LeadingAge members have wonderful stories to tell about the important and impressive work they do each day.
This month, LeadingAge took a giant step forward in our multi-year effort to back up those great stories with great data. We released Portrait of Our Members, a report filled with the valuable data we collected during our 2019 Member Survey.
I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read this report. In addition, don’t miss the data snapshots that zero-in on findings from the 5 settings the survey explored: nursing homes, assisted living, affordable housing, market-rate independent living, and home and community-based services.
The survey report gives us all a great opportunity to learn more about the LeadingAge membership. A few highlights stand out for me:
Our continuum: The survey reinforced how squarely LeadingAge represents the entire continuum of services and supports for older adults.
Our size: The LeadingAge membership includes organizations of all sizes. Assisted living communities tend to be the largest organizations in terms of the number of people served. Nursing homes are the smallest.
Our residents: Residents served by affordable housing communities and adult day programs tend to be younger and more racially and ethnically diverse than residents in other settings.
Our services: The breadth of services provided by LeadingAge members is truly impressive. Depending on the setting, services are provided either directly by members, or through arrangements with others.
Our technology use: In 2019, half of our nursing homes offered technologies that support social connections. This was long before the coronavirus pandemic made these technologies so essential. My guess is that the presence of these technologies has grown considerably since the beginning of 2020.
Over the course of our almost 60 years, the LeadingAge membership has changed a great deal. We started out as an association comprised primarily of nursing homes. Today, we embrace the continuum fully and completely. That’s quite an accomplishment—and quite a tribute to our members who have evolved over time to meet the changing needs of older consumers.
I look forward to learning how our membership will continue to evolve in the coming years as LeadingAge uses future surveys to build on the valuable baseline data we collected in 2019.