Monthly Archive

We’re just a little over a month away from AAHSA’s Homecoming Week Celebration and dozens of members have contacted us about what they are doing to commemorate this event. Here’s just a sampling of the member responses we’ve gotten:

The Estates at Carpenter in Lakeland, Fla. will be hosting a open house to celebrate Homecoming.  The organization’s invited community members and local elected officials to attend and learn more about their work. Charlie Paulk, a resident and president of the National Continuing Care Residents Association, even organized a group of residents to open their apartments so people can check out the places they call home.  The event is connected to a  celebration for a new building opening to here and that will help with publicity.

At the Kendal at Oberlin in Oberlin, Ohio,  state Senator Sue Moreno will join residents and community members for a forum about AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution initiative.

Snyder Village in Metamora, Ill. Is celebrating their organization’s 20th anniversary with a Homecoming Week Event. they are planning a Classic Car Cruise-In and campus-wide Open House complete with family entertainment and tours

 Manors Retirement Communities in Saginaw, Mich. is hosting an afternoon of activities that promote healthy living for its residents and elders in the community, including a 5-k walk, a healthy salad tasting and a chance to work out using a Nintendo Wii.

Still need an idea for your celebration? Visit the event idea page of our AAHSA Homecoming Web site, www.aahsahomecoming.org. There, you’ll find ideas rang. Don’ t forget to check out our Homecoming Toolkit, where you’ll find the resources you need to plan a great homecoming event from start to finish.

When Bill Pierce, an AAHSA board member and CEO of Baptist Retirement Communities, read an article in the The Daily Oklahoman about growing state Medicaid costs, for long-term expenses, he knew that readers should know

 That’s why Bill wrote this letter to the editor describing AAHSA’s Long-term Care Solution, a plan to  create a national insurance trust with premiums that provide individuals with cash benefits to pay for their long-term care expenses - as much as $27,000 a year per person.  Multiply that times the millions of seniors and disabled individuals who need long-term care and you’ve got a new way to help individuals receive the care they need at a price that our people and our states can afford.

Does this sound like a solution that will stick? Let us know what you think.

“My mother was the one who taught me how to stand up and speak out, so it’s only fitting that I now step in for her,” said Daisy Kincheloe, in a Dallas Morning News article.

Daisy Kincheloe helped organize the family council at her mother’s nursing home. By doing so, she helped bride the gap between families of residents and the provider.

Family councils provide the families of nursing home residents with a way to contribute to the quality of services. The councils enhance the quality of care by bringing more stakeholders to the table.

“Our biggest problem is a lack of family involvement. No visits. No calls. It’s good to have a core group of committed relatives to give us feedback,” said David Thomason, senior vice president of the Texas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.

Family involvement creates a better environment for both residents and staff. How has your community reached out to families?

Click here to see more resources about family councils.

Mark your calendars. PBS will air “Caring for Your Parents” on April 2nd. The documentary talks with five families about caring for their parents. It should be an interesting piece shedding light on how difficult caregiving can be. Click here to view a trailer on the Web site.

Here is more on the program:

As the population ages, many adult children are grappling with an unprecedented social, cultural, economic, and personal revolution as they transition into the primary caregiver role for their aging parents. Produced, written, and directed by award-winning filmmaker Michael Kirk, Caring for Your Parents is a moving two-hour special that draws much-needed attention to this universal reality.

The first 90-minutes of Caring for Your Parents underscores today’s struggle to keep parents at home, tensions between siblings, and the complexity of shifting caregiver roles through an intimate look at five American families. In the end, the documentary contends successful caregiving requires one primary ingredient—love.

Immediately after the 90-minute broadcast, former NBC medical correspondent Dr. Art Ulene leads “A Conversation About Caring.” This half-hour panel discussion offers concrete advice and guidance on how to start the conversation—often the most difficult step in caregiving.

The video above features four AAHSA members talking about their experiences with Quality First.

Video is an effective way to get information about your community and Quality First program out to consumers. Use this new fact sheet to help you create video to tell your story.

It is estimated that 2.4 million Americans over the age of 55 are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender (GLBT). GLBT Americans are more likely to live alone without family or friends to care for them. Additionally, GLBT elders are less likely to be open about their sexual orientation than younger generations.

Creating a welcoming environment for GLBT elders in retirement communities allows them to be open and honest about their sexual orientation if they would like to be. Many organizations are opening facilities specifically for GLBT populations or implementing programs to foster inclusiveness.

“If gay and lesbian elders know a facility will be friendly and welcoming to them, they are more likely to self-identify rather than to return to the closet, say those who work with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender elders. They are more likely to have friends visit and less likely to become isolated, lonely, or depressed,” writes Cathryn Domrose in a Nurse.com article.

What types of things has your community been doing to welcome GLBT elders?

The stereotypical story starts “once upon a time.” But there’s no such standard when it comes to telling a caregiving story. They begin in many ways, like “When Mom stopped remembering to take her medication,” or “My neighbor asked me to pick up his groceries.”

While each story starts differently, the common thread that ties them together is the compassion caregivers selflessly offer to their loved ones.

That compassion is captured in PBS’ new Watch Over Me series. In early 2008, in PBS’ Boston affiliate encouraged media-makers of all kinds to share their caregiving stories. with the network What they received included everything from the caregiving story of namesake of America’s first African-American township to a film about a son’s frustration with his father’s situation written and shot in 6 hours. Watch and see how these films depict the demands and more important, the dedication, of America’s caregivers.

From the Changing Aging Blog:

10 Leadership Traits for Building Greatness in Aging Services

1. Tackle tough problems.

2. Find meaning and purpose in your work.

3. Collaborate, don’t isolate.

4. Adapt quickly.

5. Be accountable.

6. Build trust. Be honest.

7. Empower others to lead and to innovate.

8. Be curious - continually.

9. Keep growing.

10. Think widely - see the big picture.

What traits do you think are important for leaders in aging services?

There’s seven weeks until AAHSA’s first Homecoming Week, and members are already starting their celebrations. In fact, The Marvin/Under One Roof, Inc. in Norwalk, Connecticut, even opened their doors to their community and legislators yesterday. This affordable housing community hosted an annual brunch to celebrate their residents and honor their work on the organization’s ”Blankets of Hope” service project. Everyone from Norwalk’s Mayor Richard Moccia to  their Congressman, Chris Shays (R-Conn.), joined them for this special event. Here’s some more information about it straight from The Marvin’s executive director, Mary Windt:

“The Marvin is celebrating its 11^th Anniversary with an Annual Family Brunch. This year, we are using this event to recognize and honor The Marvin Residents, who have completed 1000 Blankets for our wounded service personnel in the United States and Overseas. While the day is geared primarily towards The Marvin’s residents and their family members, there will be members of the Board of Directors, staff and some community representatives attending. It is expected that there will be 150-200 people attending.

There will also be a display of some of the blankets that the residents made, as well as photos from the “Blankets of Hope” project that The Marvin residents have been involved with. To date, over 1000 blankets have been shipped to wounded military personnel.

The success of The Marvin proves that dreams, visions and goals can become reality – with lots of hard work, commitment and steadfast drive. We are extremely proud to be celebrating The Marvin’s 11^th Anniversary as a unique intergenerational program, providing quality, affordable congregate elderly housing with supportive services and a school readiness child daycare program. We are always “Telling our Story!” 

 How can you plan a similar celebration for your community in just seven weeks? Take some tips from our AAHSA Homecoming Week toolkit and start planning your celebration today!