Changing Aging

I like Nebraska’s thinking on saving for aging services.  What do you think?  Taking a leadership role they’ve launched a savings option called The Long-Term Care Savings Plan. 

Here are some key elements of the first such state plan in the United States:

- You can put $1,000 ($2,000 filing jointly) in an account to qualify for savings that’s state-tax free until withdrawn.  They’re looking to increase those contribution limits.

- When withdrawn they can be used to pay for a multitude of aging services, including home care, nursing care, assisted living, technology and other services.

- If the account is not used, and the account holder dies, it can be passed on to a spouse or other family members.

- At the age of 50, the account holder can withdraw savings tax-free to pay for long-term care insurance.

 There are a number of appealing things about Nebraska’s program:

- It elevates the importance of planning ahead for aging services and makes you think about how you want to live if you need assistance or care.

- It allows you to save money beyond traditional retirement accounts.

- It gives you flexibility.  You ultimately determine what services your dollars buy.

- If you want to buy long-term care insurance, but don’t want to buy it in your 30s and 40s (which the vast majority of Americans don’t), you can use your savings to pay for premiums later in life.

- You can pass the accumulated savings to heirs for them to use to pay for aging services, undescoring the need that even though we might come from different generations, we likely all will have the need for some type of assistance and care.  And we have to pay for it.

Kathryn Roberts, CEO and President of Ecumen, will be discussing “The Age Wave of Opportunity” next Friday, Feb. 15 from 12 noon to 1:30pm at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) Housing Forum, Carlson School of Management, Rm. L-110 (Honeywell Auditorium), University of MN - West Bank. RSVP to 612-625-2086 or curahf@umn.edu by Feb. 13

A map is available at http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/CarlSMgmt/.

The CURA Housing Forum is a discussion of housing issues and research sponsored by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota. For more information, please contact Adrienne Hannert at 612-625-2086.

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.

Jeff Opdyke of the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article today on the growth of adult day care in the United States.

(We have to change that name.  Yes, it provides care, but my mind goes to child care, and this isn’t child care.   We can (have to) do better.  Some Ecumen communities call it Adult Day Services . . .any other names come to mind?)

Some interesting stats from the National Adult Day Services Association:

 - Demand is growing up to 15% per year.  (You can count on that growing a heck of a lot more with more two-income earning baby boomer families who fall in that sandwich generation).

- At least 400,000 people are served nationally in adult day services.

- The average national cost is $61 a day.  A home health aide in comparison runs $152 per day.

The New York Times scored big when it get health writer Tara Parker-Pope from The Wall Street Journal.  She has a great story today on Alzheimer’s and how physicians feel that it manifests itself in people’s lives earlier than old age.  Here’s an excerpt:

Many scientists believe the best hope of progress, maybe the only hope, lies in detecting the disease early and devising treatments to stop it before brain damage becomes extensive. Better still, they would like to intervene even sooner, by identifying risk factors and treating people preventively — the same strategy that has markedly lowered death rates from heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

This is a fascinating story, especially for Baby Boomers who told us in our Age Wave study that getting Alzheimer’s is one of their biggest fears about growing older.

Tara also has a great new blog appropriately called “Well.”  It’s focused on what’s so absolutely critical to successful aging . . . taking small proactive steps to take more control of our own health.   We welcome Well to our blog roll.

Do you yelp?

Yelp is one of a growing number of websites where real people (customers) give real feedback on the real service (or lack thereof) they receive.  If they love the service they get, they rave.  If the service stinks, they let you know that, too.  If the reviews are good, it’s the best possible, most authentic, least expensive advertising.

Here’s an example of what someone yelped about regarding Abbot Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis:

 AWESOME HOSPITAL!!!This hospital as a whole is absolutely FANTASTIC!!!

Every single one of the many nurses assigned to my care truly took pride in their profession and provided the utmost in quality care!Kudos to this hospital- you set a good example for other hospitals to follow!

Here’s another one regarding the Veterans Administration Hospital:

A well run facility; one of the best V.A. Hospitals in the country. I worked for them a few years ago, and it was very gratifying to see how organized and efficient they were. From the hospital to the oncology dept, to their clinical research dept, to the records office. Well trained and dedicated public employees doing their best to helps veterans and their families. It’s amazing what the government can do when it’s well funded and ran by dedicated and competent people.

A Tool for the Aging Services Profession

There were just a couple of posts for health care; none for aging services.  What a great tool for long-term care providers (or any business) to let their customers do the talking and then promote that talking. 

And, conversely, if it’s bad talking that’s happening, what an opportunity to do something about the problems they’re raising, so customers have a reason to say something nice.

Posted by Robin Krause, Vice President of Human Resources 

At Ecumen, like most companies, our workforce is made up of multiple generations. We often talk about the impact that 78 million baby boomers will have on the workforce as they age. Boomers make up the largest portion of Ecumen’s 4,000-member team, just over a quarter. But almost just as large are the Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1995. There are 80 million Millennials in the U.S.

I enjoyed watching this recent 60 Minutes segment on the Millennials. Do you think its depiction of Millennials is accurate?

Another question: Do you think the retirement of baby boomers is going to have a huge impact on the workplace, or do you think that is largely overblown?  Share your thoughts.

We’re developing a workforce planning tool that will break down the demographics of each of our work sites and allow us to model what the future will look like, especially as boomers hit their retirement years. Have you heard of companies that are examining what their demographic future is going to look like so that they can plan ahead and not find themselves short on experience and skills? We’d love to hear about such examples.

If you’re ever looking for a speaker on this generational topic, I’d suggest checking out David Stillman, a generational expert, who we’re fortunate to have serving on our board of trustees. A Gen Xer, he’s a fantastic speaker and author of the book: When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work.

A couple of “thanks” here from Changing Aging at Ecumen.

Ric Shafer, a Changing Aging reader, recently put us on to the Center for Demography of Health and Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Jack Solock of the UW’s Center sends out a daily digest of aging and retirement news from around the globe.  It’s absolutely fascinating.  If you’d like to sign up to receive their daily email updates, go here.

Thank you to Ric for notifying our readers and thank you Jack for the updates.

Many of us have pets that we absolutely love and are essential to our home being “home.”

Lakeshore, an Ecumen community in Duluth, was the site of a great ecumenical Blessing of the Animals service. 

The service was led by Rev. Alice Olson, chaplain at the Lakeshore and Bayshore communities; Lakeshore resident Monsignor Patrick McDowell; and Rev. Cy Solberg, who doubled as St. Francis of Assisi. 

Pretty neat seeing the march of cats and dogs of all sizes walking, prancing and trotting into the Lakeshore chapel.  Here are more photos:

Three years ago as we were just beginning our transformation work at Ecumen, we had the honor of Dr. Bill Thomas speaking at our annual leadership conference.

Many of you know Dr. Thomas . . . he’s a geriatrician, teacher, author, inventor, innovator, and a darn energetic, warm and funny person, among other things.  Eden Alternative, Eldershire, Green House,  . . . all came out of Dr. Thomas’ mind and action.

Now you can read his thoughts on a more frequent basis.  He’s started a great new blog at The Erickson School in Baltimore where he serves on the faculty.  The name of his blog is Changing Aging.  No . . . the blog writers at Ecumen and Dr. Thomas didn’t copy each other . . . We’re just part of that growing part of society that sees the possibilities in gaining seniority in this world and “changing aging.” 

 Welcome to the blogosphere, Dr. Thomas.  We salute your work in Changing Aging.