Vertical Aging: The Connected Care Hub
This report is one in a series by UHN’s OpenLab titled Vertical Aging: The future of Aging in Place in Urban Canada.
The second in the series of reports looks at the ‘Connected Care Hub’ a mixed model of service delivery that utilizes both physical and digital supports to help seniors in NORC buildings age in place. Participatory wellness, supported self-management, and access to primary care through telehealth and virtual care technologies are discussed.
AMS Healthcare partnered with UHN OpenLab to explore the trend of Canadian seniors increasingly moving to urban apartments, condos and co-ops in order to remain living independently. The project saw the AMS-funding support OpenLab efforts to develop products and technology-enabled solutions to support seniors while aging in these vertical communities. That funding has resulted in the 3 high-potential concept models that could shape the future of aging in place presented in the ‘Vertical Aging’ reports.
These models take the decades-old concept of a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) – regular residential building that have become home to a high density of older adults- and reimagines them within the context of the tech-driven world of today and the near future. And it does so with due consideration for enabling seniors to age in place with choice and dignity, and without losing sight of what it means to be human.