I’m back from holidays, bout with a cold, and there has been so much happening lately that I have not commented on. But today, I will start with the recently released trends that define active aging released yesterday by the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA). I will list them and briefly comment on them.

Here they are: The Internet is becoming the new link to health, social networking and travel; Retirement communities are reinventing themselves;Maintaining intellectual skills and brain health is top of mind; Technology is inspiring activity; Retirement means Boomers will continue to work—but on their own terms; Lifelong learning opportunities and interests keep growing;Age-friendly fitness opportunities are essential;Health plans will pay for prevention.

These do not seem earth shattering for those of us who are of boomer and aging populations; nor to those of us who work in retirement industry. For some time, we have been working to improve the lives of those of us who want to age independently, actively, and who strive to live life to its fullest. It’s no secret the Internet is continuing to explode. It is a way for people to engage and experience retirement options, health questions, without having to have face to face contact. There is something to be said for annonymity.

We just launched our new website at the start of the new year: www.ericksoncommunities.com or www.ericksonhealth.com. We did this to make our site more interactive and have site visitors be able to take virtual tours of our communities, see what’s going on inside them, and learn get a virtual experience with life at a full service retirement community.

On the health side, we wanted to provide health information geared for a very specific population: those over 65. And, we did not want to compete with other health sites as an encyclopedia of generic information. So we did tips and quizzes along the way. And we have loads of videos. We are working on expanding our forums, blogs, and even maybe introducing a social networking site for the over 65 crowd.

I guess you could say we are the poster child for the 2nd trend in that we reinvent ourselves to constantly meet the evolving needs and wants of our clients. In our newer communities, we are reducing the size and concept of our assisted living and nursing home models to a more home like environment: no uniforms, 24 hour access to food, dining and activities directed by our residents not our staff. You can see more at a recent news story on the American News Network (its almost at the end of the 30 minute newscast) seen here.

All of our communities have multiple programs and service designed not only to keep brains active and functioning but the total package: mind, body, spirit and we were the forerunners in implementing technology in the form of the electronic medical record. So its nice to see we are right there with the ICAA trends in active aging.

Our focus is on prevention by empowering our residents to live even better, no matter what their health. And all of the trends are for me, very positive for the aging, boomer population: continuing to work and play, living in surroundings that promote that, and near people who share that same hope.

Why do we do this? because older people rule! Now if we could get the political candidates to get on board and recognize this, address it, seek us out in vote getting, then that really would be news!!