Chestnut Hill Senior Living Understands the Importance of Socialization and Building & Maintaining Relationships

No matter our age, building relationships with others is fundamental in enriching our lives. Research has shown that people who enjoy healthy relationships, live longer and happier lives. Maintaining relationships as we age has numerous health benefits such as increasing our physical and mental health, increasing mental acuity, promoting laughter and more!

At Chestnut Hill Senior Living, I, as the Resident Services Director, play a pivotal role in helping to create opportunities for our residents to build relationships with their peers as well as helping to maintain these relationships through daily events. Oftentimes, aging adults are afraid of senior living settings. They see it as an end to their independence. Most fear being isolated from family and friends. One of the stigmas associated with senior living is, “I’m too young and active to be in senior living.” Therefore, many avoid it as an option all together. Unfortunately, this means they also lose out on the abundant opportunities to create new friendships and memories that this setting provides.

In our community, we have a group of residents who are professionals at welcoming new residents and helping them to feel at home as they settle in. We also ensure that new residents are invited to join all events, based on their preferences. Once our residents take advantage of these events, they often find themselves meeting new people or even connecting with old friends or neighbors. Through our daily events and programs, we often see close friendships form that continue. Residents begin having meals together or even take trips out of the community for shopping and family get-togethers.

It is my goal to help build and foster these relationships and break the stigmas associated with senior living communities. As a Resident Services Director part of my job is to find shared interests among my residents and curate events to their tastes. This encourages my residents to come out and meet others. When you’re enjoying yourself it’s hard not to smile or talk to the person next to you. Acquaintances are the building blocks of every relationship; I simply provide the foundation.

It’s easy to think that moving into a senior living community is a loss of independence, instead of a reclaiming of freedom. As a society we need to stop focusing on the “senior” part of the phrase and more on “community.” By providing accommodations to the hand that life dealt us, we enable people to maintain their active lifestyles they have always enjoyed. I think it’s easy to focus on the negatives of aging instead of the positives. When I talk about senior living to others, I’m always telling them, “Just look at how much we do.”

Sources: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316

https://www.eddyseniorliving.com/latest-news/the-importance-of-senior-friendships-for-healthy-aging/