advocate for this resident. Her family didn't live locally and so she was our RN care manager, was able to speak on behalf of this resident with her physician to get a new order for this new wheelchair. We were able to fast track it so we were able to get something delivered to the community and just make her quality of life better.
Speaker 2:The chair she was in was broken, uncomfortable, there were pieces of it that would scratch her. Every time she would have to get transferred in and out and in those cases where, if you leave it up to a resident or their family members to have to navigate the system. It's impossible, it's healthcare is not easy and if you don't know the right places or people you know, you can end up really frustrated and disappointed and slip between the cracks. And so we are really lucky as an organization to be able to have this extra added support and I think again it was lucky enough that I was able to take the time to sit and chat with her and find out really what she was struggling with on a day-to-day.
Speaker 1:And that is so important right Identifying what your customer needs are and then being able to address those needs and helping them get through that process. Well, kudos to you for that story. That's awesome. I love to hear that. As we wrap up here, can you please provide our listeners a way to get a hold of you, a phone number, a website that they can look at? You know for your service.
Speaker 2:Sure, absolutely Well, and anything that they need. I like to think of myself as a Lego piece, that I'm the little like gray Lego connector, because if you're able to get a hold of me, I can contact you and connect you with anybody within the industry. If you're looking for home health, we have Brookdale at Home that does private duty home care. We have, you know, and just through my connections I'm able to help with anyone, whether it's a primary care physician, a specialist. I also work locally with a coalition that works with the florida hospital association, and so anybody that has any questions about the senior living industry, whether it's local in the state of florida or national with our organization, they can reach out directly to me.
Speaker 2:Um, my, my phone number, my personal cell phone this rings to myself, to my person is 6, 8 9, 2, 4, 8, 8 0, 0, 6.
Speaker 2:And I can provide this information to you as well, so you can include it in the show notes. But my, my email address as well it's really nice, we, we do it. The first three of my first name, the first three of my last name, so it's T, I, f, w, I, e at brookdalecom, so it's short and sweet, easy to remember If you know my name, tiffany Weider, you know my email address, and so those are two ways that people can get in touch with me, and I'm happy to further a conversation if someone has questions about, you know, placing a loved one, if they have questions for themselves, because long-term care planning and thinking about this before it's an emergent situation is something that's incredibly important to do as well. That's something that we have a lot of families that approach us in crisis, and that's you know. We all know that it's not the easiest to make quick decisions when you're in a crisis situation.
Speaker 1:Well, tiffany, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to share what you do with Brookdale Senior Living, and you've inspired us, our listeners, with great information, and hopefully we can have you back again in the near future yes, absolutely, I would love to thank you so much.
Speaker 2:I appreciate the uh the time you're very welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to first media consulting podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today to nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsultingcom or call. Thank you for listening.