By: Jasper Lee
Life Course Scholar
This week we visited Casa de Manana, a community based in La Jolla for the aging community. We were warmly greeted by the residents and introduced ourselves as students at UCSD with a diversity of backgrounds and a common desire to serve the aging community. We had an opportunity to talk to various residents of the community, many of whom pursued high levels of education and even traveled around the world to obtain a wide range of experiences. I had a nice chat with Pat, one of the residents of Casa de Manana. We talked about his experience as a high school teacher for physics, which he quite enjoyed. He recently took up drawing in his free time and enjoys walking around La Jolla which has plenty of nice views, eateries, and stores. He lives with his wife at Casa de Manana and clearly has enjoyed his time there. Upon showing interest in the outsourced dining services that Casa de Manana provided, he brought me a menu of the various selections that residents have in their day to day life. It had a great variety of choices, and provided healthy options as well, so that no resident would get bored, but that they could also stick to their preference if desired. We found out that their facilities are quite well stocked with outsourced dining services, spacious gathering areas, a recreational gym, a pool, and it has a nice view with access to many restaurants, shops, and especially beachside views. There is much enthusiasm from the residents about their living space, and they were grateful to socialize with the group of Life course scholars. Pat, like many of the residents, seemed to be thriving in their community, which really enabled them to quite comfortably age in place. I was impressed at the feeling of the general space, it did have some history as a previous hotel and seemed quite lively as a retirement space. In so many ways, compared to the other living arrangements, Casa de Manana seemed like the very ideal of an aging community. While the price was much more than expected, it seems as though the work that it takes to maintain such a community, and the location of the community have been factors in contributing to its high price. I would wonder, what is really the minimum that seniors might need to be able to thrive in their community? While this visit to Casa de manana was quite enlightening as to what a high end model of an elderly community looked like, it did raise other questions about how pricing makes such plans feasible or not, when we’re attempting to meet the needs of the elderly in areas that aren’t as well equipped.
Life Course Scholar
This week we visited Casa de Manana, a community based in La Jolla for the aging community. We were warmly greeted by the residents and introduced ourselves as students at UCSD with a diversity of backgrounds and a common desire to serve the aging community. We had an opportunity to talk to various residents of the community, many of whom pursued high levels of education and even traveled around the world to obtain a wide range of experiences. I had a nice chat with Pat, one of the residents of Casa de Manana. We talked about his experience as a high school teacher for physics, which he quite enjoyed. He recently took up drawing in his free time and enjoys walking around La Jolla which has plenty of nice views, eateries, and stores. He lives with his wife at Casa de Manana and clearly has enjoyed his time there. Upon showing interest in the outsourced dining services that Casa de Manana provided, he brought me a menu of the various selections that residents have in their day to day life. It had a great variety of choices, and provided healthy options as well, so that no resident would get bored, but that they could also stick to their preference if desired. We found out that their facilities are quite well stocked with outsourced dining services, spacious gathering areas, a recreational gym, a pool, and it has a nice view with access to many restaurants, shops, and especially beachside views. There is much enthusiasm from the residents about their living space, and they were grateful to socialize with the group of Life course scholars. Pat, like many of the residents, seemed to be thriving in their community, which really enabled them to quite comfortably age in place. I was impressed at the feeling of the general space, it did have some history as a previous hotel and seemed quite lively as a retirement space. In so many ways, compared to the other living arrangements, Casa de Manana seemed like the very ideal of an aging community. While the price was much more than expected, it seems as though the work that it takes to maintain such a community, and the location of the community have been factors in contributing to its high price. I would wonder, what is really the minimum that seniors might need to be able to thrive in their community? While this visit to Casa de manana was quite enlightening as to what a high end model of an elderly community looked like, it did raise other questions about how pricing makes such plans feasible or not, when we’re attempting to meet the needs of the elderly in areas that aren’t as well equipped.