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Ecumen and the Rising Red River

Many of you have been watching the flood news in the Red River Valley. Ecumen operates two communities - The Evergreens - in Fargo/Moorhead, where the Red River is still rising and is expected to crest this weekend at a record 41 feet. We have begun evacuation of our customers there to Ecumen’s Emmanuel Community in Detroit Lakes.Thank you to the many family members who have been working with us and to Becker County (Minn.), which is assisting us with transportation. This is a very intense, fluid job that demands the utmost collaboration.Ecumen also is assisting Eventide Senior Living in Moorhead. The following Ecumen communities: Bethany Community, Emmanuel Community, Heritage Living Center, Pelican Valley Health Center and Sunnyside stand ready to host many of the 195 residents from Eventide Senior Living in Moorhead.Updates for The Evergreens can be found here.

The photos above were taken by photographer Sayward Honer, the daughter of Ecumen team member Corina Honer. You can see more of Sayward’s flood photos here. Our hope is that relocation of our Fargo-Moorhead customers and team members will be temporary and that the river will spare its force.Not everyone can pack sand bags today, but please send our neighbors in the Red River Valley your prayers.

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Alzheimer’s: Let’s Make it Affordable to Care

alzlogoIf you haven’t yet emailed or left a message for your Congress person regarding making long-term care and services part of health care reform, here’s another reason, a new report issued today by the Alzheimer’s Association:The health care costs of Alzheimer’s disease patients are more than triple those of other older people, and that doesn’t even include the billions of hours of unpaid care from family members, a new report suggests.

Compared with people aged 65 and older without Alzheimer’s, those with the mind-destroying disease are much more often hospitalized and treated in skilled-nursing centers. Their medical costs also often include nursing home care and Medicare-covered home health visits.That all adds up to at least $33,007 in annual costs per patient, compared with $10,603 for an older person without Alzheimer’s.
Ecumen’s Janelle Meyers
Ecumen's Janelle Meyers
Related to these rising statistics, Ecumen’s Janelle Meyers was recently interviewed by the Twin Cities' Channel 12, which covers the Northwest suburbs on the increasing demand in Alzheimer’s. Janelle leads Ecumen’s Prairie Lodge community in Brooklyn Center and was instrumental in leading the development of our behavioral Alzheimer’s care there. Janelle’s inteview is in this newscast, about the third story in.

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Please Call Your Congress People Today

The phone calls you made earlier this month to members of Congress asking them to make long-term care and services part of health care reform are helping this issue get traction.The Senate Finance Committee is holding a hearing on long-term services and supports (LTSS) in health care reform and a new House resolution, H. Res. 271, calls for the development of a rational LTSS strategy.In addition, the reintroduction of the CLASS Act, which tracks the principles of the AAHSA Long-Term Care Solutions initiative Ecumen embraces, is expected in both houses of Congress. The next step is to Contact Congress on March 25 (today) and tell your legislators that health care reform must include long-term care and services.It’s easy. Just visit aahsa.org and click on “Contact Congress.” One time isn’t enough. We must tell Congress again that it’s time to make it affordable to care.

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The Spirit of Aging: A Lenten Reflection by Ecumen Pastor Ron Gerl

Pastor Ron Gerl of Ecumen
Pastor Ron Gerl of Ecumen
Our culture and especially our media and advertisements give us the impression that growing older is something that we should be ashamed of. I find nothing in the scriptures that demeans elderhood. On the contrary, there is an attitude of respect, dignity, and an aura of wise leadership edified. During this Lenten season, I have been asked to be a participant in the Lent round robin with four area Lutheran congregations. Our theme has tried to capture the life and faith of Moses. My particular theme has been: 'Growing old gracefully: Moses passing the mantle of leadership.' My challenge that has been met with considerable exciting conversation has been to visualize the third stage of life as the dynamic time in which we powerfully serve God. My message has been to inspire third agers to live the resurrection life instead of a path that simply leads to accepting death. One of the themes of the wellness center at Ecumen’s Parmly LifePointes community is 'to live long and die short.' I believe that this always has been the message of Moses. Here is a quote from Deuteronomy 34:7 that describe Moses' fulfilling life, 'Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.' The verse goes on to explain that Joshua received the mantle of leadership by receiving the spirit of life that Moses had and then it says, 'none (have been) like (Moses) for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to do...and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of Israel.' Moses lives by and in the grace of God! He served God more completely and more fully in his third age and why can’t we do the same? Why do we let society tell us retirement is the way to go? Why do we permit our culture to dictate life with less dignity as we age? We need to resurrect a new and right spirit within us that God encourages life. We ARE to live life to the fullest with God’s spirit guiding us. Thus doing, we can imitate Moses who himself did 'live long and die short.' My suggestions to do this includes:

  • Not winding down but simply shifting gears as we age.
  • Not letting others take over the reins but letting God direct our course.
  • Not disengaging from community but rather taking on new positions of leadership.
  • Not dimming our vision but becoming visionary for our church, community and the world.
  • Not losing touch with the sensual world, but celebrating the physical and spiritual gifts given.
  • Not caving in to limitations but utilizing our strengths no matter how long lived they are.
  • Not rattling around in an empty nest but opening the doors of our minds, hearts, and homes to new ideas, new feelings and new people that God sends our way.

THIS IS LIVING THE RESURRECTED LIFE and keeps us one with God!!!

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You’re Invited to LPN Empowerment Seminars in April, Taught By Ecumen’s Mary Leber

For our readers in the long-term care profession:

Mary Leber, Ecumen Consulting Services
Mary Leber, Ecumen Consulting Services
Ecumen’s head of consulting, Mary Leber, will lead a very timely seminar: LPN Empowerment Part I. It will be held at three locations listed below. For readers outside of Minnesota, this is also a seminar that Mary can bring to your location.Increasingly, in the long-term care profession, LPNs are taking on expanded roles that were once the sole responsibility of RNs. Mary will focus this seminar on this changing world and empowering LPNs to thrive in it. Among the areas she’ll instruct in are leading a team, keys to empowerment, knowing professional roles and responsibilities, regulatory review and more. For more information and for registration details, please contact Stephanie Gibson at 651-766-4393 or email her at stephaniegibson@ecumen.org.

April 27, 2009 - Mankato, MN Pathstone Living718 Mound AveMankato, MN 56001

April 28, 2009 - Willmar, MNHoliday Inn2100 East Hwy 12Willmar, MN 56201

April 29, 2009 - North Branch, MNThe Villages at North Branch5379 383rd StNorth Branch, MN 55056

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Jim Klobuchar: Adventures in the Hospital

inserting-needleThe nurse radiated good will. She smiled brilliantly and with compassion just as she jabbed my epidermis in a thoroughly unprotected place.Finished, she cocked her head pleasantly and looked into my eyes in a gesture that told me I was an utterly brave patient, without whimper. This of course was truth. It was also my re-introduction to the miracles of modern medicine after an all too brief sabbatical. I’ll admit that hospital stories over lunch rank somewhere below blizzard forecasts and bank bailouts in public popularity. Like a few million others, I have a bittersweet attachment to hospitals and the other agencies of mercy that accept my Medicare card. On one hand I treasure the skills of today’s surgeons, the breezy optimism of the family doctors and the end-to-end crusades to upgrade patient care hospital cooking .I was grateful for all this. I was touched to be granted a farewell kiss by my wife as I was being wheeled into a large room. En route I flashed back to hospital scenes of earlier times. They were sieges. I remembered my urologist in clipped professional tones advising the nurse of the penetrating power of various probes and spears he needed to remedy a peculiarly male condition. They had numbered all of the spears. I remembered shuddering when he called out '28,' the dreaded '28.'So now I was to undergo an angiogram where they inject dye into the arterial system and x-ray its passage, looking for potential blockage of the kind I experienced years ago. A pillow was placed expertly under my head. A nurse smiled confidently. Large white objects materialized above my head, part of the apparatus. It was going to be an ordeal. Other people appeared in the room. There was bustling about. Time ran on. Voices mingled. I wanted this to begin. I waited for the surgeon to arrive to join the crowd. More time. The surgeon had to be delayed.Right about then the surgeon’s masked face appeared. 'When will you start,' I asked, trying not to sound annoyed. 'When does the sedation begin?''We’re done,' he said. 'You’re clear. Congratulations.'He was five feet away all the time, and never had to use the dreaded '28.'Go here to read other Jim Klobuchar Changing Aging Posts.

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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

Ecumen’s Mary Leber Talking with LeRoy Economic Development Authority
Ecumen's Mary Leber Talking with LeRoy Economic Development Authority
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

U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.)
U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.)
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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