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What Words Would You Change?

Honey, I can hardly wait to move into the Skilled Nursing Facility.' Can you imagine anyone saying that? We have to stop using the F Word (facility). Also, in aging services, shouldn’t we make it an assumption that the people we employ are skilled? I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to move to a place where people aren’t skilled.The aging services profession is all about serving people, but lots of the language we use in our profession isn’t very people-centric.Language is a powerful shaper of the images we create in our mind. For example, people who wanted a new baseball stadium for the Minnesota Twins, stopped using the word 'stadium' and changed it to 'ballpark.' One word connotes a large, sterile facility amid an asphalt jungle. The other: blue skies, Cracker Jacks, apple pie and nostalgia.Baby boomers told us in our Age Wave Study that they can’t stand a number of the words that we use in the aging services lexicon. The Pioneer Network has an interesting look at language and a number of the words we use. Boomers told us they LOVE the word COMMUNITY. It sounds a lot different than 'facility.'Givs Us Your Insights:What other words would you change? Let us know by clicking on 'comments' below. Posted By Eric Schubert, Director of Communications

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What We Can Learn From Bees

Jerry Seinfeld has a new hit movie out called Bee Movie. In an interview with Colin Covert of the Star Tribune last Friday, he had some interesting things to say about 'work.' We saw the same themes in our Age Wave Study.Covert: [Seinfeld] dislikes coasting Ask him why and you get a surprisingly earnest response. Seinfeld: Nobody wants to just turn to mush, you know?… .You work because you think you have something to offer. I think that working actually keeps you alive … One of the little messages I put in the movie is the importance of work, because it’s a big part of bee life. They work very hard their whole lives. Working hard and doing small jobs carefully makes a big difference in the world.

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A New Halloween Tradition

Hope you had a great Halloween. They sure did at The Villages of North Branch, a new Ecumen community. Invites from Pam Dolin and Julie Walton brought about 400 area kids trick or treating at The Villages, starting a new Halloween tradition.

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Blessing of The Animals

Many of us have pets that we absolutely love and are essential to our home being home.'Lakeshore, an Ecumen community in Duluth, was the site of a great ecumenical Blessing of the Animals service. The service was led by Rev. Alice Olson, chaplain at the Lakeshore and Bayshore communities; Lakeshore resident Monsignor Patrick McDowell; and Rev. Cy Solberg, who doubled as St. Francis of Assisi. Pretty neat seeing the march of cats and dogs of all sizes walking, prancing and trotting into the Lakeshore chapel. Here are more photos:

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Dr. Bill Thomas and Changing Aging

Three years ago as we were just beginning our transformation work at Ecumen, we had the honor of Dr. Bill Thomas speaking at our annual leadership conference.Many of you know Dr. Thomas … he’s a geriatrician, teacher, author, inventor, innovator, and a darn energetic, warm and funny person, among other things. Eden Alternative, Eldershire, Green House, … all came out of Dr. Thomas' mind and action.Now you can read his thoughts on a more frequent basis. He’s started a great new blog at The Erickson School in Baltimore where he serves on the faculty. The name of his blog is Changing Aging. No … the blog writers at Ecumen and Dr. Thomas didn’t copy each other … We’re just part of that growing part of society that sees the possibilities in gaining seniority in this world and 'changing aging.' Welcome to the blogosphere, Dr. Thomas. We salute your work in Changing Aging.

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Keeping Track of Your Medical Records

Increasingly doctors' offices are going to all-digital records. Now people too, can save all of their medical information in one place and share it with the radiologist, neurologist and allergist all in the same day.Microsoft just came out with its healthvault program where you can upload all of your medical information for free, so you have it in one easy access place. They are working with another partner so that for a fee of $9.95 per year you can make that information available to emergency medical personnel who will be able to type into a cell phone to get your information in an emergency.If you’d like to learn about the various and growing products being offered for people to keep track of their personal health records, go to www.myphr.com, a service of the American Health Information Management Association.

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What Do People Want?

Posted by Kathy Bakkenist, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations

What do people want? That question looms so largely in our work at Ecumen. And that’s why we conduct a significant amount of research with our current and future customers. Many of you have read our Age Wave Study. Recently we conducted an intergenerational series of three 2-hour Twin Cities focus groups, largely of baby boomers and members of The Silent Generation, those born between the two World Wars. We also had several members of the Greatest Generation. All are currently living independently, most in condos or town homes. We asked them to think about living life as older people and what would be their ultimate lifestyle. I’d like to share with you some interesting themes that cut across all of the focus group sessions: - All About Community: They want to be connected to other people and integrally involved in the life and events of the larger community. Purpose is huge with them. - No to Institutions: They acknowledge the fragility of life and want easy-access, nearby assistance or care that either allows them to live in their own home or to stay in their neighborhood and connected to it. They say “no way” to large institutions. - Seek Lifestyle Concierge: Many of these focus group participants live in condos. They want a “lifestyle” concierge, someone who goes beyond a concierge that might be found in a condo. They see it as someone who they can make one call to €“ instead of 10 separate calls €“ for assistance with everything from travel arrangements to grocery shopping to helping them assemble services that help them stay as independent as possible if they need care. - All About Technology: Technology is a big part of these people’s lives. They see it continuing to be a big part of their lives and they want a resource (through the concierge) that helps them stay on top of the latest trends and that keeps their technology running.

It’s so clear to me that the “next seniors” are thinking very differently about their senior years. What an opportunity for the aging services profession!

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Congratulations for a Job Well Done!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R4rQDgpt94[/youtube]Today is Best Places to Work' day at Ecumen in honor of Ecumen being named A Best Place to Work' for the third straight year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. Here is the third part of Ecumen Vice President of Human Resources Robin Krause’s conversation with CEO Kathryn Roberts on creating a great place to work. You can view the other two parts (that thing called 'It') here and (key ingredients to a great place to work) here. Make it a 'Great Place to Work.'

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Mapping Your Retirement

A lot of retirement books look at how much you’re saving. Mapping Your Retirement, a new book (it’s really part book and part workbook; it forces you to be an active particiapnt) by husband-and-wife team Mark and Janet Skeie, and Julie Roles does that, too, but a whole lot more.It’s much wider ranging guide to help you plan for how you want to live the rest of your life. And it delivers insights from a variety of expert contributors, a number of which have been through the process. What’s also neat about this book is it’s a labor of love by the authors. We hear a lot about retirees finding purpose in the next part of their lives. These authors are living it. To learn more about the book, the authors and reviews, go here.

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Where Americans Retire

What state is your ideal retirement place?Below are the top 10 states where retirees 60+ relocate. The data comes from Dr. Mark Fagan at Jacksonville State University in Alabama and his report called 'Retirement Development and Job Creation.' STATE NUMBER1. Florida 394,2542. Arizona 134,5833. California 127,7574. Texas 100,7005. North Carolina 74,9376. Nevada 61,6277. Pennsylvania 60,4308. Virginia 59,9769. Georgia 57,99210. New Jersey 54,657It will be interesting to see if other communities or regions, such as Northern Wisconsin where a lot of people from the Twin Cities and Chicago go in the summer, become larger senior housing and healthcare hubs to serve people that want to stay in those areas.

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