College Hoops Comeback at 73
Imagine making your college basketball playing comeback at age 73, after 53 years away from the hardwood. Ken Mink is doing it. Check out this video shared by Ecumen colleague John Boughton:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvkmqbgUU_E[/youtube]
Ecumen Expanding Senior Housing and Services
There are a lot of people busy within Ecumen in shaping new senior housing options and services. We want to share with you some new development and service news from around Ecumen:
Detroit Lakes, Minnesota
Ecumen’s Emmanuel Community in Detroit Lakes has opened The Cottage & Day Spa. It provides expanded options to families in Detroit Lakes who are caregivers and need day services for their loved one.'We wanted to get away from the adult day care name,' said Steve Przybilla, 'Our day services go beyond care. They are very engaging and nurturing, and tie directly to our wellness value.'The Cottage and Day Spa includes the WellSystem Aqua Massage System, which other Ecumen communities also are using. A person can get a private relaxing whole body massage without removing clothing.The Emmanuel Community expansion also includes 16 memory care residences, 3 respite care suites and a large conference room and kitchen expansion.'This allows us to build upon our value of service, and serve customers in Detroit Lakes in new and expanded ways,' says Steve.The $6.9 million expansion was supported by a $250,000 grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services. According to a state study informal caregivers provide more than 90% of care at home and each 2% reduction in those caregivers costs the state nearly $10 million annually.
Apple Valley, Minnesota
Construction has begun on 20 memory care residences at The Centennial House in Apple Valley. The $3.7 million expansion will be completed next spring. It will be connected to the existing area of The Centennial House community, which includes 60 assisted living apartments.'Ecumen and its professionals at The Centennial House have been great assets to Apple Valley, and I am very pleased that they are expanding and bringing these important services to the residents of our community,' says Apple Valley Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland.
Sandpoint, Idaho
Ecumen is developing Luther Park at Sandpoint, which will be owned by First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint.(If you’ve never been to Sandpoint, let me share a secret: it’s stunningly gorgeous - see area photos here and here.)Luther Park is slated to open next month. It will offer independent living apartments, assisted living apartments and memory care apartments. The focus is to provide services as people need them, so that they can 'age in place' and stay in the home they love even if they need more intensive care. The housing will be physically connected to First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint. Pastor David Olson and his congregation are enhancing their already vibrant community by expanding their community and creating new service options for Sandpoint-area seniors.Here are a couple of photos from construction. This fireplace is going to be absolutely awesome. What a great place to nestle on a snowy day amid the mountains surrounding Sandpoint.One of the things that we’ve done at several of new communities is integrate artwork or other 'very local' features into the 
architecture. Check out the stair railing over to the right. That symbol in the stair railing is a branding iron from a local rancher. We’ve used local branding irons in a number of the stairwells.
Bemidji, Minnesota
Last Thursday was a groundbreaking ceremony for what could become the first 'green' senior housing community in Minnesota and one of a few in the country. Ecumen is developing the community for North Country Health Services, one of the Upper Midwest’s leading healthcare providers.North Country’s mission is to assure a lifetime continuum of quality healthcare services. North Country’s new community will underscore that mission, providing independent living, assisted living and memory care. It also will be physically connected to their new care center, providing easy access in this wellness community.The new community will be submitted for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the United States Green Building Council. Among the green features will be underground parking that will lessen impervious space and reduce water use, and lighting features that prevent light and energy waste. Many of the construction materials also will be harvested locally.
Tom Daschle and Long-Term Care Financing and Services in America
Reports are that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle from South Dakota is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to head the Health and Human Services department. Daschle would take that position at one of the most critical times in the U.S. history of aging services where there is so much opportunity for change.So is there anything from Sen. Daschle’s past that gives us insights into how he might approach long-term care financing and services?' Check out these opening comments he made at a Capitol Hill press conference in 1999. A decade later could an administration that pledges change and innovation, turn to innovation in long-term care financing?'You wouldn’t appoint Tom Daschle to be secretary of Health and Human Services if you weren’t serious about making healthcare reform a priority,' said Drew E. Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation in an interview with the L.A. Times.
Sen. Daschle’s opening statements at a 1999 press conference:
Bette Davis once said that it takes courage to grow old. And I believe that anyone who has had the experience of watching their parents struggle with the challenges of age and the extraordinary physical and mental pressures that older people feel, understand what it is to be courageous as one grows old.
We believe that you have to be courageous in Congress as well, in dealing with the problems of our elderly and recognizing the importance of a population that will continue to be larger and larger as a percentage of our country and its demographics. That is why we’ve been concerned over the last several months about the inaction we’ve seen in the Congress on an array of issues that we believe are critical to addressing the needs of this nation when it comes to the elderly.
And the list continues to grow as we look at failures on the part of the majority in addressing the needs of the elderly this year and the needs of the elderly as the baby boomers grow older: They failed to enact the Medicare prescription drug benefit. They failed to establish a national family caregivers support program to help families with long term needs. They failed to establish long-term care tax credits. They failed to strengthen the retired health coverage. They failed to combat crimes against seniors. And they have failed now to authorize the Older Americans Act.There is an array of failures there that I think point to the need for greater bipartisanship, greater efforts to reach to common ground and to build a consensus in addressing the problems of the elderly.
New Connections in the Age Wave
Innovators are making new connections in the age wave … Thanks to Ecumen colleague Robin Dunbar for sharing this video story:
I Like Being Old
Thank you to Ecumen colleague Anna Cole-Kost at Ecumen’s Parmly LifePointes community who contributed this reflection on the gift of growing old. It was sent to her from a friend who has discovered new things in old age:
Old Age, I decided, is a gift.I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometimes despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by the old person that lives in my mirror, but I don’t agonize over those things for long.I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, or my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself, I’ve become my own friend.I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4AM and sleep until noon?I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 & 70’s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set; they too, will get old.I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things, I think!Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)
Rep. Paul Thissen, Who Sees Innovation in The Future of Aging, to Run for Minnesota Governor
Minnesota State Representative Paul Thissen, a Democrat who chairs the House and Human Services Committee, filed papers yesterday to run for Governor of Minnesota in 2010. What’s particularly intriguing about Thissen is his interest in the age wave (check out his web site here) and innovation and his desire to help shape new solutions.The newsletter Politics in Minnesota recently interviewed Thissen as part of a larger story on aging services public policy (The newsletter gave a shout out to Changing Aging, which was nice).Following is an excerpt from the interview:
… There’s also positive energy on Age Wave policy in the Minnesota Legislature. We asked Rep. Thissen if he has any specific legislative goals related to this issue.His enthusiastic answers indicated the importance in which care for the aging is placed in this influential committee. Despite the materializing crisis, Thissen is markedly optimistic about the projects lined up. 'It’s really a exciting time,' he said. In the upcoming session, he expects to be 'fighting the budget,' but was confident that important measures could still be passed.Thissen characterized the long-term care debate in Minnesota currently as a partisan issue, often boiling down to yea-or-nay nursing home funding votes. What he wants to see is the transfer of the issue to a more holistic, long-term issue of health and society. First, saving for retirement is a huge issue; Thissen would like to see a 529-style tax-advantaged retirement savings plan in Minnesota, as has been established in Nebraska. (He and Rep. Laura Brod, a Republican, wrote a bi-partisan op-ed on this very subject recently in the MInneapolis Star Tribune.) Encouraging Minnesotans to set aside funds for disabilities and health care is understood to be a major goal.Other goals in the Legislature include continuing the legacy of the Community Consortium Bill, to extend the flexibility of local communities in allocating and distributing health care money. Thissen sees individual freedom with care dollars as an important component of allowing Minnesota seniors to age with dignity and independence.Thissen thinks that the economic realities of the Age Wave can be the catalyst for change, politically. But he stressed that it’s critical to change public perception, to encourage everybody to see themselves and their parents or grandparents in such a way as to personalize the issue. He mentioned the idea of convening a summit, with citizen dialogue and bipartisan legislative support, to address issues in aging. When Minnesotans have an investment in seeing themselves and their loved ones cared for, Thissen said, 'that’s how we start to make change.' …
A Veterans Day Prayer From Ecumen
I’d like to share a Veterans Day prayer from Rev. Alice Olson, who leads Ecumen’s spiritual services at Ecumen’s Bayshore and Lakeshore communities in Duluth, Minnesota. Thank you to everyone who has served our country, is serving and who has shared their family members in service to America. God Bless.
Almighty God, CreatorWe commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace, strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be.We ask that you be present with us this day as we honor and remember those in this community who have served or are serving especially those who work for Ecumen and their families.May your love and strength be with them, within them and around them.Amen.
The Millennials and Innovation in America and Aging Services
Do you think transformation of aging services in America is just about seniors … just about baby boomers … think again:
Still Sharing Amid Alzheimer’s: Bob Can Give Love and He Can Receive It
Copyright Photo by Laura Crosby
Changing Aging has featured several poems from St. Paul writer Anne Simpson, who wrote Growing Down, a book of poems and photography on she and her husband’s journey with Alzheimer’s. Please read earlier posts here in order: Growing Down: Poems for an Alzheimer’s Patient, Diagnosis, I’m Still Here, Bob Said He Was Growing Down.What is so beautiful about Anne’s work is that it doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges of Alzheimer’s, but it also underscores hope, as with this excerpt from the third chapter called 'End Stage.'
' … . He would rejoice to know that 'blessings' of this disease still are unfolding: we are close to our families and we have reconnected with friends who have not seen him in years.Bob (a Methodist minister) is in ministry still, teaching us patience and acceptance. He is dying a gracious death. There were several years of high anxiety and constant chatter, but he is more peaceful now. He talks very little, but he says 'Good, good.' He says, 'Thank you' and 'I love … 'Even as he approaches the end of his long struggle with dementia, he can give love and he can receive it. He is still here!
Thank you, Anne, for sharing yourself and your poetry with 'Changing Aging.' Below is one more work of Anne’s called Visitation:In the Alzheimer’s homewhere the young mother has come to visit,her baby is crying.You hold out your arms.You sit on a cold, metal fold-up chairby the nurse’s desk,sit calmly as you hold the flailing bundle --purple screwed-up face,fists and feet pummelling the air,tiny lungs forming screamsthat pierce old deafened ears.Bent over the child, you sit,gently rocking,stroking her,speaking sounds no others understand.You murmur the language that comes before speechthat she, so recently arrived,and you, so close to return,can speak together.
St. Paul Pioneer Press Launches Age Wave, a Long-Term Care Blog
St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter Jeremy Olson has launched a new blog called The Age Wave. Jeremy has received a fellowship from the Kaiser Family Foundation to look at long-term care today and its future and is writing a series of stories for the newspaper.In writing the series and the blog Olson says he’s taking his late grandmother’s advice:
'Take care of the corners and the middle always takes care of itself.' Sure, she was talking about spreading frosting, but it applies. By examining individual stories and struggles -- by highlighting the hidden corners of long-term care in Minnesota -- he intends to identify broader solutions.