Ecumen Names Terry Mahar Regional Director of Home Care, Hospice and Adult Day Services
Terry Mahar, a healthcare executive with more than 34 years of experience, has been named to the newly created post of regional director of home care, hospice and adult day services at Ecumen.
Mahar comes to Ecumen from Eide Bailly, where for the past 15 years he was a healthcare consulting senior manager in the Sioux Falls, S.D., office, specializing in home health, hospice, private-duty care, acute hospital care and skilled nursing.
Prior to his job at Eide Bailly, Mahar worked for the Altru Health System in North Dakota as manager of their home care, hospice and personal care group, where he grew the business and improved its financial performance. He began his career as a registered nurse at United Hospital in Grand Forks, N.D., then moved into United’s home health and hospice division, first in direct care and then as a hospice patient care coordinator. He has clinical experience in skilled nursing, home health, hospice, personal care services, and coronary and intensive care.
“Terry’s mandate is to grow and develop Ecumen’s in-home services at a time when many more seniors are opting to age in place,” said Shelley Kendrick, Ecumen vice president of operations.
Currently, Ecumen has four home care agencies — in Duluth, Litchfield, Mankato and the Twin Cities. Kendrick said in addition to growing and improving the current agencies, Mahar will also be evaluating opportunities to open new home health care agencies at other Ecumen sites.
Mahar has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of North Dakota. He served as president of the North Dakota Hospice Organization for seven years and on the board of directors of the Grand Forks Senior Citizens Association for eight years. Mahar and his family live in Brandon, S.D.
This Painfully Realistic Dementia Simulation Lets You Feel What It’s Like
A newly patented program lets caregivers experience firsthand what it’s like to have dementia. Watch how this Virtual Dementia Tour quickly builds empathy by vividly simulating the deep sense of confusion associated with dementia. ABC News reporter Cynthia MacFadden tells about the “12 minutes that changed by life.”
Ecumen Promotes Matt McNeill to Director of Business Development
Matt McNeill has been promoted to director of business development at Ecumen.
McNeill joined Ecumen a year ago as regional sales and marketing manager. Prior to that, he was corporate director of marketing for Walker Methodist and has worked at StoneArch Creative in Minneapolis, Aurora Health Care in Wisconsin and University of Chicago Hospitals. He has over 10 years of strategy development, marketing planning and sales team leadership, as well as advertising agency and business development background.
“At a time when Ecumen is looking to expand its new developments, we are fortunate to have someone of Matt’s diverse experience and capabilities already on staff,” said Julie Murray, Ecumen vice president of sales, marketing and business development. “This past year, Matt has done an outstanding job working with Ecumen communities to develop and improve our sales and marketing programs and implement successful marketing plans while also working on some of our new developments.”
McNeill has a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations and a minor in marketing from Marquette University.
Financing Long-Term Care: If Not Us, Then Who?
by Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen CEO
Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts is board chair-elect for LeadingAge, the national trade association for not-for-profit aging services organizations, focused on education, advocacy and applied research. Roberts is also the chair of LeadingAge’s Long-Term Services and Supports Task Force whose mission is to find solutions to an imminent crisis in the funding of long-term care costs for the rapidly growing number of people who are living longer with chronic diseases that require expensive specialized care. In the following post that appeared on LeadingAge’s newsletter, Roberts gives a progress report on the task force’s work, which is focused on broadening the public discussion and helping the U.S. move to a national solution.
Our country's lack of a long-term care financing plan leaves millions of Americans exposed to catastrophic costs of Alzheimer's disease, congestive heart failure, physical disability and other chronic conditions that often accompany longevity or can strike earlier in life.
This risk not only depletes people's hard-earned savings, but it keeps too many people from the supportive services they need to live fully with illness or disability.
No one knows the ramifications of this issue better than LeadingAge members.
Last week in Minneapolis, LeadingAge's Long-Term Services and Supports Task Force began Phase II of its work in moving our country toward a solution that protects us all against catastrophic care costs while allowing us to access the supportive services necessary to live with the utmost dignity and independence.
This new phase will engage the public over the next several years in community conversations and collaborations that help people understand the tremendous costs of inaction to them, their loved ones and communities, while building broad support to forge a solution. This new phase is possible because of the outstanding work preceding it.
The first step was LeadingAge's advocacy for the CLASS Act. This effort led to unprecedented Congressional action and support on this issue. Although the CLASS Act was ultimately removed from the Affordable Care Act, LeadingAge's advocacy efforts significantly raised the profile of this issue.
In 2012, LeadingAge convened a new task force to keep progress moving. Rather than forging a "final" solution, Task Force members paved multiple pathways for solving this problem.
Those pathways, which you can read about here, are the foundation for this next phase, one that will convene citizen conversations nationally and ultimately forge an effective solution for millions of Americans without one.
During our Task Force meeting last week, one question arose repeatedly: "If LeadingAge's members aren't the catalyst for moving this issue forward, then who will be?" I am thankful for LeadingAge's leadership in moving our country forward to create a better living experience for us all.
I look forward to sharing with you more about this work in the months ahead.
At Ecumen Lakeshore Music Accompanies Memory Care to Keep the Past Alive for Those With Dementia
The ability of music to unlock memories for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia is well documented. The memory care program at Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth uses music therapy to reconnect residents to their past and to lift their spirits. Reporter Jennifer Austin of the Northland’s Newscenter (KBJR) in Duluth visited a therapy session and offers the video report posted here showing how Ecumen’s Rita Walker and Melanie Smith use music to help residents remember.
Ecumen Detroit Lakes Fundraising Effort Leads To $50,000 Otto Bremer Foundation Matching Grant for New Short-Stay Rehab
Ecumen Detroit Lakes, now undergoing a major remodeling and expansion, recently celebrated receiving a $50,000 grant from the Otto Bremer Foundation to match the more than $50,000 it raised in the local community.
Since the campus is also observing its 50th anniversary in 2014, the celebration event was named “50-50-50 Charity Benefit” and brought the community together to fundraise through sponsorships, donations and a silent auction. In addition to the $50,000 matching grant, Bremer has also donated another $25,000 toward the project, bringing their total contribution to $75,000. 
Ecumen Detroit Lakes Executive Director Janet Green thanked the donors and participants for their support, announced that the $50,000 goal had been met and accepted a $50,000 ceremonial check from Ron Mueller, president of the Detroit Lakes Bremer Bank.
The money will go to help build a new short-stay rehabilitation and wellness center that has been under construction since September 2013 and is expected to open in August 2014. The Margaret A. Cargill Foundation is the lead grant funder, with a $3 million contribution, and Ecumen is investing $8 million in the project.
The project is a key component of what is envisioned as an innovative "one-stop aging services hub” that integrates technology, socialization, fitness, nutrition and health care to help keep seniors in rural Becker County healthier and independent. The new addition will include a therapy center with a hydrotherapy pool, a wellness center with a bistro, a telehealth center and a yoga room. The project also includes updating other areas of Ecumen Detroit Lakes campus, including the installation of new carpet and flooring and upgrading of bathrooms to better meet the care needs of residents.
“This project is preparing us for the next 50 years,” Green said. “We’re going to be able to serve people better and differently.”
Ecumen Trustee Debbie Cervenka Forges New Paths Supporting a Mission That Is Personal
The future looked bright for Ecumen Trustee Debbie Cervenka and her husband Bob. They had just sold the highly successful company they built together and were making big plans for the next phase of their lives. What happened next totally shattered their dreams— but gave Debbie the resolve to turn their life-changing event into a mission to help others.
Bob was walking up some stone steps one day when the stone broke and he slipped and fell backward about 15 feet, landing on his head. He suffered a massive head injury— so serious that doctors told her he would have to be in a nursing home for the rest of his life. Debbie said no. She would find another way.
“The doctors said I was overreaching— that I didn’t know what I was doing,” Debbie recalls. “They didn’t know me. It put me over the edge.” She set out to find a better way and knocked on Ecumen’s door as a potential customer.
She knew exactly what she wanted for Bob: “dignity, respect and a real home.” And as a board member, she knew Ecumen’s mission statement: “We create home for older adults wherever they choose to live.”
So if Bob Cervenka chooses to live somewhere other than a care center— even though that might present challenges— can that happen at an Ecumen community? Debbie was asking if it could happen— not demanding.
Staff at Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth took an in-depth look at Bob’s situation and made a proposal. “They thought outside the box,” Debbie says.
Bob lives in an independent living apartment but has a regular care team, specifically selected based on his unique needs. “What Ecumen did,” Debbie says, “is look at Bob as an individual, not as a number on a bed.” There is a care team, picked based on compatibility with Bob, that meets regularly to adjust his care plan. Debbie is also part of the team.
“Ecumen is all about listening to and knowing the person as an individual,” she says. “Too often in these situations, people completely lose their voice in their own care.”
Bob’s situation is somewhat unusual. The 2011 head injury was not his first. Rather, it was one of many. Bob played high school and college football and had multiple concussions. Then later, he went through the windshield of a car in a traffic accident. The trauma added up over the years.
Debbie is sure that Bob has chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) — the disorder of many athletes who suffer sustained head trauma. Technically, the prevailing medical view is that CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem. But a recent groundswell of evidence is pushing back on that point of view, and doctors have told her they believe Bob has CTE, which causes memory and behavioral issues.
And Debbie— “like a dog with a bone”— is now doing her part to not only change current thinking about CTE but also how care-giving institutions deal with people who have it. Her experience with Ecumen leads her to believe there is a new model of care that can and should be developed for former athletes like Bob who are living with post-sports dementia.
When she was looking for the right care for Bob, one of the issues was that he is a relatively big man and very strong. She noticed that most care centers are designed for frail, elderly people. If adjustments— like bed size, room size and types of therapy— had to be made for Bob, what about all these other ex-athletes who need care now or will in the future? “What does a facility look like for this particular type of dementia? What is the programming?” she asks.
Debbie is encouraging Ecumen to explore those questions, and she is also planning a proposal to the NFL, which has, as part of a pending $765 million lawsuit settlement with players, agreed to research the connection between football and brain injuries and the accommodations that need to be made to take care of former athletes.
Debbie is adept at forging new paths with her husband. Bob, a mechanical engineer born and raised in Phillips, Wisc., was the co-founder of Phillips Plastics Corp., one of the largest private custom injection molding companies in the nation. Debbie worked at the company as executive vice president and was on the board. The company took big risks, innovated and made sound strategic decisions that kept it prosperous when many other plastics manufacturers were falling to global competition. Well before Bob’s accident, he and Debbie had decided the rest of their lives would be devoted to philanthropy. “Many people touched us and helped us achieve what we did,” Debbie says. “Our goal now is to give back. It is a critical part of our lives.”
Both Bob and Debbie had grown up understanding the value of hard work. Bob’s father died when he was 10. Debbie’s father was a school teacher. It wasn’t until much later in their lives that they had the means to start thinking about all the ways they could make a difference supporting the causes they believe in.
At the Cervenka house at Christmas time, the family celebration focused on helping teach the kids the importance of giving back. Everyone was expected to advocate for an organization and detail the reasons why it should be supported. “We wanted to touch more lives and in doing so, encourage others to want to do the same,” Debbie says.
One of the first places they gave back was to the town and people of Phillips, Wisc. The town had given financial and other support to Bob’s new enterprise when he and his partner had only minimal startup capital. As the company became successful, they created the AnnMarie foundation that provides annual financial support for high school scholarships, volunteer fire departments, nursing homes, youth sports teams, and other local projects that need help. (Ann was Bob’s mother’s first name and Marie was the company co-founder’s mother’s first name.)
Other priorities are education and the environment. They have been major donors to the Nature Conservancy, Northland College, the University of Wisconsin—Madison and the University of Wisconsin—Stout. And Ecumen has benefited from their philanthropy.
In fact, Debbie now leads the Ecumen Board of Trustees Philanthropy Committee. Debbie is focused on raising money for Ecumen in its non-profit role of innovating and problem-solving some of the major issues related to aging— such as improving dementia care, how to reduce hospitalizations of the elderly, improving the quality of rural health care, developing a steady workforce of caregivers and creating a fund to pay for the care of those Ecumen residents whose assets have been depleted. Her goal is to create a highly organized “culture of giving” at Ecumen that will provide on-going funding for initiatives beyond day-to-day operations.
“Debbie leads by example,” says Judy Blaseg, Ecumen’s vice president of philanthropy. “She combines compassion, vision and determination to focus on the big issues and get things done.”
The giving, Debbie says, is “joyful giving” because it helps people make the things that bring joy even better.
Ecumen Lakeview Commons Residents Treated to a Valentine's Day Surprise
Residents of Ecumen Lakeview Commons in Maplewood, Minn., were targeted for a creative act of kindness on Valentine’s Day by children in the “Day 11” movement, who showed up smiles, candy and handmade Valentine cards with a “Love is:______” theme.
Thank you to Alyssa, DJ, Kenzie, Catie, Kaden and Kale for handing out Valentine's cards and sharing your love and bright spirits with our residents on behalf of The Day 11 Project.
“The Day 11 Project” is all about the joy of helping others in creative new ways and making the world a better place to live.
The Un-Retiring Presidents
On Presidents Day, four of the five living American Presidents have "retired" from the Oval Office but have been anything but retiring. Erin Read of the Mature Marking Matters Blog offers perspective on how each of the former Presidents moved on from the White House to define retirement in new ways.
Photo Credit: Reuters
Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth Wins Aging Services of Minnesota Innovation Award for Medication Management Program
Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth, Minn., in partnership with Thrifty White Pharmacy, has received the Aging Services of Minnesota’s Leading Change Innovation Award for a medication management program that has helped reduce hospital readmissions.
The program is designed to ensure that patients leaving short-stay rehabilitation at Ecumen Lakeshore know when and how to take their medications and what to do if they have problems.
As part of the discharge process, a nurse and an occupational therapist do an evaluation to make sure patients ready for discharge can read and understand their medication labels and can open the bottles. Then a nurse holds a meeting with the patients and their families to discuss any issues and conducts a pharmacy education session.
The pharmacy education, developed by Thrifty White and Ecumen Lakeshore, includes an interactive web-based session with a registered pharmacist. The nurse uses an iPad to connect with the pharmacist, who then explains to the patient and family how to take all the prescribed medications and answers their questions.
The patient receives an action plan for medication management before discharge and a 30-day supply of medication through Thrifty White. Then the pharmacist follows up in 72 hours for a check-in and does another follow-up in three weeks.
Just making sure that patients fully understand the basics of their medications and how to take them reduces readmissions, said John Korzendorfer, executive director of Ecumen Lakeshore. “So often,” he explained, “people are so glad to be going home that they have trouble focusing on anything else. The detailed discharge procedure, the iPad pharmacy education and the pharmacist’s follow-up all work to minimize mistakes or lapses in memory.”
The innovation award was presented at the 2014 Aging Services of Minnesota Institute on February 5, 2014, in Minneapolis. Korzendorfer said Ecumen is looking at ways to adapt the Lakeshore program to short-stay sites throughout the company.