Changing Aging

“After going from crisis to crisis, Joan is finally in a place where they have the time and training to really help,” said her husband, Terry, 76, a retired math teacher and businessman from Shoreview.  “How many places can you get kicked out of?  Let’s see, for us it was four in one year.” . . . .

Today the Minneapolis Star Tribune told a wonderful story of Ecumen’s Summit House at Prairie Lodge, a new option in Brooklyn Center, Minn., for people and families dealing with the extreme behaviors that at times accompany Alzheimer’s.   Thank you to the Wagener family for choosing Ecumen’s new housing option and being so candid about telling this powerful story.  We salute you!

“Drugs may be a good answer, but it should never be the first answer,” said Janelle Meyers, Ecumen’s director of Prairie Lodge.  “A resident isn’t trying to be nasty or disruptive.  It’s the disease talking.  If someone is screaming, they’re trying to communicate something.  We need to figure out what that is.”

Above are just a few of the innovators (several of whom are pictured at last week’s Ecumen Leadership Conference) who sought a new way to help people and family members dealing with the most extreme behaviors of Alzheimer’s.  They are part of an incredible team of people throughout this organization who are delivering a beautiful vision for “Changing Aging”:

We envision a world in which aging is viewed and understood in
radically different ways.