Jim Klobuchar – Who's That Guy With Dave Chilstrom?
I talked a few days ago with Herb, a man who has reached the heights in his occupation and felt the respect of millions. It didn’t surprise me that after the usual courtesies the conversation moved to his brother, who spent most of his working years at Ecumen's Augustana Homes in Litchfield, Minn, and today is a customer.
As we talked I remembered that somewhere in my wanderings I discovered a working definition of a word that has an appealing sound but is not easy to wrap our arms around. The word is humility, which comes up often in meetings of recovering men and women who have changed their lives from the destructive self-indulgence of an earlier time, and understand their vulnerability. It will come up in a discussion about how we react to success and achieving, and the 
hazards of pride and arrogance that sometimes come with it.
And then someone will remind us that genuine humility does not mean thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less.
Nearly 20 years ago I wrote a newspaper story whose headline read: “Bishop Proudly Bows to the Fame of his Brother, the Janitor.” The bishop was Herb Chilstrom, then the president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and therefore the spokesman for 5 million Lutherans, a role which, the story drily noted, is never very easy nor particularly safe. We were friends, and had written a book together. Herb Chilstrom was and is one of those approachable church hierarchs who talks without pretense and wears well in any setting. He had met with the heads of state on three continents, talked twice with the Pope and somewhere in the midst of all of that was invited to be the grand marshal of the big civic parade in Litchfield, his hometown in Minnesota. He had also dealt with tragedy in the loss of a son to suicide.
His brother, Dave, was born with a brain injury. As kids they played together and loved each other. Every small triumph for Dave was a triumph for Herb. Dave grew up with mental challenges, but none that affected his energy or his bouncing good will. He swept floors in a nursing home. He became a janitor, with a huge smile for every one he met, bringing the sun with him. When Herb the Bishop accepted the parade invitation he asked if his brother could ride beside him. And so he did. The crowds cheered and applauded and somebody yelled, “hey Dave, who’s that white haired guy with you.” And Herb hugged his brother, laughed and wept.
He told a friend, “I don’t know a greater privilege than sitting next to my brother on a day like this.”
Dave, the retired janitor, lives in Litchfield, still bringing the sun with him everywhere. Herb, the retired bishop, lives in St. Peter and still serves his church whenever it asks. They are separated by miles, but inseparable.
Ecumen blogger Jim Klobuchar is a former columnist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, is author of several books and an adventure traveler.
Rachel Veitch - She's Rolling With 600,000+ Miles
I was meeting with some colleagues today and we were talking about aging and being engaged in life and purpose. Then I walked down the hall and talked wtih another colleague who told me his truck now has 160,000 miles and runs like new. Then I got an email to a link to Rachel Veitch featured at Growing Bolder, which brought it all full circle.
Rachel is almost 91 and last bought a car when Lyndon Baines Johnson was President - that was 600,000 miles ago. Her "Chariot" as she calls it is a 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente. Rachel is a retired nurse who volunteers several times a week with the Orlando, Florida, police department. That's when she's not working on her Chariot.
Watch the video with Rachel here.
Senator Al Franken on Long-Term Care Financing Reform
Great editorial in yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune on long-term care financing reform. Very nice to see the new Senator from Minnesota talk about it:
"Long-term care holds enormous opportunities for bipartisan compromise. So many Minnesotans -- myself included -- have had mothers, fathers and spouses who relied on these services during what are incredibly difficult times. There's nothing partisan about caring for a loved one with dignity.''
Spot on.
Check out great Q&A in today's New York Times on Congress Tackling Long-Term Financing Reform. It's with Barbara Manard, a health economist with the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. Their work has really been what has elevated this issue in Congress.
Do One Thing Today
Contact your Congressional members today. It's easy. Let them know that long-term care financing reform must be part of health care reform.
War Hero Don Singlestad Doesn't Need Red Bull Energy Drink
Don Singlestad, 92, doesn’t need Red Bull energy drink. He’s a real Red Bull, the most decorated non-commissioned officer of the 34th Division of the Red Bull Infantry. In September, our customer at Heritage Manor in Park Rapids will travel to Vernio, Italy, for the dedication of a road honoring the Red Bulls.
Jean Ruzicka of the Park Rapids Enterprise newspaper wrote a great article about his role in ensuring Rome was “preserved, rather than falling victim to the ravages of combat.” Technical Sergeant Singlestad received the Italian Military Medal of Valor Gold Cross – a citation equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor – for his role in operating with partisans behind enemy lines. He was one of five persons (3 Americans) to be recognized with this honor during World War II. He’s also a Distinguished Service Cross recipient
Don participated in the first U.S. invasion of Africa and was captured by the Germans. He was sent to a French prison camp and wasn’t released until the French joined Allied forces. Following Africa he went to the British Isles to train as an Army Ranger, but he was declared ineligible after his captain learned he was married. Don rejoined the 34th Red Bull Division in General Patton’s Fifth Army until the war’s end.
On Feb. 4, 1944, Singlestad’s platoon was attacked by the Germans. He and one of his squads were surrounded and cut off from the rest of the company. He fought his way free by moving forward, throwing hand grenades in his advance. Expending his ammunition he used his rifle as a club against the enemy who surrounded him. He felled two soldiers, dived over a rock wall, seized another rifle and continued his advance to the company command post. He provided valuable information to his commanding officer and reorganized his platoon in repulsing enemy attack.
Don later entered Rom three days before American troops arrived. He helped set up communications in to direct air and artillery to protect the Vatican and other ancient buildings. His heroics led to a personal tour of the Vatican by the Pope. As Don readies for his return trip to Italy, he’s also writing a book on his experiences called Fighting Fool.
We salute you and thank you, Don.
Don Singlestad, 92, doesn’t need Red Bull energy drink. He’s an original Red Bull, the most decorated non-commissioned officer of the 34th Division of the Red Bull Infantry. In September, our customer at Heritage Manor in Park Rapids will travel to
Jean Ruzicka of the Park Rapids Enterprise newspaper wrote a great article that is archived here about his role in ensuring
Don participated in the first
On Feb. 4, 1944, Singlestad’s platoon was attacked by the Germans. He and one of his squads were surrounded and cut off from the rest of the company. He fought his way free by moving forward, throwing hand grenades in his advance. Expending his ammunition he used his rifle as a club against the enemy who surrounded him. He felled two soldiers, dived over a rock wall, seized another rifle and continued his advance to the company command post. He provided valuable information to his commanding officer and reorganized his platoon in repulsing enemy attack.
Don later entered Rom three days before American troops arrived. He helped set up communications in to direct air and artillery to protect the
We salute you and thank you, Don.
Our Gratitude to the Next Generation's Heros:
Last Thursday, Daniel Drevnick, 22, of Woodbury, Minn.; James Wertish, 20, of Olivia, Minn.; and Carlos Wilcox, 27, of Cottage Grove, Minn.; were killed in a missile attack in Iraq. All three National Guard specialists were members of the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.
On Sunday, as several hundred people gathered in Stillwater, Minn. to honor those three, we learned that two more Minnesotans had lost their lives as the result of injuries suffered in Afghanistan. Ben Kopp, 21, of Rosemount, died Saturday at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he had been in a coma due to wounds received on July 10. The day before, Air Force Capt. Thomas J. Gramith, 27, a St. Paul native who had moved his family to North Carolina, was killed when his fighter jet crashed.
Our gratitude to them for their sacrifices for us and our country. May they rest in peace.
You're Invited to Citizens League Workshop on Innovation in Long-Term Care Financing
YOU'RE INVITED TO A CITIZENS LEAGUE WORKSHOP TO HELP SHAPE LONG-TERM CARE FINANCING INNOVATION IN MINNESOTA:
How to Participate
Please register online at: www.citizensleague.org/what/policy/aging If you have questions about the project itself, feel free to contact Stacy Becker, the project manager, at 651-646-5288 or stacybecker@comcast.net
Project Sponsors
This project is being directed and organized by the non-partisan Citizens League in partnership with twenty-two funders representing senior service organizations (including Ecumen), care providers, the health and medical industry, senior housing, the insurance industry and the business community.
Project Summary
Through spirited discussions and a review of data and literature, a project Steering Team arrived at this framing of long-term care financing: “What policy changes are needed to create incentives for personal responsibility for long-term care?” In short, they agreed that while there are many public issues involved with long-term care, the key issue regarding financing is the likely explosive growth in publicly subsidized care (i.e., Medicaid) and its corollary that more and more people cannot afford the long-term care they need.
Most important, the group has focused on influencing total costs, not simply on how to pay for those costs. The policy variables are the incentives and disincentives in people’s lives that create or minimize public and personal costs in three key areas: financial behaviors, informal care and health and medical choices. Please note that the emphasis on personal behavior does not preclude changes to the larger systems (i.e., Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security) that impact the well-being of the elderly. Indeed, the workings of these systems have profound impacts on people’s choices and behaviors. Furthermore, the emphasis on personal responsibility is not meant to deny the need for a safety net. To the contrary, the pressures on public funding could well erode benefits for those who truly need help.
Project Participants
The success of the workshops will depend on having a broad range of perspectives so that participants can interact, share and learn from one another as they jointly develop ideas for long-term care. The Citizens League has found from past workshops that collectively, participants have the expertise needed to develop solutions to tough problems.
Workshop Schedule and Location
Three workshops are scheduled. You may sign up for one or more workshops. Each workshop will consist of two sessions: an afternoon session followed by a morning session. The Citizens League has found that the overnight breather helps to clarify thoughts and stimulate ideas.
All workshops will be held at the Citizens League board room, 4th floor, 555 Wabasha Street, downtown Saint Paul. There is some free parking behind the building; enter off 10th street. There is also ample metered parking. Map and directions can be found at: www.citizensleague.org/directions
Informal care, Monday Aug 3rd, 12-4 p.m. and Tuesday Aug 4th, 8:30-11:30 a.m.
This workshop will address questions such as:
• Has informal care-giving become a different type of family burden that it was in the past—does it exceed what should be expected of families and/or create longer-term societal problems?
• What role is desirable for informal care to play in our LTC system? Necessary? What incentives, infrastructure or support is necessary in order for that role to be fulfilled?
• What does informal care provide that it alone can provide—there are no substitutes?
• Who in the community or what could reasonably substitute for family-provided informal care? What would be needed to develop a “market” for such care?
Health/medical choices, Monday Aug 17th, 12-4 p.m. and Tuesday Aug 18th, 8:30-11:30 a.m.
This workshop will address questions such as:
• What function does Medicaid serve for the low income elderly that could not be achieved by modifying Medicare?
• Do people with chronic disease and disability lack incentives to manage their care, or the means? What policies would be effective in redressing these shortcomings?
• Research is clear that past certain points, additional Medicare spending does not produce higher quality health outcomes. How do we align personal interest with the public interest when people are making medical choices?
• What happens when someone goes from hospital to nursing home to home, or hospital to home? What is the role of transitional care and good discharge planning?
• Is our concept of nursing homes obsolete? If so, what do they need to become?
Financial incentives, Monday Aug 24th, 12-4 p.m. and Tuesday Aug 25th, 8:30-11:30 a.m.
This workshop will address questions such as:
• Arguably, no generation has had to provide for LTC in the way that we do today—people living longer, with fewer children to care for them, both spouses working to make ends meet, and costly health care. Do we need to rethink what “personal responsibility” means in this new environment?
• Do people with minimal retirement savings lack incentives to save, or the means?
• What role should long-term care insurance play? What design features are imperative in order for it to play this instrumental role?
• Should we consider Boomers, especially older Boomers, as a separate problem? Is it possible to design savings incentives that would work for them? Even if they work a few more years, is it too late?
• Under what conditions should LTC for all be financed through a public system (e.g., under Medicare?)
• Medicaid takes an “on/off” approach—one is on Medicaid or not. Does it make sense to start thinking about a system which encourages people to contribute what they can? What would that look like?
• What types of assets should be fair game for contributing to one’s LTC (currently a house, car, farm, etc. can be retained). Does the desire to leave a legacy have any social value? For whom? Is it possible to align personal and public interest here? How?
What You Can Expect
Participant role: Participants are the main feature in these workshops. Participants will work in groups to discuss goals and outcomes, and then develop ideas to reach those outcomes. A short brief will be prepared of research to help workshop participants brainstorm and to know what types of incentives may work. But the true cross current of ideas is expected to come from participants—the workshops will host a diversity of perspectives, experiences and expertise.
Further, the Citizens League is interested in using these workshops to create a collective agreement on how Minnesota should address long-term care financing. The broad range of participation is hoped to jump start the all-important process of reaching agreement on how Minnesota needs to move forward.
Meals: Lunch will be provided day one, and breakfast the following morning.
Special arrangements: If you would like to participate but need help with special logistical arrangements, please call Cat at 651-293-0575.
How the Results Will Be Used
The Steering Team will review the ideas that emerge from the workshops. Their charge will be to identify important linkages across the three workshops and to determine what if any additional information (such as actuarial analysis) is necessary to prioritize, test and refine the ideas. Based on the analysis, the Steering Team will develop a proposed action plan of the most promising ideas. We will post the draft plan on the Citizens League web site and notify workshop participants so they may comment on the plan. The final plan will contain two to five ideas that Minnesota can implement to create a sustainable, viable LTC financing system that ensures quality care for all Minnesotans.
Candidate Paul Thissen Looking to Bring Age Wave Innovation to Minnesota Governor's Office
Interesting Politics in Minnesota interview with Rep. Paul Thissen who is running for governor of Minnesota.
Thissen is a Harvard-educated Minnesota state legislator who used to play pick up hoops with Barack Obama at the University of Chicago, where Thissen received his law degree. Like Obama did, Thissen now is running for higher office: governor of Minnesota.
Thissen is well-respected in the State Legislature and has not shied away from seeking innovation in health care and senior services. He was the lead behind Communities for a Lifetime legislation that passed this year to help make Minnesota communities good places to grow up and grow old. Now he's making the Age Wave a key part of his gubernatorial platform. Smart move. Other gubernatorial candidates need to do the same thing. The Age Wave is here, it's expanding and it's changing our state in never before-seen ways. The opportunity: leadership to ensure it changes Minnesota for the better. We look forward to featuring other candidates who embrace changing aging.
10 Things a Church Needs to Know About Seniors
Got a delightful phone call from Ecumen customer Honor Hacker today. She brought to my attention an article "10 Things the Church Should Know About Seniors" in the National Catholic Reporter authored by Carol Luebering. Good list that applies across denominations and ages. Below is a preview. Go here for the full article and expanded insights on the list. What would you add to Carol's list?
1. We are the precious resources that don't always show up on the balance sheet.
2. We are the historians with long memories.
3. Although we mourn many losses and read the obituaries daily to see who else has left us, we are, some studies have shown, surprisingly happy.
4. A lot of us no longer move with ease; some of us depend on walkers or wheelchairs. We need for you to make sure there are spaces in the church to accommodate those aids.
5. Our hearing is not as keen as it used to be. Pay careful attention to your sound system and to those who use it.
6. We need to be missed.
7. We need to get special attention when we are recovering from an illness.
8. We need to keep in touch with other older members of the community.
9. We need to feel useful.
10.We need to invest in the future.
House Democrats Ignore Long-Term Care Financing Reform
House Democratic leaders Tuesday unveiled their bill to reform America's health care system — and insure an additional 37 million Americans over the next 10 years - to the tune of more than $1 trillion, funded mostly through an up-to-5.4 percent surtax on income for the wealthiest Americans. What's missing? Long-term care financing reform. All they talk about is "studies." Ideally as this process winds its way through, long-term care financing reform will be put where it needs to be - in health care reform.
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.