LONELINESS & SENIORS
Pat purchased the Bradgate Arms in Toronto in 1995 and converted it from a 5-star boutique hotel into one of Toronto’s finest retirement homes. It was one of the first hotels ever converted into a retirement home in Canada and led Pat Byrne to start his own company catering to seniors.
Time is moving quickly. We are all ageing, some better than others. We are about to witness one of the world’s greatest shifts in population changes. The 2017 US Census shows that by 2040 one out of every four people will be over 75 years old; yes 25% of the population will be in that cohort. In the US alone that estimate will be in the range that 92 to 100 million Americans will be older than 75 years.[1] This is an unheralded shift in population. Are we ready? What are the care levels we will need, how do we staff it, run it, how will we survive, how will we live, how long are we going to live and who lives the longest?
Pat Byrne has spent the last 30 years in the retirement home industry and has recently changed his focus with his skill set to help seniors cope, help them deal with the issues of ageing and show them how we can cultivate some ‘low-hanging fruit’ and simply to save some old souls by helping them meet new friends.
How one spends time is critical to how one sees the world and how one lives life. Does one have social wealth, mental wealth, financial wealth, physical wealth, and spiritual wealth? Our collective wealth makes us who we are, and if we take stock of this, it can show us how to live full lives and be happy. We all seek happiness.
If one is fortunate enough to have lived the longest in one’s circle of friends, then one has outlived one’s spouse/life partner, all siblings, relatives, co-workers and neighbors, and so there is a pretty good chance that one feels all alone. Loneliness is one of the main contributors to an early death for a senior.
Over the last few years one of the most impressive papers that I have been fortunate enough to read on loneliness, isolation, anxiety is from “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”.[2]
Without socialization and human contact, seniors can become depressed and anxious and not have any help in addressing those conditions. It has been noted that an hour of social contact each day for a senior is more helpful to his/her wellbeing than taking daily medication.
Socialization through the Monarch Seniors Club (MSC) is a non-invasive solution to a senior’s loneliness, without the use of medication. Longer life for seniors can be facilitated if they continue to socialize, meet new people, and remain friendly.
The Monarch Seniors Club strives to help these seniors by helping to make their lives better through combatting loneliness, anxiety and depression, and help them to socialize easily with one another.
Pat Byrne studied demographics at university and saw the grey tsunami coming, in 1992 he ventured out on his own preparing feasibility studies for new site locations for various hotel companies. But his true reason for entering the business was that his grandmother lived with him until she was 94. Growing up with a senior in his home gave his family a true appreciation for elderly people and how socialization can keep help them to feel younger than their years.
Pat started Kingsway Arms in 1995 after purchasing the Bradgate Arms Hotel, converting it into one of the upper end retirement homes in downtown Toronto. Since 1995, Kingsway Arms has owned and operated 12 retirement homes in the mid market sector across Canada providing housing ranging from independent living to assisted living and memory care, with over 1,200 beds and 650 employees.
Approximately twenty years ago, Kingsway Arms created a new seniors social club at each of the homes that it managed, they were called the Monarch Seniors Club. What emerged was a natural funnelling of new residents to the Kingsway Arms homes and, more importantly, an abundance of seniors living nearby wanted to and were welcomed to join the MSC. They were looking for some social time with one another. Often as seniors aged, they became frail and then stopped coming out to attend MSC functions. MSC wanted to reach out to those seniors that were at home alone and could not get out.
To address this challenge MSC developed a new website (WWW.MONARCHSENIORS.CLUB) as a way for these isolated seniors to link with each other from all corners of the world. The goal is to connect seniors with one another, have them join MSC, to become the new modern day ‘Pen Pals’ for 2025. It is hoped that the system will match these seniors with like-minded seniors all over the world. This is not a dating service, but a social club, a website/platform that is safe for seniors to interact with one another. Think of hooking up Mrs. Smith from New York with Mrs. Ricci from Rome. They are physically apart, they are from different cultural backgrounds, religious groups, and nationalities, but they are seeking a little time each day to connect with like-minded seniors, even if it is just virtually.
THE SUN IS SETTING; we are ageing, we must get moving.
If life was a football game we are entering into the fourth quarter, the clock is ticking, and we don’t know what to do or what is going to happen.
This home was designed and built by Kingsway Arms is 2003. It is a 130-room fully operating retirement home connected by a tunnel to a 125-unit seniors’ condominium. This was one of the first buildings to offer a Monarch Seniors Club.
