Monthly Archive

It’s official: the holiday season is upon us.

For many, it’s a time for reconnecting with family and reuniting with loved ones.  But often during this season, individuals realize that their older loved ones are having more difficulty living alone than they thought. It’s also a time when many people realize that Dad’s trouble walking or Aunt Mary’s forgetfulness can’t be ignored anymore.

That’s why we developed a short questionnaire that individuals can use with their older loved ones to understand their preferences and choices for care. It’s designed to help them start an important discussion about why planning for their future needs and preferences should be their priority today.

It features the following questions:

1. If I begin to have difficulty with cooking, cleaning and other household
responsibilities, I would like to:

__ move to an independent living community
__ move in with family
__ remain in my home with home-based services to help me
__ other (specify _______________________________________)

2. If I become unable to bathe myself or take my own medicine, I want to:
 __ move to a residential care facility
__ move in with family
__ remain in my home with home-based services to help me
__ other (specify ____________________________________)

3. To pay for services I might need, I want to:
__ use only the services that my pension, Social Security and other regular income
  can cover
__ use some of my savings as well as my pension, Social Security and regular income
  to cover my expenses
__ use my savings to ensure my preferences can be met
__ use my long-term care insurance benefits
__ other (specify ________________________________________)

4. If I need to move out of my home, the place I would most like to move is:

5. If I need to move into a residential care facility, the three features that are most
important to me are:

__ a place where I can have a private room
__ a place that is close to my family
__ a place where my friends live
__ a place with good food
__ a place with a good reputation in my community
__ a place with a wide range of activities
__ a place with easy access to the outdoors
__ a place with a friendly staff
__ a place affiliated with my faith tradition
__ other (specify _______________________________________________)

6. As I age, the person I will depend on for support is:

7. The one thing I want my loved ones to remember about my preferences is:

Got more questions? Visit the “consumer information” section of AAHSA’s Web site to find the answers.

Thanks to Susan Morgensen, CEO of the International Policy Governance Association, and YouTube, you can get a first-hand look at our Annual Meeting in Orlando last month.

Check out Susan’s video to catch an attendee’s perspective on everything from the exhibit hall to the general sessions. You’ll even get a “faculty member’s eyeview” of her session on generative thinking and board governance.  

Sometimes,  all it takes is something happening to a famous person to make more of us wonder: “What would I do?”

That’s just what happened when the media reported on Sandra Day O’Connor’s husband and his “girlfriend” at a nursing home here in Washington. Millions of Americans and their families are affected by Alzheimer’s Disease, and many are facing similar situations. Yet, this Supreme Court Justice’s sitution presented an opportunity for the media to highlight this issue and more important, how people can handle it in their own families.

Check out this article from the Sunday Chicago Tribune.  It starts out talking about Sandra and her story, but quickly turns to the “What would I do?” question with expert insights and personal ancedotes. Maybe you’ll find the answer you are looking for.

Remember the New York Times story about private equity nursing homes? Well, members of Congress didn’t take it lightly. In fact, they held two hearings about the issue addressed in it last week.

At a Ways and Means Health Subcomittee hearing, scrutiny was the name of the game. Chairman Pete Stark (D-Calif.) even called for a Government Accountability Office report on nursing home ownership’s impact on the critical elements of quality: adequate staffing and transparency. And none of nursing-home-chain owners were there to argue against it.

Then came an analysis on the Senate side. That’s where the support comes in.  Don’t get me wrong, there was some scrutiny, but Committee members also talked about the work nursing homes were already doing to make their facilities more transparent and accountable to the public.

That work includes participating in the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes., which hundreds of AAHSA members are doing now.  Sen.  Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) even said it was “vital” that more nursing homes participate in the campaign.

The Committee also hear from Denise Zabel. She’s an AAHSA member, and the  daughter of a nursing home resident, who spoke about her experiences on “both sides” of the situation.

Whether you scrutnize or support nursing homes, the real question is, will any of this analysis create solutions?