Knollwood Introduces New Pilot Program for Residents
Seniors living at D.C.-based Knollwood Life Plan Community are getting a lot more wellness injected into their lives with the advent of a new holistic wellness program. The program, which has begun as a test pilot to around 150 residents and their families, is all part of a larger plan to offer a more personalized offering to seniors, according to the community’s operator, the Army Distaff Foundation (ADF).
The program will consist of giving complimentary memberships to the Mighty Health program and app through a partnership between Knollwood, ADF and Mighty Health. Residents will then be able to access the app to find and participate in activities that will improve their health and quality of life. These include offering from personalized fitness plants to live community events. The results of the pilot will ultimately help ADF better understand what would appeal to the residents at Knollwood.
“When introducing new technology to older adults, it is important that the technology actually solves a problem that matters to [the end user],” James Michels, VP-development and strategic partnerships, said in an article with McKnight’s Senior Living. “The decision to bring a technology to the community requires a deliberative, thorough process and explanation of the services and how it will work for the resident.”
ADF Seeks to Go Beyond Traditional Wellness Offerings
Launched on June 28, the initial pilot will last three months, with about 50 residents having attended the initial training. The goal, Michels said in the same article, is that he wants ADF’s wellness offerings to go beyond the traditional group activities that currently make up a significant portion of programming in senior homes.
This interest in wellness is one that has significantly grown since the start of the pandemic, with a wide variety of communities and leaders adopting wellness practices such as community gardens or even shifting to promote more wellness lifestyles. In many cases, this has grown to become the expectation for senior living organizations, with many leaders addressing COVID as the wake-up call for the industry.
ADF’s use of the Mighty Health app to allow seniors to select and participate in their own wellness activities follows yet another growing trend of facilities and organizations seeking ways to use digital tools to improve the lives of seniors. In fact, the current collaboration between ADF and Mighty Health stemmed from the AARP Innovation Labs’ AgeTech Collaborative, which helps connect start-ups and industry professionals to help generate new ideas for the benefit of seniors.
