City of Longevity with Professor Lynne Corner & Tameryn Campbell

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today on our podcast. You're listening to one of our Successful Aging episodes this month on the Living to 100 Club program, and I'm your host, Joseph Casciani. Each week, our guests educate and inspire, helping you get the best out of all the years we're given, regardless of what obstacles come our way. You can learn more about our club at our website, Be sure to take a look at our new training and activities manual, Better, Longer, and Happier: A Guide to Aging with Purpose and Positivity. This is a series of 12 modules in a card deck format developed for life enhancement directors at senior living communities to learn more about the principles of psychologically healthy aging and to engage senior residents in activities that are both cognitively challenging and foster a positive mindset. Module 1 is on sale now. Visit our website, livingto100.club/blh, for better, longer, happier. Now on to our podcast. On today's program, we are introduced to the groundbreaking City of Longevity, located at a senior living community in Charlton, Massachusetts. The name of the community is The Overlook. We have two guests today, Tamarind Campbell, Sales and Marketing Director at The Overlook, and our second guest is Lynn Corner, Deputy Director at the UK National Innovation Center for Aging, abbreviated as NICA. We learned about the concept of NICA's Cities of Longevity how their communities actively support all ages and healthier lifestyles for all, as well as the programs, experiences, and public policy that fosters aging well. NICA has implemented these cities in 7 countries, and The Overlook is the first here in the US. The Overlook was selected as a City of Longevity site because of its rich, 100-year history providing a continuum of care and services for Massachusetts residents and their families. First, some background on our guests. Professor Lynn Corner is Deputy Director at the United Kingdom's National Innovation Center for Aging and Director of VOICES, VOICES, VOICES, an intergenerational— sorry. VOICE is an international community established to harness the immense experience, skills, and insights of the public of all ages and backgrounds, especially including older people. VOICE members work with research and businesses to identify unmet needs, priorities, and aspirations, and help co-develop products and services that are needed to support healthy, happy, longer lives. NCIA and VOICE work with businesses from all sectors to help develop their strategies for capitalizing on the immense commercial opportunities for growth from global population aging. Our second guest is Tamryn Campbell. Tamryn brings more than 25 years of experience and a proven track record of success in the senior living and aging services industry. Since 2014, Miss Campbell has worked in a strategic and consultative role as the president and CEO of Masonic Health Systems of Massachusetts. Miss Campbell's responsibilities include the right-sizing and repositioning of the organization, overseeing divestitures of certain business lines, refining business strategy, and leading residents, team members, boards of directors lenders, and other stakeholders through organizational transformation. What a team we have. Thank you both for joining us today on our program. I look forward to our conversation.

Thank you.

Great. Well, I always like to open by asking our guests, and today we have two guests. So tell us briefly about the journey that brought you to where you are today. I mean, a lot's going on for both of you. Tell us briefly about the journey that landed you were in your spot today? For Tim, Karen, or Lynn, who wants to go first? Lynn, why don't you go first?

Okay, Joe. So, so my journey is pretty straightforward. I started off, you know, with a very personal interest in older people, and I had a fantastic relationship with my own grandparents and really valued their wisdom and their experience, knowledge, and insights. And so throughout my career, I've worked in in communications, in PR, but I call myself an accidental academic because I've also worked in research for some years, but always with the focus of really understanding what are people's needs, what are their unmet needs, what are their priorities, what are their aspirations, and how can we make the world better? How can we actually, you know, we've got this fantastic opportunity of more older people than younger people for the first time in history, but what an amazing asset and resource course older people are. And so I set up about 14 years ago with my co-founder Professor Jim Edwardson an organization called VOICE, which is about valuing the intellectual capital and the experience of older people and really harnessing and leveraging that to, to develop products and services that people need. What an amazing group of people it is now across 7 countries, and we also have the pleasure of working with Tamarine and colleagues, as, as we'll discuss no doubt, at Overlook.

Great, great, great inspiration about capitalizing and leveraging the talents of our senior population and recognizing the contributions that this age group can make. Thanks, Lynn. Tamryn, how about your journey? Tell us about what brought you to where you are today.

Sure. Thank you, Joe. And my journey is somewhat similar to Lynn's in that I have been very blessed in having grandparents that lived to be 99 and over. We've got a lot of longevity in, in my family. I also spent several years working in public health in a very impoverished area of South America in Bolivia, and during that time, uh, had exposure to a number of, um, healthcare issues and infectious diseases and really developed an interest in health and wellness and Upon returning to the US, I sought out healthcare and senior living, and it was somewhat by accident, but it's just been a wonderful journey for me to be involved in working with older adults. But also, I think, as Lynn said, by 2050, I believe there will be more than 2 billion adults over the age of 60 and more older adults than younger adults or young people. And I think they say that today's a 5-year-old is predicted to be 100 years older or greater, that they will live that long. And so, it continues to interest me because while individuals are living so much longer, I'm not sure that our lives, at least at this stage, are necessarily— the quality of our lives is not necessarily much better, even though the length of our lives may be longer. So, one of the things that's very attractive about the National Innovation Center for Aging is they really take a look and approach aging entirely differently, where they look at aging not as a period in your life where you're growing old, but really from inception. What do you say, Lynn? I think you say it begins in the womb and ends in the tomb, from beginning to— from birth to death, really looking at aging and changing the narrative and looking at all stages of aging. And at the Overlook, we're hoping to pioneer and design a more proactive community, or we're not really a city here in Charlton, but we're what we call a hub or a community that we want to be focused on living well instead of just aging well. And that's really where National Innovation Center for Aging and the Overlook came together. In trying to take a look at the fact that we're a planned community as a senior living community, but what better opportunity than to use existing senior living communities, whether organic or naturally occurring or planned, such as the Overlook, where we already have the target audience and the residents and the participants that are needed to provide the feedback for the work that NECA is doing. And Lynn can share a little more about them.

Sure. Yeah, that's great. I like that concept of living well, not just focusing on aging well, because it is a continuous process. And, you know, in my experience as a psychologist working with older adults, mostly in nursing homes for my career, I would see so many times where people, you know, just looked at aging as something to dread and regret. And for me, it's like, well, let's turn that notion around. Let's turn that outlook around and say, look, there's a lot of positives, and there's a lot of upside. And it's not what our, you know, parents or earlier generations believed, that aging was a period of decline. So let's recognize that and build on it. So it sounds like NICA is doing a lot of that already. And, you know, kudos to you, Lynn, and your work with your team. But tell us a little bit. We don't have a lot of time, of course, but, you know, I'm sure our listeners want to hear about NICA and what your goals are and how do you try to accomplish these goals in your different cities of longevity?

So, yeah. So the UK National Innovation Center for Aging was set up about 4 years ago, initially by UK government, but hosted at Newcastle University. And it's really got one clear mission, which is to change the narrative on aging and really help businesses to understand that this is an enormous opportunity. You know, this is a global issue. It's affecting, as Tamara said, pretty much every region, every country, but it's also affecting every sector, every industry. And for far too long, this narrative has been about disease, it's been about decline, and it's about being about kind of what people can't do as opposed to what they can do. And, you know, with our partners at the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing, we are very much a digital organisation, but we're using the best available evidence, the best available data, and matching that with perhaps the most powerful source of evidence at all, which is human experience, to really understand what do we need to change, what do we need to do differently to make sure that, you know, that the fact that, as Tamarind said, a child today born can comfortably expect to live to be well over 100. But we're going to have to change a fair bit about everything from our public services through to how we educate people, lifelong learning, and ultimately you know, how we work, how we care. So it's just an incredibly exciting time to be involved in this agenda. And, but it is an area where we desperately need innovation. And so that's why at the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing we work with scores of businesses, but also organizations like The Overlook, where you have really experienced professionals who know a huge amount about what they would like to do differently. And I think that's when people come together there's that meeting of minds, that's where the magic happens.

So the Cities of Longevity, I, as I understand, they're around the world. You're in 7 countries, I think, or thereabouts. How do you, how do you replicate the goals? The cities must be all different. The countries are different. How do you, how do you tease out the common elements in all of these locations?

That's a great question. I mean, our Voice Network is also in several cities, and that's very much about a network of, you know, like-minded people, members of the public, citizens who are so interested in getting involved. We chose cities because 80% of the world's population live in cities, and so it's really a great canvas, if you like, whereby we can almost see as a testbed some of the issues that we need to deal with as part of kind healthy longevity. And in these cities, if you can imagine, for the first time ever, we've got 5 generations queuing together at the airports or the supermarkets and, you know, listening to the same rock bands. We've got the same 5 generations often, you know, increasingly kind of looking to kind of live together and increasingly work together as well. And so we wanted to kind of understand how cities needed to adapt to really kind of, you know, innovate for this kind of second billion of over-60s people. With Stanford University Center on Longevity, we have developed a framework to help cities to understand what is the particular cultural aspects of different regions and different cities that they need to emphasize. Because you're right, Joe, not one size fits all. Every city is different. But there are some common areas that people need to improve and to develop that we've known for years affect the experience of healthy longevity. And, you know, I think as well, the City of Longevity framework is really helping to join up an awful lot of really good but very disparate activity. We tend to work very separately. We work in silos. And actually, the City of Longevity framework just shows that actually we have more in common than what separates us. And if we actually can learn from each other and really join things up a lot more effectively, then we can do so much more and we can improve so much. So it's been a very, you know, great initiative to work on. We launched it in July last year. It's in its early stages, but it's got huge momentum, huge interest from across the world because I think everybody is feeling the pain and really kind of looking for how they can address this innovatively. And the City of Longevity framework just gives them that opportunity to think and act a little differently.

Hmm. Well, so if you had to describe, let's say, the top 2 or 3 goals, objectives, measurable objectives, what would they be? What are you looking to accomplish?

I think they vary very, very, very differently across different cities. But we as NECA are looking to put the emphasis on innovation, the fact that we need to do things differently. We can't just continue as we were. Putting people at the centre, which is what we're doing with Overlook, you know, we need to really, you know, value the experience, the insights, ideas of our communities, because that's where the innovation is. People actually know what they need and are excited to co-develop what they need, but don't often get the opportunity. And so where we see initiatives flourishing is where they have got that kind of meaningful involvement of the public in various activities, which is really, really important. And increasingly, we're interested in how we can really, you know, look at brain capital, for want of a better expression. We've looked at physical health for so long, but I think COVID showed us just, you know, what connects us and how important it is to really invest in people's skills and in lifelong learning and also kind of, you know, invest in mental health and so on. So a big part of what we're doing is kind of looking at, you know, how we can think and act differently about this whole opportunity to live a 100-plus-year life.

So what are— can you share where the other locations are, what the other cities are?

There are a number of different cities. The city of Milano in Italy, for example, Barcelona in Spain, as far over as Taipei in Taiwan as well. A number of different cities these coming on board. Each one is different, but each one has got that leadership commitment to saying we need to tackle this issue. We recognize that our current processes and our current systems are not embracing this opportunity for people to live really well and to really kind of have purpose and live happier, longer lives. And at the heart of everything, it's got that connectivity of joining up great ideas and sharing what is working alongside, you know, people like Tamryn who, you know, have got that kind of mission and will to kind of do things differently and see improvements across the patch.

Sure.

Yeah, I think so often—

Go ahead, Tamryn.

Sorry, Joe. I was going to say that so often businesses and governments and politicians, we tend to approach customers by saying you need what we have. And one of the things that I really love about about NECA and the partnership with the Overlook is we're looking at things a little bit differently by asking the customer and potential consumers, what do you need? And we're not just talking to older adults, we're talking to all ages and trying to gain a better understanding across communities, cities, senior living hubs, taking a look at the 4 elements that NECA really focuses on, which is the human knowledge, the life experience, and then the data piece with the, the academics and the data analysis, and then using the— and leveraging the seniors and empowering them, or the older adults, with their real-world applied testing and research so that they are the experts in providing the insights and the wisdom and the feedback loop on these different products and services. Everything from artificial intelligence to healthcare products, services. I think the sky is the limit because NECA partners with innovators all over the world and developers all over the world with different products, services, and programs. And the Overlook is blessed to be on the receiving side and be able to test some of those and pilot some of those.

It's a pleasure for us to work with you, Tamara. I think, I think, Joe, one, one area that I think is important for, for all of for Tamryn too, is that ageing does not begin when a population becomes old. And we are in this transition from an ageing society to the longevity society. And this is about all generations. And at the heart of City of Longevity, perhaps the most fundamental principle is prevention and early planning so that we can be proactive in helping people to, you know, again, make the most of the different transitions through the life course. And really kind of, you know, access all of the knowledge and evidence that, you know, we as a wider community have on how to, you know, have the best possible chance of a healthy, happier, longer life. And so prevention and small nudges in people's behavior is what this is about. So people have got the best environment, for example, and the best circumstances to make the most of the opportunity.

Yeah, it is small nudges, small steps, turtle steps, I call them. So, I appreciate that. The concept of the, I mean, the central variable being the leadership commitment and how important that is for, that's to identify the shared values of all of these cities of longevity. So, Tamron, why do you think the Overlook was a good candidate? For the mission of NICA.

The Overlook has been working for several years to create a more robust model of what senior living might be and could be. I think when you take a look at— not to be too negative and focus on, on the demographics, but when you look at the fact that we have millions and millions of older adults and the silver tsunami is only going to continue to converge, upon us worldwide. The healthcare costs are no longer affordable. The government is incapable of subsidizing all of these costs and the magnitude of the needs that are coming. There's not enough young people to take care of the volume of older adults. Most older adults in today's world have not saved well enough, and they do not have enough money to pay for their own healthcare. So as Lynn and Nikas is focusing on, certainly healthcare intervention and technology is crucial, but equally important perhaps is really emphasizing prevention and personal behaviors and responsibility rather than just taking care of people. And that is a transformational shift in the narrative, in the mindset, I believe, Lynn.

Absolutely. Yeah. Cameron, do you think there are some differences at the Overlook, say, before and after the designation as a City of Longevity? I mean, have you had new programs implemented or, you know, changes in mindset?

I do. We're very fortunate in that we are We are currently positioned on a 450-acre beautiful campus in New England. We have a lot of nature trails, a dog park, a wealth of amenities, but we currently have a singular mission and focus on serving largely older adults through housing and healthcare and services and programming and amenities. And our vision again is to design spaces and environments that really expand upon our our existing and singular mission as a retirement community and work towards a more multigenerational approach and use the campus to attract individuals of all ages and connect the Overlook to the surrounding region. You know, we were striving to create a more— you may have heard of the live-work-play concept, and I think there's a— isn't there a concept, Lynn, that discusses that Many cities are designing and regentrifying so that nothing is more than a 15-minute drive, correct? But even greater, in a small town like Charlton, we want to create a pedestrian-friendly, walkable town and city center and have select retailers and restaurants and locally sourced food. And we actually have already a brewery on our campus that is resident-run, and we've brewed over 60 craft and IPA specialty beers. The, the beer is called Senior Moment, and I know that the City of Longevity also has a Longevity Beer. But there's just, I think we're trying to create more of a destination location that looks at all stages of life. And provides meaning and purpose for all ages, not just our singular focus currently on, on older adults. I know that as I age, I think about where do I want to live and how do I want to retire. And I know that I don't want to just spend all of my older years with older adults. And I think that that is what more and more people are discovering, and certainly COVID COVID taught us a lot about isolation and how harmful that is to us as human beings, mentally, physically, psychologically. So working to find a way that we can bring people and attract more people and greater diversity to our campus. Again, we are just one of many communities, but it's wonderful to have the opportunity to be that first senior living community. And then we can extend this concept and these policies and this way of life, hopefully across the country and maybe even across the globe to thousands of other communities, because there are going to be, I think the majority of the communities in the future are going to need policies and environments that are much more adaptable to and accommodating of older adults.

Sure. Yeah. As you mentioned, or Lynn mentioned, the longevity society, not the aging society. Yeah, that's, that's such an important distinction. So it sounds like a lot of the values and kind of mission and purpose of the Overlook have over— kind of extended beyond your walls and into the community somewhat, and then it reinforces the, the programs back at the Overlook. I mean, that sounds like it's spreading out and then kind of enhancing the programs that you're offering. Do you think—

Exactly. We're very small, but I mean, we're small in that we serve thousands of seniors and older adults each year, but we're small in the scope of the worldview. But our mixed-use approach, for example, is starting small and expanding. We just opened a veterinary clinic and a surgery clinic for animals on campus, and the residents and our employees get a 25% discount, and we're very pet-friendly. And pets are another way that older adults and younger adults and all ages find purpose and meaning, and also better physical exercise, I think. So we are— that's one example of sort of this mixed-use concept. And we're also looking to use our Senior Moment and our brewery to open up a restaurant so more people can come to the campus, not just seniors, but others that can take advantage. So those are just some small things that we're doing. And we hope to expand that over the next 10 years to something much bigger.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I've heard where facilities will invite other businesses from the, you know, the local area, and maybe the fire department or pizza restaurant and kind of kind of create more bridges between the facility and the community, whatever is going on. And sounds like you're, you're doing a lot of the same thing, even though you're building this already. You're taking your own initiative internally, but it then, it extends beyond your, your walls. I really like that. I just go back to this longevity society because it is, it's not just about older adults. You're, I couldn't agree more. It's, it's really helping everyone to expand their consciousness about lifestyles and living longer and living better and mind, you know, mindsets and all of that. So I commend.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think the, you know, for us, and as Tamara explained, you know, so well, that the City of Longevity is that cities aren't just a passive, I don't know, set of buildings and architecture, but it's a, they're active partners where, you know, we're each working together in kind of, you know, promoting very very practical activity and action that is going to benefit us to, you know, everyone from, as, you know, school children all the way through the different transitions and stages of life into later life. And it's about kind of how we can put, as we said, put that lens on prevention, the simple healthy lifestyle changes that we can make in order to, and promote in order to kind of live this longer life. But again, looking at kind of valuing citizens, looking at the value they generate in living, working, volunteering, connecting together. There's so much in cities that we can learn about in terms of how to deliver on healthy longevity. And, you know, a basic concept of the City of Longevity, as we've discussed, is that business model for prevention, because we cannot afford as societies to simply go on fixing problems. We have to get ahead of the curve. We have to be proactive in looking at what contributes to the poor health and effectively the death of millions of people, which is preventable diseases and conditions that could be prevented. We've got to look at the wider determinants of poor health and look very much positively about, you know, what can we do to develop fair, healthy, connected, productive, and empowered societies and citizens. And so this is the big challenge. I would say there are two global challenges. There is a healthy planet and healthy people.. And how, how we bring those together, you know, in, in this context of, of longevity societies is, is, is really a challenge for all of us.

Yeah. Well, that's so well said. You know, I, I like to use the term longevity bonus because we are living longer. Not just that, but we're staying healthy longer. And we have these extra years and as you talk about the emphasis on proper healthcare and prevention, to communicate this important, you know, prescription, so to speak, to help people learn about these values earlier and adopt the lifestyle practices earlier, because we are going to live into our 80s and 90s and be fairly high functioning. And, you know, that's, that's the beauty. And we have to respect the opportunities that that brings, you know, so we have to take advantage of that longevity.

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, it has to come through pretty much every, as we said, every sector, every business, every organization, and got to change people's mindsets about this. And, you know, in the UK, for example, much of the education budget is spent on the under-18s. How is that possible when we need people for lifelong learning and to reskill and enjoy 3, 4, 5 different careers over a life course? You know, we've got to really change our mindset and our thinking about this. But there is a lot of evidence that it is happening. There's certainly work to do. But just a couple of weeks ago, we had a voice member who said that he'd had a head injury, gone to hospital, unfortunately following a cycle accident. And the doctor, the young doctor treating him, had said that, you know, he didn't anticipate any problems, but this man might experience a few kind of memory problems in later life. And he was 95. So, you know, there's examples whereby, you know, people are starting to kind of, you know, to get this. But, you know, there is certainly work to do. But what always we are inspired by is, you know, people like Tamryn and Overlook, some of the other cities and businesses that we work with. There is a real energy around this, a real commitment to do more. And at the UK National Innovation Centre with VOICE, you know, we have the pleasure of working with businesses who are looking to develop innovations in all sorts of sectors to really ensure that people have got what they need in order to have this, you know, healthy longevity. But we've got to do more. We certainly have got to kind of look at how we can think differently and address this much more proactively and creatively.

Well, I think the good part is that we are successful. I mean, there's growing voices and more people speaking up about this. And, you know, the whole idea that let's put the spotlight on the things that are going better, right? And yeah, we have a lot of, a lot of kind of weaknesses and things to work on, but we're making tremendous strides in this growing awareness about healthy aging and, you know, across the lifespan even. So I commend both of you for for continuing with that. I'm just noticing we're almost out of time. I wonder if you, either of you or both of you, have some final takeaways for our listeners. What would you hope they remember from this conversation?

I think for me it's about the power of people and data, and when we bring the two together, how much more we can achieve. I mean, I think, you know, we've got 8 8 billion-plus people on Earth. We're already innovating for the next 2 billion people over 60. Far from seeing that as a problem, let's start to see people as this amazing resource. But we've got to look after each other and look after our cells across the life course. But I think the imagination, the creativity, the ideas that are locked in people never fails to surprise me. And I think if we can continue to power that and harness that, So much is possible. So I'm very, very optimistic about our longevity society of the future.

Yeah, great. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman.

I think the only thing I would add to that, Lynn, that was so well said. I think the only thing I would add is the power of community. And we learned that even more through COVID. We just need to bring people together and to create spaces and environments that really help to foster those connections and relationships In addition to all of the other data, we now know that growing old alone can reduce your life significantly. And I, I just think there is so much value to the human capital and also, as you said, the data analytics, and then combining that with real-life experiences and the power of leveraging people in community to find a better way and a future pathway so that we can take more personal responsibility as we move forward. I, you know, I see it every day in healthcare. There is just no way that the current healthcare system is sustainable, and we are not going to be able to take care of all of the individuals who have needs if we don't reframe the way that we're living our lives and take more personal responsibility. So, just very excited and optimistic about the future and hoping that we can help to transform the perception of age.

Well, you're both doing a great job at that. Thanks, thanks to both of you for this uplifting, refreshing conversation. I love that. Looks like we're out of time though. Before we wrap up, I just want to remind my listeners to visit my website, livingto100.com. Club, sign up for my email list, and download a free copy of my 9 Tips to Make Living Longer Enjoyable. And if you're affiliated with a senior living setting, be sure to look into my new manual, Better, Longer, and Happier. That's available on my website. Tamryn and Lynn, thanks to both of you for being a guest on our program today. For those that might want to contact you, how can they do that?

Yes, so we've got a contact here, and I will give you that information if you can give me just a second here. We'd love to have you come and tour the Overlook or, or visit and see what we're doing. Keep an eye on us. Uh, you can reach out to Mariah Shannon. It's M-A-R-I-A-H Shannon, S-H-A-N-N-O-N. Shannon, and she's in our sales and marketing department. Her phone number is 866-753-5429. That's 866-753-5429. And her email is mshannon@overlook-mass.org. And you can also find us at www.overlook-mass.org. Org on Facebook and social media.

That's her website too. www.overlook-mass.org.

Correct.

Okay, great. And Lynn?

For us, probably the easiest way is to look at our website. It's got everyone's contact details on that. That's www.uknica, Nica, UK Nica. .co.uk or at VOICE, which is www.voice-global.org. I'm Lynn Corner, and you can usually find me on LinkedIn or any of the usual means, and we'd be delighted to hear from people about how they might get involved, how we can work together. So would encourage people if they want more information to contact us.

Great, great. Thank you. So that was you, um, yeah, website. Okay, well, thanks again to both of you, and thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. I hope to see you next time.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

You're welcome. You're most welcome.