Changing Aging

For our readers who are nursing home professionals: 

Mary Leber, who heads Ecumen’s consulting division, which works with many long-term care and senior housing providers, has provided key tips for nursing homes preparing for the Quality Indicator Survey (QIS).  You can download the QIS tips and other articles here.  If you have suggestions on other articles , please let us know here.  Thanks.

Innovator Sean Kershaw, who leads the Citizens League, one of the country’s top non-partisan civic engagement organizations, calls for a new civic and intergenerational approach to aging.  He writes in his most recent “Viewpoint” article . . .

The term “long-term care” is revealing.  Long-term care is usually about long-term loss: the loss of authority, money, health, and connections to family and community.  Our system is based on an expert and medical model of passive consumption and limited choices.  And because none of us really want this, we avoid talking about it or planning for it . . .

When we talk at Ecumen about changing how America finances long-term care and aging services, this isn’t what we’re talking about . . . .

From today’s St. Petersburg Times:

Two Tampa Bay area lawmakers want to put a $1 tax on strip club admissions so they can give low-income nursing home residents more spending money.

Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg, said he got the idea after an elderly constituent complained that a $35 monthly stipend for Medicaid recipients was not enough to cover personal needs, such as haircuts, clothing and movie tickets.

Yesterday we wrote about the fragmentation in public policy around aging.  The Citizens League in Minnesota, which is one of the country’s top non-partisan citizen engagement and public policy organizations is taking a different approach to aging policy as part of their MAP 150 initiative, which is focused on big public policy issues in Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial Year.

Here’s how they describe the approach, which will begin at the League’s Feb. 28th Policy Open House event:

FYI for our readers in the long-term care profession . . . In March and April, Ecumen is providing two courses at several sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  One focuses on a huge topic in the news lately: psychoactive medications and the other on optimizing reimbursement, which is always a big topic in long-term care. 

 You can learn more about the upcoming courses and sign up here.

Look for these 10 senior housing development trends from 2007 to pick up even more steam in 2008 as the age wave gains force:

1.  Congregational Senior Housing:  People want to live in nurturning, vibrant communities.  Churches want to extend their ministries, strengthen their congregations and build community.  Congregational senior housing, such as the visionary ELCA project in Sandpoint, Idaho is a win-win.

2.  College Campus Senior Housing:  Lifelong learning is a key part of successful aging.  Look for more colleges to create intergenerational communities and see the benefits of senior learners and neighbors.

Wonder what the Presidential candidates’ experiences are with caregiving?  Find out in this AARP long-term care interview.

Wondering what the Presidential Candidates are thinking about aging services and long-term care? 

(It’s kind of unreal that they’re not thinking more when you look at the age wave.)

Read this post at the AAHSA Future of Aging blog. 

Putting People First.  It shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it is. 

Putting People First is the name of a program announced in the United Kingdom to pay for long-term care.

Seniors who qualify for government aid will be given money to pay for their own care.  They will have the right to decide how and where they spend the cash.  According to the London Observer: 

Under the initiative, being rolled out next April, seniors or their chosen relatives will set up bank accounts into which government will pay money into their accounts after they’re means tested. The individual or their chosen relatives will then be able to shop around for the best packages of care . . .

Posted by Katie Lundmark, administrator of Ecumen-managed Sunnyside Care Center in Lake Park, Minn.

I recently came across these words by comedian George Carlin.  I’ve shortened them a bit . . . I think there are some very good insights for all people in here, but especially those of us who are in aging services.  As I reflect this holiday season, we who work in aging services are very fortunate to work in a profession that has many moments each week that take your breath away.