Changing Aging

Increasingly doctors’ offices are going to all-digital records.  Now people too, can save all of their medical information in one place and share it with the radiologist, neurologist and allergist all in the same day.

Microsoft just came out with its healthvault program where you can upload all of your medical information for free, so you have it in one easy access place.    They are working with another partner so that for a fee of $9.95 per year you can make that information available to emergency medical personnel who will be able to type into a cell phone to get your information in an emergency.

Recently, I sat down with Kathryn Roberts, Ecumen’s CEO to discuss what goes into a Great Place to Work.  Earlier this year Ecumen was named one of Minnesota’s “Best Places to Work” for a third straight year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.  Last week, Kathryn talked about the It Factor.  Today I asked her about “key ingredients” that go in to a great place to work.  She shares some of those key ingredients in the video above. 

What other ingredients would you add?

Posted by Robin Krause, Vice President of Human Resources

“We want to invent the future, otherwise we know what it’s going to be.”

Great quote from Joseph Coughlin, Ph.D., and head of MIT’s AgeLab. 

Robert Powell, at Marketwatch.com, has some great insights from Coughlin, an aging services  innovator and visionary who sees huge opportunity to transform for the age wave and make society better.  A few key points he raises:

 “Boomers are not the first generation to get old, but they are first to have health and wealth and the expectation that things will be different.”

Walking is a great exercise and so beneficial for successful aging.

 How walkable is your neighborhood or the one you’re considering living in?  Find out at walkscore.com.

Pretty cool tool.

A lot of organizations are working on internal change to deal with the unprecedented external change that’s coming with the age wave.

Below is a recent interview with Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts about that subject. The article appeared in a recent edition of Boardmember Magazine, which is published by BoardSource.

Based in Washington, D.C., BoardSource works with non-profit organizations across the country to improve governance. This interview was part of their regular CEO feature called: Leadership Lessons.

Leadership Lessons: Riders of the Wave

We get a lot of calls from people wanting to develop senior housing.  Sometimes those calls turn into fabulous projects that truly help make communities places where people can grow up and grow old.

A number of these calls, however, come from starry-eyed speculators who really don’t understand the complexities of building a high-quality, vibrant senior community.  For those truly interested in learning more about senior housing development, we have a new white paper that you can download (It’s on the left-hand side of the page link above).  It looks at key things to think about before delving into a senior housing project. 

Congratulations to Ecumen team members at The Pines and The Oaks in Hutchinson.  They were a recipient of an Ecumen Majestic Oak Award for Innovation, which they received for developing a new initative that improves the lives of the people we serve and is adapted at other Ecumen communities.  For more on the Ecumen Innovation Station program, go here.

(Pictured L to R: Peggy Sugheimer, Kathryn Roberts and Joyce Aakre after the planting of the Ecumen Majestic Oak in Hutchinson).

While prevention and fitness are becoming more prevalent in the next generation of seniors, they’re not as prevalent in the Greatest Generation. 

Last week was a pretty interesting action packed week related to ”changing aging” in Minnesota . . . you can feel people feeling an opportunity to transform aging . . .

- There was the Department of Human Services Transform 2010 Summit in St. Paul.  It was packed with more than 200 people looking at the future.  If you want to attend one of these sessions in your part of the state, here’s a link to upcoming meetings this month and next. 

- Archbishop Harry Flynn came out on Friday with his first of a three-part column series in the Archdiocesean newpaper on the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis work in preparing for the Age Wave.  You can read his recent Pastoral Letter on Aging here.

AARP Magazine recently announced it’s top cities for successful aging in the United States.  Minneapolis and Saint Paul didn’t make it.  Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts’  recent editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune sheds light on why.

AARP’s top 5 livable communities for seniors are Atlanta, Milwaukee, Portland, Boston and Chandler, Arizona.  Atlanta’s regional commission is all over successful aging.  In Milwaukee, they hosted a very cool senior housing design competition at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  The Milwaukee Aging Consortium and Aging Maven also highlights what’s occurring in Milwaukee in creating a livable community for all ages.  Great stuff here for the Twin Cities and other communities.

1,000 pioneers are coming to the Twin Cities for tomorrow’s and Thursday’s annual Pioneer Network conference.  If you’re coming to the “culture change” workshop for long-term care and senior housing professionals, please stop by the Ecumen booth.  We’d love to see you.