In this Q&A, Environments for Aging speaks with Harry Moody, distinguished visiting professor, creative longevity and wisdom program, Fielding Graduate University, who will deliver the closing keynote address at the 2016 EFA Expo & Conference. Moody's presentation on Tuesday, April 12, will address age branding, the need to better connect communities with their surrounding areas, and ideas for overcoming stereotypes and prejudices toward senior living.

For more, visit Environmentsforaging.com.

Environments for Aging: Your career has been spent largely in academia, as vice president for academic affairs with AARP, and before that, as executive director of the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College. What will your message be in April to our audience of designers, architects, and operators?

Harry Moody: My message to the group is twofold: The good news is that you’re in the best possible business to be in today because we have 10,000 people turning age 65 and 10,000 turning age 70 every single day in America. The bad news is they don’t want your product because they don’t want to grow old.


For example, when you’re talking about senior living facilities, the standard answer that people give is, “I’m not ready for that yet.” In our research at AARP, more than 90 percent of people say what they want is aging in place. Unfortunately, the place that they live may not actually be the best possible place for them for all kinds of reasons. There are solutions to these problems, but people don’t generally want the solutions.

Why not?

Let’s take the example of hearing loss. Hearing loss does grow with age, but people don’t want hearing aids. They’ll do anything to avoid them—and they’ll do anything to avoid anything to do with aging.

It’s a problem that needs a different kind of solution so that instead of people saying, “I’m not ready for that yet,” they say, “I can’t wait for that.” Unless people in the aging enterprise can turn the [conversation] around, they’ll have continual frustration to get people to get the solutions that will actually make their lives better.

What are some ways that the senior living industry can be successful at age branding to counteract that mentality?

Sometimes they’ll spend money on beautiful chandeliers because they know the adult children will come around and see that and say it’s a great place. That’s not necessarily true. That’s a superficial way of doing it.

Location is important, and a lot of senior living places are built in the middle of nowhere. There’s a market for that, but I think recent demographics tell us that a lot more folks want to move back into cities because they know they can walk to the grocery and go to a museum or concerts.

University-linked retirement communities are another good idea. Putting your retirement community in the middle of Ann Arbor, Mich., or Berkeley, Calif., or Madison, Wis., doesn’t cost any more money than building it someplace else, but you take advantage of the amenities of the university town. You’ve got to figure out ways to make your facility more connected to the community so that people overcome these stereotypes and prejudices.

For more information on the opening keynote presentation, read "EFA Expo Preview: Designing For Visual Accessibility."