The Wisdom of the Gardener by Connie Goldman
Many years ago I used to visit my friend Ruthy's garden. She was not only a master gardener but a wise woman.
“A garden teaches you both patience and acceptance” my friend Ruthy sighed at one point in our conversation. “You put a seed in the ground one morning in the spring and then you wait for it to produce a bloom. Finally a bud comes out and you watch daily for it to open. Then, unexpectedly overnight a squirrel eats it!” That was just example of a life lesson in patience and acceptance learned in the garden.
Ruthy has found that, no matter what the season, a garden teaches spontaneity and non attachment. “You have to be able to respond to what’s there and to the reality that nothing is permanent. A garden teaches you about that you need to get rid of stuff that isn’t right for you, It teaches you about birth and death and about what’s important in between.
Blooming is important, coming to fruition is important. Another thing that a garden teaches us is about its audacity. Seeds will blow in from who knows where and they’ll shoot out of the ground and start to bloom. That’s taught me to put my own two feet on the ground and grow into a flower that blooms – and to be audacious about it”. That thought motivated Ruthy to recite one of the many poems she’s written.
I was born from a seed and grew into a voracious plant,
Part of this garden and intimate in all ways.
Taking food and water as I rise here in the flower sway.
Breathing plant energy, shivering down my spine.
My toes digging in with savory excitement,
Fingertips growing rhythms as I touch and groom,
And bury my nose in fluffy blossom.
That is why the garden sustains me and I, in turn, give it life.
There cannot be one without the other.
Our conversation for that day was ending. As I waved goodbye and started to walk away Ruthy had a bit more garden wisdom to share. “All of my poetry was inspired by keeping my hands in the dirt, as the gardener sows, the gardener grows”
New Poll Shows Major Support for Long-Term Care Financing Reform
A new survey released earlier this week by the SCAN Foundation, shows that nearly 80 percent of people are more likely to support a health care reform proposal that improves coverage for long-term care services. Moreover, substantial majorities of Americans among all demographic groups, including gender, age, income and party affiliation, express deep concern about affording long-term care services as well as strong support for improving long-term care coverage as part of health reform. The results come as President Obama and policymakers in Washington D.C. debate health care reform packages they aim to complete by the end of July.
The National Omnibus Survey on Long-Term Care, conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of The SCAN Foundation gauged opinion on long-term care coverage and health care reform from over 1,000 random adults (aged 18 and older). The survey was conducted June 26 through June 29, 2009 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Following is a summary of the survey
Concern for Cost and Quality
- A large majority of Americans – 79 percent – are concerned about their ability to pay for long-term care for themselves or a family member in the future, with nearly half (46 percent) feeling very concerned
- An overwhelming 92 percent of people say it is important to improve coverage for services that help people remain in their home instead of going into a nursing home
Widespread Support for Long-Term Care
- Nearly eight in ten Americans (78 percent) say health care reform would benefit them personally if it included improved coverage for home and community-based long-term care services
- A similar proportion (80 percent) supports including improved coverage for these long-term care services as part of health reform
- In fact, 79 percent say they would be more likely to support a health reform proposal that included improved coverage for home and community-based long-term care services.
ABOUT THE SCAN FOUNDATION
The SCAN Foundation is an independent nonprofit foundation dedicated to advancing the development of a sustainable continuum of quality care for seniors that integrates medical treatment and human services in the settings most appropriate to their needs and with the greatest likelihood of a healthy, independent life. The SCAN Foundation supports programs that stimulate public engagement, develop realistic public policy and financing options, and disseminate promising care models and technologies.
Senior Housing Development Blog Launched by Ecumen
So many people look at our country's changing demographics and have stars in their eyes when it comes to senior housing development. But you can't take the Field of Dreams approach: Just because you build it, doesn't mean they'll come.
Ecumen has launched a new senior housing development blog, the country's first blog dedicated to senior housing development insights. (If you know of another one, please send it our way.) This blog will feature contributions from Ecumen's senior housing development team and its partners from a variety of areas essential to successful senior housing development, including market research, architectural design, financing, construction, marketing, building community, mix of servies, interior design, and more. It also will include interesting information from around the senior housing development arena. America has an incredible opportunity to build communities that people truly want to call "home," and this blog will help people gain new insight into what goes into that.
Long-Term Care Financing Reform Has a Big Day
- It's a long way from passage, but long-term care financing reform is gaining momentum . . .Yesterday President Barack Obama publicly backed efforts to create a new government program to provide long term care insurance as part of the broader health care overhaul. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a letter to Sen. Ted Kennedy, who is chief author of the CLASS Act, that the administration supports the program because it would help elderly and disabled people stay in their own homes.
- Ecumen supports the CLASS Act and long-term care financing reform. Kathryn Roberts opined yesterday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on the issue.
Health Care Reform Must Include Long-Term Care, By Kathryn Roberts
Nearly 3.5 million Minnesota adults are uninsured for long-term care and supportive services, meaning that many of us cannot afford the cost of a longer life or long-term disabilities. Long-term care services and supports must be part of meaningful health care reform.
In public policy, payment and perception, we've mistakenly segregated acute care and chronic care. For example, if someone over 65 suffers a stroke, Medicare jumps in with procedures and payments attempting to save the person. But upon release from the hospital, Medicare ignores that person's less expensive, longer-duration supportive services, such as a home aide or assisted living. Nor does it pay for such things as Alzheimers care or other intensive long-term care that a young adult with a disability may need.
Nearly 70 percent of those who turned 65 in 2005 will need some long-term services. The average time: three years. Contracting with a home aide just three days per week for two to three hours at a time to provide basics such as meal preparation and help with dressing can easily cost $1,000 per month. Nursing home care is much more expensive, $50,000 or more a year in Minnesota.
The status quo means many will continue impoverishing themselves and turning to Medicaid, a government program and de facto long-term care provider. Primarily paying for institutional care, its "payments" already fall far short in meeting true costs. Without financing reform, we are simply cost-shifting and avoiding the main issue -- finance reform for longevity and chronic care.
One approach is cutting Medicaid (called elderly waiver in Minnesota) for people in assisted living. In many cases this means another family member misses work juggling care for a loved one, or a person lives without supportive services, beginning the more arduous, expensive volley between home and hospital.
Another policy idea would require seniors to undergo precertification before choosing assisted living. Just because you're older and want to privately pay for housing with supportive services, you'd need state approval. The premise: State certification will "save" you money for when you "need" a nursing home. Precertification is ageism missing the fact that supportive services empower people while keeping them out of much more expensive government institutions.
Our overriding goals should be empowering people to live in the most independent setting possible; transforming nursing homes into right-sized, very specialized chronic-care centers; taking a personal share in costs of chronic care and supportive services, and ensuring a strong safety net for people who never will be able to pay for such care and services.
If America were creating a chronic care system today, we'd never duplicate Medicaid as primary payer. We'd never require people to impoverish themselves to get coverage. And we'dnever rely simply on the hope that people would purchase private care policies. We'd create a solution balancing personal responsibility and a secure safety net.
The CLASS Act (Community Assistance Living Services & Supports) introduced by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is that opportunity. In the opt-out insurance plan, people would pay a premium of approximately $65 per month in return for a minimum daily benefit of $50 that they can self-direct. It would make private wrap-around insurance policies appealing because consumers would easily understand what their dollars buy and they'd know such a product could guarantee quality of life and fiscal security. It also could gain a state good housekeeping seal.
The Congressional Budget Office's evaluation of the CLASS Act shows no cost to the government over the next 10 years, a positive savings of $2.5 billion in Medicaid in the first 10 years alone, and long-term sustainability. This would transform financing of long-term services and supports, assist America's workers and future retirees, enhance intergenerational financial security, and promote choice and independence.
Without a long-term care financing solution, America doesn't have health care reform, and Minnesota has an extremely large and immediate problem to solve.
A Memory Care Memory
Last Thursday I began my Independence Day celebration with Ecumen colleagues and customers at a celebration of the grand opening of Ecumen's new memory care community in Apple Valley. It wasn't the wonderful food or that big red scissors above held by Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland, Ecumen's Janis Rivers and Chamber of Commerce prez Edward Kearney that will stick with me.
Rather, the memory that will stick is of two women carrying their purses, holding hands, smiling and walking inside from the Centennial House garden and essentially "working" the room. After I was greeted by the women and they moved on to greet someone else, one of my colleagues at Centennial House told me that every day these two ladies walk together, visit with each other and others, and tell everyone they are going to catch the bus to Brainerd, which is a getaway destination for many Minnesotans. As they day comes to a close, they always tell the Centennial House employee that they "missed the bus" and are "wondering if they could spend the night here at this nice place." I laughed as she told me this story. And as I grabbed another cookie, I looked across the room, there were the travel buddies smiling, too.
Medicaid Planners And The Great American Rip-Off
Someone recently told me they know a lawyer who can help with Medicaid planning. Basically this "professional" helps people hide assets so they qualify for Medicaid and get their care paid for by government.
Such "professionals" are ripping off America and are a slap in the face to the thousands of real professionals who provide stellar care and services across the United States in an underfunded system and to the people who save and plan for their own care and services.
Absent a full-coverage national insurance plan, all of us who are not in poverty (real poverty, not the artificially-induced kind) need to share in responsibility for our own care or supportive services. That's one reason why long-term care financing reform must be part of comprehensive health care reform.
Earlier today, this showed up in my inbox. It's from a "professional." It's entitled "How to Let Medicaid Pay for Your Own Long-Term Care." It's certainly not what America will celebrate this Saturday, July 4th.
Centenarians and 20-somethings: What age gap? (Part 2)
When Evercare released findings from its fourth annual 100@100 survey in June, they shook things up a bit by comparing beliefs of 20-somethings with centenarians as we examined in Part 1 of this topic. Turns out these two cohorts surprisingly have a lot in common.
Think technology and pop culture belong only to the young? Not quite. Centenarians report using the latest technology to stay connected with friends and family much like the 20-something millennials. Twenty-one percent of centenarians go online, with 12% using the Internet to share photos, 10% using email weekly, 5% watching TV, and 4% downloading music. Additionally, 3% even use Twitter! More than half the centenarians were familiar with Nintendo Wii Fit.
If given a choice from a list of famous celebrities to have as a dinner guest, Bill Cosby was a top choice among both the centenarians (63%) and the millennials (72%). Centenarians reported being familiar with Madonna (78%) and NBA all-star LeBron James (34%).
Evercare notes the survey indicates taking a holistic approach to staying connected beyond nutrition and exercise emerges as a key to longevity. “(Centenarians) are using new technologies, staying abreast of news and current events, and engaging in social networking – all of which help to prevent chronic illnesses and contribute to greater longevity,” states Dr. Mark Leenay, senior medical director and vice president of clinical affairs at Evercare by UnitedHealthcare.
The survey, conducted by GfK Roper in April 2009, interviewed 105 active and healthy American centenarians (age 99+ at the time of the interview) and carried out an online survey of 1,036 U.S. residents ages 20-22 who expected to graduate a four-year college or university in 2009. Be sure to check out Evercare's videos from the survey. –Helen Rickman
Centenarians and 20-somethings: What age gap? (Part 1)
Think a 22 year old has nothing in common with a 100 year old? Think again.
Last week, Evercare of UnitedHealth released findings from its fourth annual 100@100 survey. New to the survey this year was the unique comparison of the beliefs of centenarians and college seniors. Surprisingly, the two groups were in agreement on a number of things. Concerning the economy, both overwhelmingly agree that they, and not U.S. policymakers and business leaders, are responsible for their own economic future. The majority of the centenarians (89%) and college students (93%) believe home ownership remains an essential part of the American dream. Both groups feel talking with friends and family as the best way to relieve stress. Volunteering in the community is another shared value, with a third of centenarians and half of college seniors actively involved in volunteerism. Check out this YouTube video on centenarians & college seniors volunteering.
The survey, conducted by GfK Roper in April 2009, interviewed 105 active and healthy American centenarians (age 99+ at the time of the interview) and carried out an online survey of 1,036 U.S. residents ages 20-22 who expected to graduate a four-year college or university in 2009.
Part 2 will look at the survey's surprising findings regarding technology use & pop culture among these two age cohorts. -Helen Rickman
Jim Klobuchar: Moving Into a Smaller World
A few weeks ago I attended a reunion of our basic training company formed at Fort Riley, Kansas in the early months of the Korean War. This was in November of 1950, and the roll call of the neophyte soldiers who piled out of their barracks into the company street at 6 o,clock each morning was close to 160.
The count at our reunion in the central Minnesota town of Willmar was 22, almost all now 80 or 81. Most of the others were gone, as many as 30 of them lost in battle in Korea. Some of us spoke for a few minutes, telling very briefly of our lives since that first day in the company street in Kansas when a bulky master sergeant welcomed us with the comforting news that “this is the Army, you men. From now on, your minds move on one track. From now on you can give your soul to God because your butt is mine.”
He didn’t say butt. Nobody argued, for sure. Nearly 60 years later we remembered that terse introduction to this new, one-sided reality. They barked, and we jumped, the sergeant said. “You’re soldiers now.” That we were. We shared with each other what came after Kansas; Korea for some, Europe for others, death in an infantry attack for some, a full life for others. We offered a digest of our lives, but this was no poll of what we had accomplished in the years that came after, or how we identified ourselves and our journeys. Success stories were basically avoided. This was reminiscence, awkward at first because not many of us recognized each other although we certainly remembered the names and some of the faces. And after the stories, slowly at first and then with clear and unapologetic emotion, came the thanksgivings.
Our lives had been good: marriage, children, work, reasonable comfort and fulfillment..Some farmed, others worked and lived in the big city or in the rural towns. Nobody talked about the by-pass surgery and the pharmaceutical potions as common common as Social Security to practically all of us. Since almost all of us had been conscripted out of Minnesota , it went unspoken that most of the credit for our gathering belonged to the part of the world where almost all of us still live, and to its conviction that life-saving medicine and care should be available to all.
And so for three or four hours, we were a community. I regretted leaving. It was impossible to ignore the reality of age but a gift to spend at least three or four hours out of what we now see as a precious time and a kind of watershed in our lives.
It was also a gift to recognize once more that in the deepening of our time,, most of the other rewards and urgencies of our later years dwindle beside the rewards of nurturing the relationships in our lives—the ultimate gift of re-discovery.