Venture Beat: "New Minnesota Startup Program Supports 'Overlooked' Aging Population
The AgePower Tech Search continues to gain momentum. VentureBeat published the article, "New Minnesota Startup Program Supports 'Overlooked' Aging Population," last week. (Follow the headline link to read the article.)
AgePower’s intent is to locate, reward and help launch new technologies (high-tech and low-tech) that have a positive, near-term impact on the aging experience. It’s being launched from Minnesota, an epicenter for innovation in healthcare, social innovation, technology and other essential areas to our global future. Four finalists will gain a real-life test environment for their technology and access to experts in key areas necessary to fueling a successful venture. For more information, visit www.agepower.org.
VentureBeat covers disruptive technology and explains why it matters in our lives. Led by founder and editor-in-chief Matt Marshall and a team of experienced journalists, they're a leading publication for news and perspective on the most innovative technologies.
Global Aging Presents Opportunity: How to Make Aging a Minnesota Innovation Advantage
The AgePower Tech Search was featured in a recent StarTribune Business article, "Global Aging Presents Opportunity: How to Make Aging a Minnesota Innovation Advantage," co-authored by Ernest Grumbles and Eric Schubert. Grumbles is co-founder of MOJO Minnesota, a cooperative working to boost entrepreneurship and Minnesota's cultuer of innovation. Schubert is vice president of communications and public affairs for Ecumen, a nonprofit senior housing and services company.
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It’s called the Silver Tsunami, Agequake, Longevity Economy and Age Wave. But no matter the moniker, unprecedented global aging is a wide-open door for innovation, and Minnesota is uniquely positioned to forge partnerships that deliver it.
We’re all aging consumers. Local companies such as Healthsense and Anser Innovation are inventing in this space, but nearly every business works in aging, even if they don’t yet know it. The world’s only growing demographic is people 60-plus. And in the United States, the 60-plus cohort is the fastest growing. Read more on the Star Tribune website...
A Solution for Enjoyment from a Customer Who Has Alzheimer's
An example of how customers with Alzheimer's can be extremely helpful in crafting solutions that make their lives better.
AgePower Launch Event at University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, August 13th
An AgePower Launch Event will be held at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management on August 13, from 4:30 - 6 p.m.. This is a great chance to meet in an informal setting, network, learn about AgePower, and discuss innovation opportunity in the aging space.
Presenters will include AgePower organizers and Healthsense CEO A.R. Weiler, who will share more about this growth company's story and what he sees ahead.
4:30-5 p.m. Check-In and Networking
5:00-6 p.m. Presentation, Q&A
To RSVP and for more details go here.
By Ecumen Blogger Jim Klobuchar - A Day in Court Unlike Any Other
A Day In Court Unlike Any Other
By the appointed hour of 8 a.m.the DWI courtroom in Minneapolis was filled with all of the required principals.
The defendants were there waiting their turn to testify about their progress or their troubles. The judge was seated and so was the court’s team of aids and trouble shooters—a DWI court coordinator, a prosecutor, public defender, probation officers, a treatment program specialist, a chemical health assessor, a treatment program expert, a victim advocate, law enforcement representatives and more.
When all of the court people and defendants were seated in the courtroom one of them shared a remembrance. This would have been the birthday of his late wife and the mother of his children. His refusal to give up drinking had led her to threaten to leave with the children unless he came to his senses more than 20 years ago.
He did and the marriage was saved. The testimony came not from the defendants in the court room but from the presiding judge, Gary Larson, one of the most respected in the Hennepin County court system and its suburbs.
For the judge it was reality and also thanksgiving for the ultimatum that saved his marriage and the course of his life. It was no stage effect to create an aura of democracy around this unusual gathering of violaters and upholders of the law. The primary issue here, and in courts like it around the country, is public safety. The guideline of DWI Courts is to find a more sensible way to reduce the carnage and the financial toll caused by drunk drivers by offering them incentives and tools that make sense.
More sensible than what?
Probably more sensible and ultimately less expensive than maintaining an assembly line of driving offenders with a long rap sheets of drunk driving convictions, jail time, accidents, more victims, longer jail time and more public expense.
On this day in the Hennepin County DWI (driving while intoxicated) court session 20 or so participants in the program appeared before the judge and the cadre of court connected advisors and monitors to bring the court up to date on their progress. The evaluations offered to the judge were mixed. So were the demeanors of the defendants. Some were sprightly and satisfied that they were making progress. Most gave brief testimonies that were largely upbeat.
But here was a woman who had struggled through years as a night club entertainer that made drinking part of the culture. She was trying, but laboring.The stresses so far had not driven her to drop out of the program. The others there to testify to their progress tried to empathize, and there a palpable sense of community about the gathering.
Is it working? The program workers in the Hennepin County DWI system offer figures to show that it is twice as effective in reducing repeat offenses as chronic jailing. Today in many parts of the country that maintain DWI Courts, offenders convicted of drunk driving are given their choice of jail time of varied length or entrance into the DWI Court system. Joining the system is hardly an open door to freedom and relaxation for offenders. They’re subject to random home visits by law people with breathalyzer equipment and other tests of sobriety. Curfews are enforced. Equipment can be installed in cars that will nail anyone who gets behind the wheel after drinking.
Nobody forces the defendants to stay in the DWI Court system if they want out. But the court records show that defendants who drop out of the system are nearly three times as likely to test positive for alcohol in random test than those who stay the course and graduate.
So is actually a kind of school?
Defined broadly, it is. If you’re arrested and guilty of drunk driving in Hennepin County’s Fourth Judicial District, which receives money from a federal grant for this purpose, you get a choice of standard jail time or joining the drug court part of the option. If you do that you’re actually free after token time BUT—
You enter into a bargain. No drinking. You’ll be tested. In the early going you have to meet curfew deadlines. Attend sobriety meetings where recovering alcoholics will welcome and counsel you. Home between 10 p.m. and 6 p.m. broadened if you advance in the program, If you tsry to game that system the curfew hours will be tightened, you may find community service added to the sentence or you may draw substantial jail time.
The people who supervise the program are basically telling the defendant:
We know these outcomes a little better than you do. We’re not only trying to help you rehabilitate your life, but we’re also trying to protect your potential victims. If you can’t see what we’re trying to do for you—but even more, for your innocent victims,--then we’re all better off if you do more jail time.
Here I have to offer a disclosure.
The Drug Court Judge identified earlier, Gary Larson, is the same judge who presided over my case of drunk driving 20 years ago. There was no DWI court then. I pleaded guilty, received the required day and a half sentence, entered treatment and have been free of alcohol since.
About Jim Klobuchar:
In 45 years of daily journalism, Jim Klobuchar’s coverage ranged from presidential campaigns to a trash collector’s ball. He has written from the floor of a tent in the middle of Alaska, from helicopters, from the Alps and from the edge of a sand trap. He was invited to lunch by royalty and to a fist fight by the late Minnesota Viking football coach, Norm Van Brocklin. He wrote a popular column for the Minneapolis Star Tribune for 30 years and has authored 23 books. Retiring as a columnist in 1996, he contributes to Ecumen’s “Changing Aging” blog, MinnPost.com and the Christian Science Monitor. He’s climbed the Matterhorn in the Alps 8 times and has ridden his bike around Lake Superior. He’s also the proud father of two daughters, including Minnesota's senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.
5 Tips for Selecting the Best Assisted Living for You by Putting on Your Frontline Reporter's Hat
Tuesday evening, PBS’s Frontline aired “Life and Death in Assisted Living.” If you haven’t watched it, please do. I came away from it angry, horrified and saddened at the tragedy experienced by the residents and families. The documentary also made me appreciate the many good assisted living providers who have wonderful people taking care of our seniors.
So how do you find the best operator, and the best fit for you and your family when it comes to assisted living? If I were searching for a loved one tomorrow, here are five things that I would do.
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Create your personal checklist. Identify what’s most important to you, your family and loved one; not only the medical care, but also the kind of social and emotional things that are important to you. We have a guide below that can help get you started. This gives you a tool to rate the various places you visit. Just like Frontline did, ask questions, take notes and compare.
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Go online. Google the senior communities and companies you’re interested in. Find out if they have been in the news, good or bad. You may find public documents that outline the community’s latest health department inspections or complaint inspection results, or online reviews and ratings from customers. See what shows up on the databases of the state health department or the location’s regulatory agency. If you need further clarification about your findings, contact those agencies directly and ask questions about the community.
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Make multiple visits and at different times of the day, as well as on a weekend. Arrive unannounced at least once. Is there consistency in how you are treated when you arrive unannounced? Talk with residents, families and staff before you make your final decision. Observe the day-to-day activity and the relationships between the caregivers and the residents. Ask who will evaluate your loved one’s needs and create the care plan, and how will the plan be communicated to direct care staff and to you?
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Go beyond the pretty furnishings or curbside appeal. Look to see if the community is clean and well-maintained. Find out if you can try their breakfast, lunch or dinner? Use all of your five senses to tell you if this community fits the lifestyle you’re seeking. The quality of care and service you’ll receive ties directly back to the operator and how well they treat their employees, which in turn reflects on how well the employees treat the residents.
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Ask if you and/or your love one can do an overnight stay before you agree to sign a lease or move your loved one into the community. This will give you an opportunity to truly get an insider’s view.
The seniors and families who shared their stories with Frontline and ProPublica experienced things that no one should have to go through. Every human being should have the opportunity to live out their years in the care of someone they trust and in a way that brings them safety, honor and dignity.
ProPublica reporter, A.C. Thompson, said, “There are, of course, skilled and dedicated individual caregivers working in the assisted living industry – professionals who are absolutely committed to providing our parents and grandparents with the best possible care.” My hope for you is that you are served by those very people.
I’m thankful to Frontline for bringing this discussion to the public and providing additional resources for families. If you have tips you’d like to share, please feel free to do so. We must get this right as a Country, and as an industry. Our aging population is counting on us!
In addition to the “Questions to Ask When Comparing Assisted Living Communities” on Ecumen’s Resource page, Frontline has posted “Seven Questions to Ask When Searching for Assisted Living” and other resources as a follow-up to last night’s documentary.
Shelley Kendrick is Ecumen's Vice President of Operations
Ecumen and MOJO Minnesota Launch AgePower Tech Search
AgePower’s intent is to locate, reward and help launch new high- and low-tech technology and innovation that have a positive, near-term impact on the aging experience.
Visit the New Ecumen.org!
The new Ecumen.org is a fresh resource for seniors and their loved ones to easily find the information they need to make their lives better. We’ve created an online experience that highlights the unique character of Ecumen and its customers through lively text, great customer photos and more stories. Check it out! 
You’ll find it here. We’ve added an easy-to-use search function to help locate a community, housing option or service in fewer clicks. Plus, the improved navigation will quickly take viewers to the most-read pages of our site. The new design also works on computers, tablets or smart phones!
Get social. Find links to Ecumen’s social media pages, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, where nearly 4,500 follow Ecumen news and updates.
Meet our super models. We used our own customers and employees in photos and videos to highlight everyday life at Ecumen throughout the site.
A Goodbye Without Tears - Almost
A few weeks ago I ended my ties with a biking community—one rather close to my heart—that has lasted nearly four decades. The community is moving on. It has my love and a few of my tears. It was more or less my creation, but it can and will do very well without my prodding; and certainly without my wake-up whistle in the campground at 5:30 in the morning.
A disclosure: my introduction to the cult of bike riding occurred in the early 1970s when a colleague at the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, Barbara Flanagan, invited me to join her in one of her weekly rides around Lake Harriett in Minneapolis. She said it was both scenic and therapeutic. She said it not only rescued you from the bedlam and smoke clouds of the newspaper’s city room, but also invited the biker to perform some introspection, probing your goals in life while you were admiring the swaying willows and the swans.
That it did, although I also had to point out that if you were riding that close to the lake there was also a potential hazard. While you were introspecting you could capsize into the bay trying to get in touch with your id.
But the allure of riding beside and through woodland and listening to its sounds, to romp beside cornfields and beneath eagles’ nests , eventually turned me into a kind of serial biker, attracted by long distance goals. I once biked solo around Lake Superior in seven days, 1,100 miles; not to prove it could be done, but also because I had commitments on either end of it. It also introduced me to the lively antagonisms that had developed between hard-headed cyclers and equally assertive semi-trailer drivers. I was pedaling along the white line that defined the edge of the pavement on the long three-mile hill near the St. Louis River in Canada. My saddle bags were bulging with my rolled-up tent, sleeping bag and spare clothing, when I heard the blasts of an air horn behind me. The guy was hauling steel and wasn’t overjoyed to be sharing the road with a flimsy bicycle. He kept hammering the air horn.
When he passed me his rig wasn’t going much faster than my bike. The passenger window was open. I yelled that that there was no shoulder on the road, I was entitled to the white line and he was some kind of head case. I also called him every unflattering name I could think of, a few of them in four-letter words.
When I neared the top of the three-mile hill he had parked his rig and was standing on the road with his hands on his hips, ready to fight, and actually not much bigger than I was. I was smoldering and said, “Ok, let’s go.”
As it turned out, he thought it was time to end the comedy and got back into his rig. Ten miles down the road I stopped for breakfast in a small Canadian cafe. There was only one seat left at the counter stools and I sat down, to a blast of guffaws from the guy sitting next to me. lt was the semi driver. “You know something,” he said. “I gotta buy you lunch. That show back on the highway belonged in the circus.”
But by then the allure of cross country biking broadened in America, the equipment advanced and readers began writing, asking whether they could join my next trip. So the newspaper promoted one of the earlier week-long group rides in the country. In the first years it was hardly a cultural trailblazer. One rider showed up in cowboy boots and sombrero and sang Willie Nelson ballads until he was deflated by his third flat tire of the day. Panniers loaded with rain jackets, towels, change of clothes and jars of mosquito juice hung from whatever exposed surface was available on the bicycle. One little old guy wore a beanie on his head topped by a mini propeller that spun erratically, depending on the wind and the grade of the next hill.
But an idea developed as the years progressed. The equipment was better, women in sizeable numbers joined the group and a concept slowly evolved among the riders, meshing with one I admired. A community was evolving here. The riders found themselves renewing the experience each year in early summer. Friendships had developed, not casual or notional but renewable, not only on the ride but also away from it. What happened in Nancy’s life, or Fred’s, mattered to the others. At least two marriages were performed DURING the tour. A professional musician on the ride played the wedding march in Mankato, Minn., and the couple, arriving on a tandem bicycle, entered the marriage hall through a corridor of crossed tire pumps. The membership in the ride reached 150, a nice figure all around.
So it offered laughs along with renewal, and consolation in the face of solemn news. Years ago when I was about to retire from the newspaper, I brought the folks together to explain that since the sponsorship was ending we would have to close the bike ride. I thanked them for the hours we’d traveled together, what we had shared. Three or four days later I began getting phone calls at strange hours of the night - 2 a.m. and worse. “Bad things could happen,” the voice would say, “if you drop this bike ride.” An hour later, another voice. Same message. It was guerrilla warfare. What else. They wanted to keep the ride going. So I took it over to manage in my retirement. Some years later the Adventure Cycling Association presented our group with its Pace Setter award, citing our ride as “a pioneering effort to get people out of the cities and into beautiful areas of rural Minnesota (and neighboring states) teaching people to become bike tourists, to meet personal goals and to help them become more active by building relationships.”
On our last night of the ride a few weeks ago I turned over the management to a friend with the thought that it was time for someone a little younger than my 85 years. There were hugs, and some tears, including mine. I told them the thanks instead should be coming from me, for all of the friendships that had evolved in my life because they were there, and for all they had brought into my life. Somehow I think the semi driver would have enjoyed the scene, and happily joined in with his air horn.
Photo courtesy of Dan Hicks via Flickr.
Ecumen & Mill City Commons Appear in UK Financial Times
Minnesota senior housing companies - including Ecumen and Mill City Commons - gained international attention this week in a UK Financial Times article.
Mill City Commons is a leader in the grassroots movement to create senior lifestyle neighborhoods. Ecumen helped establish the membership-based community in 2008. Read more about how Minnesota is creating Baby Boomer-friendly living in the article "Minnesota Targets Baby Boomers with Specialist Housing Options".
Photo courtesy of UK Financial Times.