ASHA Educates

Learning about senior living can be overwhelming, especially to newcomers. It’s an industry people seldom think about until they’re facing the decision to move in themselves or help a parent take the step. Everyone has questions. What it like to live in a community? What’s the difference between all the options? How much does it normally cost? Will Medicare cover it? How do families talk about it?

Written by Nik Edlinger

03 / 24 / 20

3 min read

What it like to live in a community? What’s the difference between all the options?

How much does it normally cost? Will Medicare cover it?

How do families talk about it? How do they decide?

Where do you even start?

To answer those questions, older adults and their families can turn to Where You Live Matters. The website is an online library of educational content about senior living, designed to help people make informed, smart decisions about their housing and health needs. There are tons of articles, infographics and videos on a wide range of topics.

The site was launched in 2016 by ASHA, the American Seniors Housing Association, but they’ve been building on it since. In 2018, they added a community search feature so that visitors can look up local options. And last fall, ASHA completely overhauled and re-launched the site. It’s now easier to browse on mobile, and there’s more content than ever.

At the time of the website’s launch, ASHA noted that much of the online content about aging was written by marketers, and that academic information wasn’t clear enough for consumers. So they set out to create unbiased, research-based materials that anyone could understand.

“Our members and organization are committed to giving consumers across the country a place to learn more about the senior housing landscape,” said David Schless, president of ASHA. “There are resources available, but we’re committed to painting a clearer picture.”

And while Where You Live Matters is intended primarily for consumers, senior living providers can benefit too.

Educational content for your community to use

One of ASHA’s goals for the site was to help senior living providers in their own efforts to educate families. To that end, ASHA actively encourages communities to share the articles, guides and graphics with their own prospects (or even newly hired associates). That way, Where You Live Matters can serve as an authoritative, third-party resource about the benefits of communal living.

Here are a few ideas from ASHA on how senior living providers could use the content:

Include printouts in sales collateral packets
Email links to prospects and family members
Cite the research statistics in presentations
Use content links in the community’s blog posts

Sharing the content not only educates prospects but also positions the provider as a thought leader, a source of information that gives older adults more confidence and control over their choice. In the long run, that means a shorter sales cycle because people are better informed.

Interested in using some of their senior living resources? ASHA just asks that you list whereyoulivematters.org as the source. If you’d like to list your community on their map tool, you can follow these steps.