In Sickness and In Health, Until Death Do Us Part
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor brought a great deal of awareness to breast cancer when she went public with her story. Today she’s shedding new light on Alzheimers disease and caregiving. Her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimers 17 years ago, has moved into an assisted living community in Arizona for memory care. He’s also begun an intimate relationship with a girlfriend, who also has Alzheimers. It’s a heartwarming, and likely very difficult story to tell of a family who adores a father and a husband and want to see him happy. If you get a moment, watch the story here at MSNBC.I’m curious if any of you have heard or experienced a similar story?
Changing Aging and Back to the Classroom
Could you see yourself doing a completely different job when you retire than the one you’re currently doing? Many boomers in our Age Wave study said they’ll be doing something very different when they hit their 'third age.'In Maryland and California, they’re connecting the generations by bringing seniors and baby boomers back to the classroom as paid teachers or volunteers. You can read more at this stateline.org story.According to stateline.org, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this summer launched a statewide program that partners with high-tech companies to recruit, train and place retiring employees in the state’s public schools. Virginia and other states use federal money to train retirees for volunteer work in classrooms and with students who need extra help. A similar program in Maryland has has improved teacher retention, raised student scores and boosted the overall health of the senior volunteers.Nationwide, public schools are expected to lose about a million teachers over the next decade, according to the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future. What an opportunity to tap new sources of expertise in new ways.
An ELCA Senior Housing Partnership
The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a nice article yesterday on Luther Park, a senior housing development that we are very excited to be part of in Sandpoint, Idaho. The first project of its kind in Idaho, it’s a great example of collaboration among Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) partners to help people live for a lifetime in communities that they love.First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint will be the owner of Luther Park which will be physically connected to First Lutheran Church. Ecumen will develop and manage it. The Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA is the primary financing partner, and Thrivent also contributed financing. Pastor Dave Olson is the visionary behind the project and bringing the various ELCA partners together to make it a reality.Below is the Star Tribune story:Sandpoint, Idaho, has become one the most desirable retirement destinations for active seniors. At the base of the Selkirk Mountains and just south of the Canadian border it provides scenic beauty, outdoor recreation and an arts community.Shoreview-based Ecumen, one of the country’s largest nonprofit senior housing services and development companies, was also attracted to the area.It joined with First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint and other Evangelical Lutheran Church in America partners to break ground on Idaho’s first catered living senior housing development in Sandpoint.Called Luther Park at Sandpoint, it will be connected to First Lutheran Church of Sandpoint and will open in November of 2008.Ecumen’s development plans integrate independent living with a suite of assisted-living services on one site. The catered living design allows seniors to be as independent as possible in a community they were drawn to, while providing assisted-living and memory-care services when needed.The apartments include one- and two-bedroom floor plans and common areas will include a grand fireplace gathering area, library and media center, community meeting rooms, a salon and barber shop and outdoor walking paths.
Thank You to Our Veterans
At Ecumen, we have the honor of serving many people who generously served their country. On this Veterans Day, we say Thank You' to all those who have served America and are doing so today.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B81kW814qA[/youtube]
How Information Impacts Perception
It’s amazing how our perception can change with just a little more information. Check out this video. Have a great weekend![youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA&NR=1[/youtube]
Most Baby Boomers Think They Have Long-Term Care Coverage
As we face the nation’s age wave, there’s a big disconnect between fact and reality for the country’s 78 million baby boomers when it comes to who they think is going to pay for their long-term care. What an innovation opportunity for policymakers. Without innovation, government-funded long-term care is going to eat up billions of dollars of state and federal budgets. In fact, here in Minnesota alone, long-term care could cost the state $20 billion by 2050. (If you get a chance, read the Minnesota Department of Human Services Transform 2010 report/blueprint here.)Of the 34% of Baby Boomers in our Minnesota Age Wave Study who said that they would pay for long-term care with government funding, 29% said that Medicare would pay for it. It won’t.In a new survey by StrategyOne for America’s Health Insurance Plans 54% of the country’s boomers said they will think Medicare will pay for long-term care. The survey found that 30 percent of baby boomers think they have long-term care coverage, but the National Association of Insurance Commissioners says only some 5.2 million U.S. adults have long-term care insurance -- even if all those covered were boomers, which they are not, that would only account for 6.6 percent of the U.S. boomer population.Do you think the percentage of people who know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid was much better?
The University of Wisconsin’s Great Resource
A couple of thanks' here from Changing Aging at Ecumen.Ric Shafer, a Changing Aging reader, recently put us on to the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jack Solock of the UW’s Center sends out a daily digest of aging and retirement news from around the globe. It’s absolutely fascinating. If you’d like to sign up to receive their daily email updates, go here.Thank you to Ric for notifying our readers and thank you Jack for the updates.
25 Visions of Successful Aging
Posted by Kathy Bakkenist, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Operations
Recently I blogged about several intergenerational focus groups we recently did of members of the Baby Boom Generation, Silent Generation and Greatest Generation.
How would you answer this question?: If you could create your ideal future, how would you describe it?Here are answers from our focus group participants:- Close friends nearby, a strong sense of community.- Comfort, safety, good health.- Balance of being independent and having a community around you.- Stimulating community that allows me to expand my horizons as I age.- Friends, health. But I want some key things to be easy - computer repair, plumbing problems, etc.- Lots of things I can walk to. To live a pedestrian life.- Health and vitality.- Health support, so even if I’m at home there are resources I can tap into - like coming home from the hospital and not having to go to assisted living.- Friendships, connections with people.- An environment that fosters friendships and connectedness.- Continuous learning.- Staying in my home, being healthy and vitality.- Living in a community that’s working toward the common good. Companions and resources readily available.- Not having to reinvent the wheel. Being able to ask someone for advice who can direct me to resources.Good health.- Living where I am now.- Having the same neighbors in my building.- Six months here, six months in a warm climate.- Knowing all the neighbors in my building.- Sense of neighborhood.- Good restaurants and grocery store.- Less car dependent.- Ongoing learning/educational opportunities.- Be in a safe community where you feel comfortable on the streets.- Youth, age diversity (many nods)- Neighborhood gatherings.It’s fascinating how often 'community' pops up in responses. In aging services we’ve traditionally been so focused on the 'medical model.' Those that are the best companies will be those who listen to what their customers want and deliver it. I love one of the statements from another focus group member who said, 'It is not about aging. It is about building communities and people helping each other.'
Caring Connections and Communities in Rural America
Back in August, we blogged about a Chicago Tribune story on 'outsourcing long-term care to India.' The story was about a son moving his father there for care, because he’d get more personal attention and it was less expensive. Also, a recent ABC News story looked at people moving from the United States to get long-term care in Mexico. These folks should have checked out a few rural U.S. communities before heading out of the country.What is so striking is the sense of community (and family members caring for family members) that you find in many smaller towns' senior communities. A reminder of this again was the recent 90th Anniversary Celebration for Bethany Community on the shores of Lake Winona in Alexandria, Minn. More than 600 neighbors showed up for their public picnic. I’m sure there were probably some people related there, but when you walk inside Bethany Community and many senior communities in rural America, you find family … literally. Here are a couple of examples:
Jeannie Klimek (left in center, with her parents) has been the 'chief of first impressions' at Bethany Community for 21 years. In her role as receptionist, she’s often the first person that people come in contact with at Bethany Community. Now stay with me on these various connections …
Jeannie’s father Vern Chan (everyone knows him as Bud) is here with his lifelong best buddy Duane Persson on Machinery Hill at the Douglas County (Minn.) Fair. Vern and Duane are now next door neighbors at Bethany Community and still best buddies. Jeannie’s mother Christine Chan is known by every one as Tinker. She lives at Bethany Community, too. Vern, I mean Bud, gave her the name Tinker because 'she was alway tinkering on their family’s farm.'
Then there’s Irmadene Knudson, RN, who is director of nursing at Bethany Community. Her mom was a nursing assistant at Bethany, Irmadene followed in her footsteps starting as a nursing assistant when she was 16. Irmadene and her three daughters (two of whom have followed her into nursing) often visited Irmadene’s grandmother who also lived at Bethany Community. Irmadene has had several other relatives live at Bethany Community, too.You’ll find many of these types of connections in other rural communities. It’s a powerful, beautiful thing … communities and family members caring for their loved ones. Before people think about outsourcing care to another country, they should check out rural America.
Successful Aging: Finding Joy in Service
Key to successful aging are feeding and growing your social, spiritual, and vocational parts of who you are. 
The other day Linda Hanson of the Duluth News Tribune did a wonderful story of a person who exemplifies this (We’d link to it, but the News Tribune hasn’t put it online.) The story was about Monsignor Patrick McDowell, who resides at Ecumen’s Lakeshore community in Duluth and is pictured here with Bayshore and Lakeshore chaplain Rev. Alice Olson. (For our readers around the country saying to themselves 'I recognize that guy.' You’re right, Monsignor McDowell was the priest in the movie North Country.)We’d like to share a few excerpts from the story:When Monsignor Patrick McDowell moved into an apartment at Lakeshore in Duluth, he felt uncharacteristically shy about meeting other residents. A Catholic priest since 1954, he had served several Duluth Diocese parishes and always felt accepted, but at Lakeshore he didn’t eve know who was Catholic.One day another resident patted him on the shoulder and asked whether he had heard what happened to the Pope, 'He has that bird disease,' the man told him. 'He got it from one of his cardinals.'With that joke, and others that followed, McDowell soon felt at home.'I began to realize I have some kind of mission here,' said McDowell, 79. Shortly after he moved to Lakeshore in 2006, McDowell offered to celebrate Mass. Now he does it five days a week.At a time of life that for many is marked by loss of loved ones or physical abilities, McDowell has found joy in serving a new flock.'If I’ve ever experienced Christianity, I’ve experienced it here in the greatest sense of the word. The spirit here is tremendous,' he said. 'Everyone is accepted.' … Although he has has health problems, he adapts to them. McDowell recalled the Bible story of the 10 lepers that Jesus healed and how only one thanked Jesus. He said he used to be guilty of being one of the nine who didn’t give thanks. Now, he said, he thanks the Lord for many things, such as being able to get dressed on his own without falling.'God’s been very, very, very, good,' he said. 'My faith has increased 100 percent since I came here.'Thank you Monsignor McDowell and the many other people we in the senior housing and services profession have the honor of serving each day who contribute mightily to the vitality of our communities and are wonderful role models for successful aging.