New Alzheimer’s Senior Housing Tool Launched
Posted by Susan Ferguson, Director of Marketing, Ecumen
The Alzheimer’s Association has created a great new online tool. Called the Alzheimer’s Association Senior Housing Finder, consumers can search for senior housing communities that specialize in Alzheimers and dementia care. It is the first such tool available nationwide and features more than 65,000 providers.
The needs for these services are going to continue to grow as a person develops Alzheimers every 72 seconds. In fact, getting Alzheimer’s is one of baby boomers biggest concerns according to our Age Wave Study. It behooves senior housing organizations to complete a profile for this database and make their services known to people who are searching for them. Thank you to the Alzheimer’s Association for making this resource available.
Aging is a Business and Economic Issue
Aging is often viewed as an issue for government, social service organizations and groups such as AARP. But aging is also very much a business and economic issue.Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts wrote about that in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune:Star Tribune Business Forum: Age Wave is a Business and Economic Competitiveness Issue
Like other CEOs, I’m concerned about stemming 'brain drain' amid a mass retirement and experience exodus in Minnesota.But a more immediate economic and competitiveness issue is how to deliver and pay for senior care to assist our current employees who are dealing with their aging parents. Absent innovation, the human and financial costs of a much larger, longer-living senior society will weaken other investments designed to enhance Minnesota’s competitiveness and make this state livable for a lifetime.
If my 86-year-old mother-in-law suffered a significant medical event that required care, I would have the luxury of being able to call upon any number of experts within Ecumen for guidance on what to do next, so she could live as fully and independently as possible.Unfortunately, most people don’t have guides for the long-term care maze that now has record numbers of folks lining up outside it. Nearly 45 million Americans care for an older or disabled family member. In fact, they give an average of 21 hours each week. And they’re mostly women working outside the home, many of whom also care for children.I’ve found that the people drawn to exhaustive juggling between their paid job and pro bono caregiving often are superstars -- highly productive, talented, team players who are usually the most expensive to replace. That stretching takes a toll. Caregivers burning life at both ends have increased risk for depression, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and cancer, and have a significantly higher mortality rate than non-caregivers. The juggling costs businesses more than $33 billion annually, according to MetLife’s 'Caregiving Cost Study: Productivity Losses to U.S. Businesses,' and that figure is growing.Health care is a top business issue. Yet, largely absent from business' discussion of health care reform is one of government’s largest, fastest-growing cost-drivers: long-term care of people with chronic illness or disability.Just over $158 billion is paid for long-term care nationally, with Medicaid paying almost half. Most of the dollars go to nursing-home care. Long-term care consumes about a half billion dollars of Minnesota’s budget and could cost $20 billion by 2050 if we don’t change how we pay for and deliver it.That cost looms much larger when I think about other competitive necessities such as building a 21st-century workforce and transportation system. And I also see a big wildcard in this cost mix: the currently incurable Alzheimer’s disease. Every 72 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s. Most of us are familiar with some of the 200,000 people who provide unpaid Alzheimer’s or dementia care in Minnesota. What most of us don’t know, however, is that the estimated market value of that care is about $1.5 billion.Is there any wonder the Department of Human Services (DHS) compares the age wave to Hurricane Katrina? Longevity no longer can be the sole domain of government, churches, social services, nursing homes or AARP. Every employee is aging.The late Elmer Andersen, former Minnesota governor and CEO of H.B. Fuller Co., innovated when he brought child care to the workplace. We could do the same for senior care and create places where one’s children and parents get care, capturing the value of young and old making connections.The workplace has done a very good job of helping people take more personal control over their wellness and retirement savings. It also could be the place to help people plan for their own long-term care possibilities as well as connect to care options for their loved ones.Keeping people out of nursing homes saves money. Most adult children want to keep their loved ones from entering a nursing home for as long as possible. We must make options available to our workforce to help it manage.Minnesota has a program called Consumer Directed Community Supports (www.dhs.state.mn.us/cdcs/) where Medicaid-eligible seniors can use a voucher to pay family or other caregivers rather than more expensive institutional care. Polling shows Minnesotans love the option; however, few know it exists.If publicizing this option to support independence and caregivers is too costly for the state, let’s figure out a better way. Ecumen soon will sponsor a Citizens League workgroup to look at the issue and develop options. We hope others, including the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and Minnesota Business Partnership, will join this effort to help shape solutions.The other day I received a call from a friend, a partner in a leading law firm. She just learned her father needs care. 'Where do I begin?' she asked. We all must help Minnesota ride the age wave, instead of waiting to drown beneath it.
Aging Services: It Has to Be the No Spin Zone
Can’t we just spin' our way out of this?That might be the question on the minds of some of the nursing home operators that were named today as 'the nation’s poorest performing nursing homes' by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).The answer is NO, and it’s an especially LOUD NO when you’re caring for fellow human beings.Some people like to talk about getting 'spin doctors' to help them in a crisis. Spin is simply another word for deception. And the 'doctors' who practice it shouldn’t be allowed to operate.We live in a world run by imperfect human beings. Crises, mistakes and bad news hit the best of organizations; And what the best of organizations have in common when such a situation hits is: They don’t SPIN. Rather they take some seemingly simple steps in what can be very difficult, embarrasing situations:1. They go right to work to identify and fix the problem.2. They learn from mistakes so that they’re not repeated.3. They communicate openly and honestly.4. They become a better organization and build even stronger trust with the people who rely on them.Some crisis situations are complex; how we respond to them shouldn’t be.Posted by Eric Schubert, Director of Communications
Coach Broyles' Playbook for Alzheimer’s Caregivers
Southeastern Conference football legend, Frank Broyles of the Arkansas Razorbacks (and current Arkansas athletic director) has created a new playbook, and it has nothing to do with football. It’s called 'Coach Broyle’s Playbook for Alzheimer’s Caregivers.' The guidance in the 92-page book is based on experience. Broyles and his family were caregivers for his late wife Barbara who had Alzheimer’s. He takes a person-centered approach to his book, not a medical-centered one, stressing doing things with a loved one with Alzheimer’s or dementia, not for them.You can obtain a free copy at the Alzheimer’s Association site here or download its contents here.
A New Look at Aging on the Guthrie Stage
Photo by Mike Habermann It’s interesting how increasingly we’re seeing more positive lights shined on aging and doing it well … gracefully … successfully … vitally or -- insert your adverb here.In Minneapolis this week, British actor Charles Keating, is starring at The Guthrie Theater in a one-person show called 'I and I: The Sense of Self.' His work, which features insights from Yeats to Einstein, takes a new look at aging, doing it well and the wisdom that comes with growing old.You can hear a short interview with Keating on Minnesota Public Radio here. He has a cool anecdote about how he came up with the I and I name while on a trip to Jamaica. A Jamaican friend told him 'what you do to me, you also do to yourself … you see man, we are both human beings, I and I.'
Brand Building: 5 Tips for an Effective Name Change On Any Size Budget
People often talk about changing one’s brand name as being a scary process. It shouldn’t be. It should get the blood pumping and veins jumping - kind of like swimming in Lake Superior. 
You want a name where you’re proud to show your face when you say it. Obviously the person pictured here isn’t very proud of the place he works for. Pride is critically important in all professions, but especially in such customer-service intensive ones, such as aging services and senior housing.As part of our transformation work, we’ve experienced a number of name changes over the last couple of years. For example, Ecumen changed its name from the Board of Social Ministry three years ago. Two Ecumen communties recently changed their long-standing names: Parmly Senior Housing and Services became Parmly LifePointes and Mankato Lutheran Homes became Pathstone Living.Change is good.Here are a 5 tips for changing a name and doing it well - even if you have a small budget: 1. Find Out What People Think of You: Before you do anything, hold a series of feedback sessions/focus groups with several groups important to your organization’s success - customers, employees, donors, community leaders, people who don’t know you but who you would like to know you. How do they perceive you? Are they hearing what you want your brand to communicate? Find out.2. Identify the Gaps Between Perception and Reality: Your research should tell you where you’re falling short in communicating your brand. This helps open the door to potential themes that your name/and or tagline will help convey.3. Develop a Story: Determine the story you want to tell. Good names should have stories bolstering them that tie to the work of the organization. For example, the name Ecumen comes from the word Ecumenical, which is derived from the Greek word for 'Home.' Our promise at Ecumen is to 'create home for older adults wherever they choose to live.' Names without stories are just letters on a sign.4. Brainstorm and Test: Throw all kinds of stuff against the wall. At this stage, anything is possible. Assemble a group of people who aren’t as close to the project as you are -- test several names with them. What do they think?5. Draw the Picture and Go Tell The World Your New Name (And Story): Assuming you now have a name that people are warming up to, get a designer and have them draw the logo. At the same time, develop your rollout plan for telling the world your new name, but more importantly the story behind that name.We’d love to hear your naming tips.
Who is an Older Person You are Thankful For?
As 'Changing Aging’s' writers go on a sabbatical this week to prepare turkey and stuffing, we want to turn the writing over to you:
Who is an older person you are thankful for this Thanksgiving Week? Or, tell us why you are thankful for older people.
Please share your thoughts here at 'Changing Aging' in the comments section below this post.
Is or was that person a great mentor, teacher, friend, or someone who just made you feel good? Why are you thankful for that person? What is so special about the elders in our life?
Young Love Vs. Old Love
Kate Zernike of The New York Times has a fascinating article as a follow up to the Sandra Day O’Connor story we blogged about last week. The Times' story 'Still Many Splendored: Love in the Time of Dementia' sheds new light on love in old age. Here’s an excerpt:Former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband, suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, has a romance with another woman, and the former justice is thrilled €” even visits with the new couple while they hold hands on the porch swing €” because it is a relief to see her husband of 55 years so content.What culture tells us about love is generally young love. Songs and movies and literature show us the rapture and the betrayal, the breathlessness and the tears. The O’Connors’ story, reported by the couple’s son in an interview with a television station in Arizona, where Mr. O’Connor lives in an assisted-living center, opened a window onto what might be called, for comparison’s sake, old love.Of course, it illuminated the relationships that often develop among Alzheimer’s patients €” new attachments, some call them €” and how the desire for intimacy persists even when dementia steals so much else. But in the description of Justice O’Connor’s reaction, the story revealed a poignancy and a richness to love in the later years, providing a rare model at a time when people are living longer, and loving longer.“This is right up there in terms of the cutting-edge ethical and cultural issues of late life love,” said Thomas R. Cole, director of the McGovern Center for Health, Humanities and the Human Spirit at the University of Texas, and author of a cultural history of aging. “We need moral exemplars, not to slavishly imitate, but to help us identify ways of being in love when you’re older.”Historically, love in older age has not been given much of a place in culture, Dr. Cole said. It once conjured images that were distasteful or even scary: the dirty old man, the erotic old witch.That is beginning to change, Dr. Cole said, as life expectancy increases, and a generation more sexually liberated begins to age. Nursing homes are being forced to confront an increase in sexual activity.And despite the stereotypes, researchers who study emotions across the life span say old love is in many ways more satisfying than young love €” even as it is also more complex, as the O’Connors’ example shows.Read the full article here.
The Millenials, The Age Wave and How We Work
Posted by Robin Krause, Vice President of Human Resources At Ecumen, like most companies, our workforce is made up of multiple generations. We often talk about the impact that 78 million baby boomers will have on the workforce as they age. Boomers make up the largest portion of Ecumen’s 4,000-member team, just over a quarter. But almost just as large are the Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1995. There are 80 million Millennials in the U.S.I enjoyed watching this recent 60 Minutes segment on the Millennials. Do you think its depiction of Millennials is accurate? Another question: Do you think the retirement of baby boomers is going to have a huge impact on the workplace, or do you think that is largely overblown? Share your thoughts.We’re developing a workforce planning tool that will break down the demographics of each of our work sites and allow us to model what the future will look like, especially as boomers hit their retirement years. Have you heard of companies that are examining what their demographic future is going to look like so that they can plan ahead and not find themselves short on experience and skills? We’d love to hear about such examples.
If you’re ever looking for a speaker on this generational topic, I’d suggest checking out David Stillman, a generational expert, who we’re fortunate to have serving on our board of trustees. A Gen Xer, he’s a fantastic speaker and author of the book: When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work.
In Sickness and In Health, Until Death Do Us Part
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor brought a great deal of awareness to breast cancer when she went public with her story. Today she’s shedding new light on Alzheimers disease and caregiving. Her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimers 17 years ago, has moved into an assisted living community in Arizona for memory care. He’s also begun an intimate relationship with a girlfriend, who also has Alzheimers. It’s a heartwarming, and likely very difficult story to tell of a family who adores a father and a husband and want to see him happy. If you get a moment, watch the story here at MSNBC.I’m curious if any of you have heard or experienced a similar story?