Our Blog

Senior Services Technology In the Stimulus Bill: Inside the Journey

'We had a compelling story to tell about the nation’s shifting demographics and the significant need to change how services are delivered to an aging population. It wasn’t a story of doom and gloom. It was a story of opportunity and solutions. Aging services technologies represent hope and a different way of thinking about how to support independence, choice and aging in place. To me, that was the power of our message.” - Ecumen’s Kathy Bakkenist, public policy chair of the Center for Aging Services TechnologiesRead insights from Kathy on the journey to get senior services technology in the Federal Stimulus Bill and what’s next related to this legislation by visiting AAHSA’s Future of Aging Blog.

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Senior CoHousing Conference - Boulder, Colorado

If you’re interested in creating senior cohousing, this experiential Colorado conference, April 20-24, at Silver Sage Village cohousing (photos from Silver Sage above) in Boulder is for you. Participants will be limited to 20. Cost is $1250. To sign up for the conference or learn more go here.The conference will be led by:Chuck Durrett: n architect, who pioneered the first cohousing communities in the United States. He authored the book, Senior Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Independent Living - The Handbook.Jim Leach: president of Wonderland Hill Development Company, the largest developer of cohousing in the U.S.Annie Russell: founding member of Wild Sage Cohousing and the community builder for Wonderland Hill Development Company. She lives in Senior Sage cohousing.Topics will include:- Aging in place, in community, successfully - What are the options?- The comparative economics of alternate senior living arrangements- Co-care and assistance in community- Sageing: What we have to offer the world- Finding land- Financing and marketing cohousing

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Ecumen’s Mary Leber and Helping Communities Meet Senior Services Needs

I came across this article the other day from the LeRoy, Minn., newspaper. It’s about a meeting that Mary Leber, Ecumen’s director of long-term care consulting services recently had with the city’s Economic Development Authority.At the meeting, she was outlining plans she helped their local senior housing community to develop to serve people with Alzheimer’s and dementia.In the article, she shares how this new service mix could help people stay in the LeRoy community without having to go to an institutional nursing home. Kudos to the city of LeRoy for looking at new ways to serve seniors and keep them living in a community they love. It’s something that should be part of every city’s strategic plan.

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Message on Long-Term Care in Health Reform Getting Traction

The message on needing to make long-term care financing reform part of health care reform is starting to get some traction on Capitol Hill. Thank you to all of you who made calls last week in front of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.Committee chair Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) opened the hearing by saying:

“Our message is a simple one: any serious health reform proposal must address long-term care. With America aging at an unprecedented rate, and with the high and rising costs of caring for a loved one, it is crucial that long-term care services are addressed.”To read testimony at the hearing, go here.

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Matt Birk and Embracing Change

What Are You Doing That Scares You a Bit?

Matt Birk isn’t a senior housing and services professional; his work is professional football. But check out his thoughts on changing teams after 11 seasons with his hometown Minnesota Vikings:

… My wife and I, my kids, we’re all from Minnesota… And it will always be home. ... We’re so comfortable here. I guess if we didn’t do something like this, and take a chance and start fresh (move to the Baltimore Ravens) … I felt I would have looked back on it and regretted it, not doing it … I think sometimes it’s good to leave the familiar comfort zone and do things that scare you a little bit.'

                     - Interview with with Minneapolis Strib sports columnist Sid Hartman

Good luck to Matt as he starts a new adventure in Baltimore and many Changing Aging readers who, like Matt, are doing things that scare them a bit. Life’s short, even if it’s long.

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Spirituality: Not One Size Fits All

Below is a post by Pastor Ron Gerl, who directs spiritual care at Ecumen’s Parmly LifePointes community. Pastor Ron recently celebrated his 35th year of ordination. He is a graduate of Luther Seminary, where he received his master’s degree in divinity:'Spirituality' is a frequently used phrase. But whose job is it to nurture our customers' spirituality? The easy answer is 'the chaplain or the 'spiritual care' team.' But when we look at what we’re striving to do across Ecumen, spirituality and spiritual care are integral to serving and empowering our customers. Spirituality is about all of us.In our Mission, Vision and Values, we define the value of spirituality as honoring our faith-based heritage by creating welcoming, inclusive communities that nurture and support the spiritual needs of the people we serve.What that says is that spirituality is not tactical. It’s not a policy, nor a procedure or a goal. And it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all. In a person-centric profession such as ours, it means we are listening with the ear of our heart and learning what brings meaning and purpose in each and every customer’s life and helping nurture and support that person’s search for higher meaning.One’s higher meaning is often sought in God or religion, but it can be expressed in other ways, too, such as family, nature, friendships, vocation, art or other relationships or interests. Just as a person can change over time, so can one’s spirituality.Spirituality emphasizes that people are not merely physical beings requiring mechanical, tactical care. Learning what gives a person a higher purpose and then helping nurture it, helps people continue to grow and also cope better with illness, trauma, and life transitions.Our approach to care must always be the 'human' approach, not a 'mechanical' approach. Honoring and empowering a person’s individuality, being and multiple dimensions by embracing and supporting one’s spirituality is essential to being a senior services provider that people 'want' rather than 'need.'

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A Victory for Aging Services Technology

A Post by Kathy Bakkenist, COO and Sr. VP of Strategy, Ecumen, and public policy chair of The Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST):

The Center for Aging Services Technology’s (CAST) federal policy agenda took a tremendous step forward with the passing of the American Recovery and Revitalization Act, also known as the Stimulus Bill.Having served as CAST’s policy chair since 2006, I am particularly proud of this success, the culmination of four years of work by the CAST policy team. We have had unflinching support from the Minnesota Congressional team as we have worked with members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Special Committee on Aging, and the House Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees to advocate for aging services technologies. The inclusion of these efforts in this important legislation is monumental - a true acknowledgement of the issues we face and the opportunities we hope for.I’d like to share with you the provisions that relate to aging services. The goals are to assure that every individual has an electronic health record by 2014 and the incentives are in place to propel the adoption of technology.

• The definition of Healthcare Providers includes skilled nursing facility, nursing facility, home health entity, and an open-ended category, 'other long term care facility.'

• The definition of Health Information Technologies (HIT) includes hardware and software used in the creation of health information, which could potentially encompass telehealth and biometric telemonitoring technologies.

• A study on aging services technology proposed by CAST and included in one of the two House IT bills introduced last Congress was included. This study by HHS will examine 'matters relating to the potential use of new aging services technology to assist seniors, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers throughout the aging process.'

• A study will be conducted to determine if long-term care providers, long term care hospitals, and rehabilitation hospitals, which currently do not receive incentive payments to encourage the adoption of EHR, will require incentives to encourage them to implement EHR technology prior to 2014.

• Funding will be available for states in the form of matching grants to encourage use of HIT. These grants are directed at healthcare providers that are not covered by the incentive payments, so long-term care providers would be eligible for grants. Specific grants and requirements are to be developed by states. These are extensive requirements to involve providers as state plans are developed and implemented.

• US-based Not-For-Profit organizations (or consortiums) that meet the eligibility criteria can apply to become regional centers to facilitate HIT in rural and other underserved areas.

CAST will be studying the legislation, following up on available grant programs, and assisting state executives with analyzing the implications as will as developing processes for implementation. Ecumen will coordinate a team to guide our pursuit of these opportunities.This legislation is a grant step forward in bringing 21^st century technologies to health care and senior services.

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Friendship: A Blessing of Living Fully

Friendship is such an incredible, satisfying part of living fully.Today I received a pleasant surprise in my inbox. It’s a tribute from one civic giant to another and from one longtime friend to another.Verne Johnson is a founder of the Twin Cities-based Civic Caucus, which demonstrates new ways to stimulate and maintain involvement of people in public affairs. Their valuable work and archives of interviews with citizen and elected people in public affairs is highly accessible through the robust online community they’ve built. They have a treasure trove of information for people who enjoy working on solutions across partisan lines. Before his recent death, Chuck Clay had been Verne’s partner in a number of civic ventures and, more importantly, a best friend.Below is a tribute from Verne to his long-time friend and a poem that illustrates Chuck’s wide-ranging talents. It says a lot about living fully to the end of life, collaboration, love and friendship. Thank you Verne and thank you Chuck:THERE IS NOTHING LIKE LOSING ONE’S VERY BEST FRIENDCharles Clayas written by Verne Johnson on March 3rd 2009On Sunday, March 1st 2009, my best friend of over 60 years passed away at the age of 83. Chuck Clay and I first met as students in the University of Minnesota Law School in 1948 and our exceedingly close relationship has continued every single year since that date. We have worked together on almost every single public policy initiative I have worked on over this lengthy period of time. Many people considered us a team. His contributions to every single such success - and failure - over a lifetime have been invaluable and he has always been at my side at any time of need. Let me cite some of the initiatives we have worked on jointly:Our lifetime of continuous teamwork began when as law students we both became active in the Young Republican League. In 1949 Raeder Larson, Jim Olson, Chuck and I formed a small public policy discussion group called the caucus. Chuck continued as a core participant through the entire 60 years until the time of his passing. This caucus evolved in recent years into a tax exempt non profit organization called the Civic Caucus which is making a significant impact on public policy issues with a Minnesota emphasis. During my final year in law school Chuck became so concerned about my grades--because I was spending too much time on civic activities--that he actually tutored me.Of even greater significance in 1951 was the marriage of Chuck to Audrey Jorgenson, with whom he had been dating since his high school years. From that moment on everything that Chuck did and/or needed Audrey has always been there for him. Indeed, Chuck found the absolutely perfect wife, mother, grandmother and servant who was always there in any time of need, right up to the final moments of his life.In 1951 Chuck was part of our small group which wanted to draft General Eisenhower for president. We worked tirelessly - were thrown off the presidential primary ballot for technical reasons - organized a write in campaign for Eisenhower, carried the vote in the Twin Cities metropolitan area and the two of us went together to the 1952 National Republican convention in Chicago.Chuck began his legal career in the law department of the Soo Line Railroad, thus beginning his love of railroads and subsequently to his co-founding of a small regional railroad which primarily connected up with the Burlington Northern.We helped each other in political campaigns, Chuck and Audrey helping me on a successful race for the state legislature, and Carol and I helping Chuck on a successful bid for the Edina School Board. Both of us served lengthy years on the Deaconess Hospital board and subsequently the Fairview Board.Chuck faithfully kept me posted on local public affairs during a three year period of time when I was working out of town. Upon my return both of us worked together almost daily in the Citizens League, where Chuck served as chair of several key committees and as president.Later both of us kept busy with corporate jobs, but we continued as best friends and our families enjoyed a close social life together.We did so many wonderful things together. Numerous trips to Florida, cruises, playing golf and bridge and so much more. We gave the Clays support during their times of trial - they lost their first two children in infancy - and the loss of Audrey’s two parents. And they were always there for us in our time of need and particularly when our daughter, Diane, had to have surgery for cancer at the age of 14.A lasting memory of our years with Chuck and Audrey involved a unique talent of Chuck’s that few outside his family and closest friends knew about. He loved to compose poems, always centered about a significant event. Indeed, his daughter, Janis, put together a book of his poems and re-reading them at a time like this made me more fully appreciate this talent he had. Let me share with you just one poem, which he wrote to Audrey on her 65th birthday.The poem is titled WORDS FROM THE HEART:Words from the heart come slowly.Sometimes they don’t come at all.We were blessed in the spring and summerNow we enjoy the fall.I should have said this more oftenHow much your love means to me.But I thought the depth of my feelingWas obvious and easy to see.You have been loving and caringBringing light and joy to our life.Now it is my turn to say this,I love you, thank you for being my wife.The closeness between the two of us in recent years has been most clearly represented by our working relationship with the Civic Caucus. He continued interested and active until he could no longer function independently and even then I kept him posted on progress, invariably seeking his counsel on key issues and challenges. His role as a core participant in the Civic Caucus has been maintained over a period of 60 years and only was interrupted by his passing.The above illustrations of our wonderful working and family relationship should give you a picture of why Chuck is going to be so sorely missed. We have done almost everything as a team over these more than 60 years and his passing approaches the severity of the loss of a spouse or loved one. Words cannot express adequately what he has meant to my life nor can they convey fully my gratitude to him for always being there with me.For a brief moment we shall part but I just know that we will rejoin in Heaven and continue the work of the Civic Caucus together. Perfection is Heaven and that means, for me, a continuation of our wonderful relationship. So long, Chuck, for just awhile

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Please Join Us Today

Thanks to everyone, such as our Ecumen colleagues at the left in Duluth, Minn., who called in yesterday during the congressional call to urge Congress to make long-term care services part of health care reform. Several thousand calls were generated across the country … thank you for your help!On Wed. beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging will hold a hearing on Health Care Reform in an Aging America. Sen. Kohl (D-Wis.) is the chair. Live streaming video of the hearing can be ound at the link above.

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Please Join Us Today in Our Ecumen Congressional Call-In Today

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