Senior Community Information
Summary
SMC is a non-profit that produces audio/visual activities specially selected for the elderly. It provides them to senior living facilities by subscription as a weekly activities service which will help your residents live better, increase your move-ins, and greatly assist your activities department.
Introduction
“Depression is prevalent in institutions that care for older, more dependent adults”
(Camacho-Conde et al, Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord 2020;49(1):107-120).
“Life review/reminiscence therapy are effective but too infrequently used with older adults”
(Fiske, et al, Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2009; 5: 363–389).
One of the great challenges of senior care is in dealing with the depression and anxiety experienced by the elderly who have been displaced from their homes and families. We need to care for their minds as well as their bodies. In recent years, the discipline of “reminiscence therapy” has become recognized in the health care industry as an important component in caring for these individuals. RT relieves anxiety and depression in the elderly and promotes a better quality of life. For those who are more scientifically oriented or want more detail, please click HERE.
We are a non-profit founded to bring this philosophy to senior care communities. Our mission is to provide life enrichment activities that will stimulate your residents' minds to enhance their well-being. While short term memory fails relatively early in the elderly, long term memory is much more persistent. Many of our video Presentations are selected to take the viewer back to a better time for them - to a time with their families and their health. We are teaching them how to improve their outlook to make for a better life. We have also found that providing meaningful contemporary presentations, such as music, lectures on topics of general interest, travelogues, biographies and documentaries captures their interest and contributes to their well-being and self-esteem.
Our Service
We have over 2,000 presentations already in inventory, and more are being added regularly. We select and curate our presentations intending to teach the elderly viewer the positive effect of reminiscence. These are old time movies, TV shows from the early days of television, popular music from their youth, old time comedy, orchestras and ensembles as well as more contemporary offerings which transport their minds. Also available every week are audiobooks and a weekly news summary.
We call our activities service “Now Showing”. It is available by subscription to senior living communities only. Programming is changed every week. On Monday mornings, current subscribers receive by email a gateway to the fresh programming for the coming week. The programming is presented to residents during the week. Also included is the schedule for the following week so you may include it in your upcoming activities schedule. Almost all communities are already equipped and experienced in displaying our programming in group settings such as a media room, TV room, theater, or even to individual residents in their rooms. We assist subscribers with any technical issues.
The proper way to use Now Showing varies with the intended audience. For example, it may be used differently in ILs vs. SNFs. More impaired individuals with shorter attention spans will benefit by shorter display times. An advantage of Now Showing is that any presentation can be started and stopped at will. Showing a movie in 2 or 3 segments is easy to do. Less impaired individuals may want to watch a movie from start to finish.
You will decide the best way to use our service that best fits your resident schedules and needs. Since Now Showing activities are passive, we believe they should be used together with active activities such as physical (stretching, exercise, strength, flexibility), spiritual, and creative (painting, writing, singing, crafts). This enables your residents to have a balanced activities program every week.
Subscribers usually begin by simply connecting a laptop to a display TV. It’s just like hooking up a DVD player. Many are satisfied with a direct connection like this but many add versatility by displaying through their WiFi network instead. We will assist in setup if necessary.
Advantages to your Community
Above all else, our presentations are designed to help your residents to live a better life. We curate our presentations to help relieve depression and anxiety. When combined with physical, creative and spiritual activities, your residents receive a balanced activities package every week.
There are practical benefits as well. Placement agencies tell us that clients are more and more asking about activities as they make their community selection. Use our service to help encourage move-ins and increase your census. Make sure your sales and marketing team, as well as outside placement agencies know of your enhanced activities. Our service also simplifies planning by your activities personnel. They no longer will have the unending task of obtaining fresh activities, and they also have our monthly schedule to easily prepare their activities calendar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What type of company is Media for Seniors?
- A. Media for Seniors is the trade name of Select Media Consultants, Inc. We are a nonprofit corporation. Our mission is to improve the lives of our displaced elderly by making valuable nostalgic programming widely available to the senior community.
Q. Can you describe how your service works?
- A. If you have ever watched a video over the internet, then you already know how we deliver our activities to you. You will usually display our Presentations on a large screen TV or projector in your media/theater room or directly into the resident’s room. Showing our presentations is very easy to do and we will help with any issues you may have.
Q. How much programming do we get each week?
- A. We generally offer 3 separate video Presentations plus 2 Audiobooks and our Weekly News Summary with each weekly package. In addition, there is free access to our "Encore Library" which features at least 9 additional videos and collections of vintage TV shows and nostalgic music. A nostalgic movie is almost always included. Also usually included is a substantial musical offering such as a symphony or chamber ensemble, or sometimes popular music of the past generations. In addition, there will usually be a lecture, documentary, biography, travelogue, or nostalgic TV drama, mystery or comedy. You may use whatever you like whenever you like. For a longer movies, most communities show it one-half on one day and the second half another day. You can see that it is easy to get hours and hours of activities each week with a single subscription. Audiobooks should be presented one or two chapters at a time.
Q. How much content is available to us at any one time?
- A. At least 12 featured videos are available at all times. Many communities have a first showing in the afternoon or evening, and an encore showing another day in the morning or evening. In addition, audiobooks, oldies music and many old-time TV shows are always available. The News Summary is always up-to-date.
Q. Where do you get your programming and how do you choose what to offer?
- A. At present we have over 2,000 Presentations in inventory. Each of these has been individually reviewed and determined to be of value to seniors by our team of medical and industry professionals. Many Presentations are compiled from content available from the Library of Congress and other publicly available archives. Some content may come from other publicly available or commercial sources.
Q. How often is programming changed?
- A. You get fresh programming every week.
Q. Do you restrict how we may display your programming?
- A. You may show our programming as many times as you wish throughout the week. You may show it to large or small groups or to individuals. Our Presentations may be shown only to your residents and their guests. You may not charge a fee for displaying our programming, and you may not download, broadcast or make copies of them. Our programming may be displayed only at the location related to the subscription.
Q. What is the price of your service?
- A. Click the menu at the top to go to our Pricing page. A free trial is available. There are never any setup or startup costs.
Q. How are we billed?
- A. Monthly billing begins only after the trial period has ended. Subscription renewal is automatic and you can cancel at any time before the next billing period begins with two business days advance notice.
Q. What are the equipment requirements? I’m not very good with computers.
- A. If you have a "Smart" TV or projector then that is all you need. If your TV/Projector is older or is not on your wi-fi network, then inexpensive attachments are available to receive our service. You may display our service simultaneously on multiple devices if you wish. If you have displayed a Youtube video then you already have the equipment and knowledge to use our service. It is also possible to deliver the programming directly to individual resident rooms. If you need assistance with any technical issues, we will help you.
Q. Why can’t our residents simply watch what they want over the cable channels?
- A. This sounds simple, but the truth is that many of our seniors cannot do this because of physical or cognitive impairment. Many cannot operate their TVs, look at or make sense of the program guide, or turn to a channel at a certain time. With our service you are assured that all your residents are getting activities that benefit them. There is also the social component of viewing in a group that can be beneficial to your residents.
Q. Why should we pay for this? Can't we do it ourselves?
- A. Our service is very reasonably priced. Selection of meaningful programming for your residents requires professional judgment and is more than finding something "old" on the internet. It is quite time-consuming to find and select content properly, and your personnel can be doing more productive things instead.
Partial Inventory of Presentations
We have over 2,000 Presentations ready for showing. More are always being added. Below is just a small partial list of performers and shows.
Classical Music - Symphonies, Ensembles, Concertos, Ballet
- Beethoven
- Mahler
- Verdi
- Prokofiev
- Liszt
- Chopin
- Tchaikovsky
- Schumann
- Rimsky-Korsakov
- Wagner
- Dvorak
- Paganini
- Mozart
- Rubenstein
- Horowitz
- Schubert
- Pavarotti
- Rachmaninoff
- Grieg
- Perlman
- Brahms
- Bach
- Vivaldi
- Sibelius
- Bernstein
Nostalgic Movies - from the 1930s through the 1960s
- Marlon Brando
- James Dean
- Orson Welles
- Gregory Peck
- Humphrey Bogart
- Gene Kelly
- Elizabeth Taylor
- Walter Matthau
- Basil Rathbone
- Clark Gable
- Cary Grant
- Tony Curtis
- Jack Lemmon
- Dustin Hoffman
- Jean Harlow
- Audrey Hepburn
- Debbie Reynolds
- Robert Wagner
- Lauren Bacall
- Katherine Hepburn
- James Cagney
- Irene Dunne
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Jerry Lewis
- Marx Brothers
- Charlie Chan
- John Wayne
- Ingrid Bergman
- Jimmy Stewart
- Cliff Robertson
- Laurel & Hardy
- Marilyn Monroe
- Joseph Cotton
- Spencer Tracy
- Jane Russell
- Judy Garland
- Paul Newman
- Joan Crawford
- Glenn Ford
- Peter Sellers
- Mickey Rooney
- Henry Fonda
- WC Fields
- Marlene Dietrich
- Musicals
Silent Films - from 1915 through the early 1930s
- Charlie Chaplin
- Buster Keaton
- Rudolph Valentino
- Keystone Cops
- Al Christie
- Ben Turpin
- Frank Morgan
- Mack Sennett
- Hal Roach
- Laurel & Hardy
Nostalgic Popular Music and Jazz
- Pat Boone
- Bobby Darin
- Kenny Rogers
- Dean Martin
- Oscar Peterson
- Liberace
- Paul Anka
- Neil Diamond
- Dave Brubeck
- Stan Getz
- Frank Sinatra
- Frankie Avalon
- Count Basie
- Charles Mingus
- Thelonius Monk
- Perry Como
- Liza Minelli
- Andy Williams
- Duke Ellington
- Billie Holiday
- Billy Joel
- Sammy Davis Jr
- Tony Bennett
- Erroll Garner
- Ella Fitzgerald
Nostalgic TV Shows and Comedy
- Lawrence Welk
- Andy Griffith
- Green Acres
- Leave It to Beaver
- Mary Tyler Moore
- Burns & Allen
- Perry Mason
- Abbott & Costello
- Marlo Thomas
- Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis
- Lucille Ball
- Red Skelton
- Donna Reed
- Steve Allen
- Father Knows Best
- Lassie
- Carol Burnett
- Groucho Marx
Plus
- Our Weekly News Review (about one hour) let's our seniors keep up with current events
- Hours and hours of Nostalgic Music - the tunes that your residents love.
- Travelogues from All Over the World
- Biographies
- Documentaries on Science, Habitat, Geography, Music, Nature
- Public Lectures from Harvard, Yale, and many foundations and organizations.
- And… AUDIOBOOKS ARE HERE! and included with every subscription.