“We’ve all learned lessons, painfully, during this pandemic,” said Bob Kramer, Founder & Fellow for Nexus Insights, and Co-founder and Strategic Advisor at NIC. “Let’s seize the opportunity from the crisis so we can say we learned from it, and we won’t be here a year or two from now saying that nothing is different.”

Kramer was speaking as part of a panel at Living Well, a forum to advance important aging-related issues that is hosted annually by A.G. Rhodes. This year’s event, which was held virtually for the first time, addressed the topic Aging and Senior Living Post-COVID-19. A.G. Rhodes is a top nursing home provider of senior rehab services and long-term care in Atlanta and Marietta, and one of Atlanta’s oldest nonprofit organizations.

Kramer was joined on the panel by Becky Kurtz, Director of the Atlanta Area Agency on Aging, Elise Eplan, Founder & Principal of The Eplan Group, and Deke Cateau, CEO of A.G. Rhodes. The panel was moderated by Jocelyn Dorsey, Former WSB-TV Broadcast Manager and Member of the A.G. Rhodes Board of Directors.

The discussion addressed a number of important issues facing senior living administrators today, including the role of leaders in managing the crisis, response to issues of safety and social isolation and how to balance the two, the challenges of aging infrastructure for infection prevention in skilled nursing facilities, as well as the importance of transparency in addressing problems spotlighted by the pandemic.

The discussion also highlighted some of the silver linings from the pandemic, such as the impact of vaccines, and the new spotlight on the issue of loneliness. “One benefit of this horrible pandemic is that it has brought empathy to the issue of social isolation and loneliness for older adults. I can now talk to any college student and they will get it, because they too miss getting together with their friends,” Kramer observed.

View the discussion:

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