The Top 5 Websites that are Changing Aging
Readers of Ecumen’s Changing Aging blog agree that vital, successful aging means that aging is about living. Through this forum, as the name states, we are Changing Aging, or more specifically, the traditional views on aging.But we’re certainly not alone in our efforts. Below, find the Top 5 web sites, compiled by Ecumen, that are putting aging in a whole new light:1. Civic Ventures: A think tank and an incubator, Civic Ventures generates ideas and invents programs to help society achieve the greatest return on experience. It sponsors the Purpose Prize.2. The Vital Aging Network: This site focuses on individuals who are sharing their strengths to promote and support the self-sufficiency, community participation, and quality of life of older adults.3. AgingTech: Like Ecumen, this site is dedicated to new technology that is helping seniors live where they want to live, how they want to live.4. The Zimmers: Awesome video, here that puts aging in a whole new light! 40 Britains in their 80s and 90s… 'Talkin About My Generation'.5. Eons: Think of it as a MySpace for global citizens 50+.Know of any other great sites? Leave a comment below and we’ll do another post like this soon!
The Age Beat at the Seattle Times
The Strib Could Learn From The Seattle TimesNews came down yesterday that the Star Tribune is seeking 50 buyouts in the news room. My assumption is that doesn’t bode very well for the coverage of important issues, such as growing older.The Star Tribune, Pioneer Press and many newspapers could learn from the Seattle Times, which has a columnist, Liz Taylor, dedicated to the age beat. Her column looks at everything from long-term care insurance to choosing assisted living to technology in the senior housing profession. It’s a great resource.
Talking Aging in the Star Tribune and N.Y. Times
A couple items on successful aging from over the weekend:Neal St. Anthony’s ColumnMinneapolis Star Tribune business columnist Neal St. Anthony wrote a column Sunday on Ecumen’s Age Wave StudyThe New York Times Magazine 
This Sunday’s New York Times Magazine has a series of articles related to aging baby boomers and increasing longevity. There’s another interesting story in The Times Magazine about how the TV Land cable channel is rebranding itself as the boomer channel.The Oracle of Omaha Not RetiringUber investor Warren Buffett held his annual meeting for Berkshire Hathaway fund devotees over the weekend in Omaha. Seventy-six-year-old Buffett says he has no plans to leave the holding company he’s built, because 'he loves his work too much.' Sound like someone you know?
The Pioneer Network National Conference
Ecumen just became a sponsor of The Pioneer Network’s National Conference that is going to be occurring in Minneapolis August 1-3 of this year. The Pioneer Network brings together change agents in long-term care and senior housing and services from around the country. We’re proud to be part of this movement in changing long-term care and senior housing and services for the better.
We Could Make This a lot Simpler
The Metropolitan Agency on Aging has a very nice web site. But let’s pretend I’m seeking help at home for a senior relative and I want to keep them out of a nursing home. Look at the myriad of terms I’d have to master: elderly waiver program (called EW), alternative care grant (sometimes called AC), Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities (guess what that’s sometimes called: MA-EPD, or then there’s the obvious home care program called Community Directed Community Supports (CDCS). No wonder why only 120 people are using it statewide.Couldn’t we simplify all this stuff and make it easier to help keep people living where they want to live? What about running all of these programs through Agencies on Aging rather than counties and make these agencies regional resource hubs or one-stop shops for aging resources.A big transformation opportunity for nursing homes is to become 'the source' for successful aging in a community. The one place you know you can turn to for wellness information, fassistance for navigating this twisted and turned system, and putting the customer in control of how they age. The nursing homes that are able to make this turn and become community resources for successful aging are going to thrive, not merely hang by their fingertips to survive.
Senior Momentum and Technology
Technology is playing a much bigger role in our existing senior housing and new Ecumen senior housing developments. Businessweek has a great article on technology’s growing role in improving seniors' life quality and independence. Following is an excerpt and link:
Senior Momentum
Can design and technology deliver a golden age of aging?
Important Work
Sue Schwartz Nelson, Mary Leber and Janet Ingersoll are long-term care consultants at Ecumen. They log hundreds of miles per year helping nursing homes improve their operational performance. It is behind-the-scenes work that is extremely important and the consultants aren’t often the story; however, Ecumen’s work recently was highlighted in this story in the Duluth News Tribune around their work with Chris Jensen Home.
John Ewoldt on Long-Term Care Insurance
Interesting story in yesterday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune by John Ewoldt on long-term care insurance.As John mentioned in his article, most baby boomers told us in the Ecumen Age Wave Study that they find long-term care insurance difficult to understand and want more hybrid products, such as disability insurance with a long-term care benefit.This is where there is great potential for the private market and government to work together. The market could deliver more appealing, more flexible, easier-to-understand products that people see benefit in. Meanwhile, state government could create a one-stop web site where people can easily compare state-endorsed products. If we want to get more people to pay for their long-term care and plan ahead for retirement costs, we have to create products that people will use and can benefit from earlier in their lives.
The Pro-Age Campaign By Dove
Posted by Kathryn Roberts, CEO and PresidentI love, love, love the new Pro-Age campaign by Dove. Aging is about living, and the Dove campaign emphasizes it in spades. What Dove is doing is stepping out of the stale stereotypes of aging. Check out these findings from Dove’s global study on perceptions of aging. - 91% feel the media and advertising need to do a better job of representing realistic images of women over 50. - 87% of women believe they are too young to be old. You’ll find similar findings in our Ecumen Age Wave Study. So we know people are thinking differently about aging. What an opportunity for us in the senior housing and services profession. George Burns, who lived to be a centenarian, said, 'You can’t avoid getting older, but you don’t have to get old.' Words of experience for all of us.
Does your Senior Housing Community Have IT?
Posted by Mick Finn, Chief of Operations The other day I had the opportunity to meet with a number of senior housing leaders from around Ecumen. We were talking about IT.IT is that feeling you get when you walk into a senior housing community, whether it’s independent living, assisted living or a nursing home and you just feel good. You get a warm, comfortable feeling. There is a vibe. People greet each other by name. They smile. They laugh. They’re genuine. You just know that that community just has IT. We couldn’t point to one thing that IT is, but here are some of the things that I think contribute to IT in senior housing.- A focus on hospitality. We’re not just providing bricks and mortar, we’re creating home from our greeting on the phone to the care with which we make dessert.- Authentic people, who are completely honest with each other and their customers, in good times and bad.- Collaboration - people getting out of their own worlds to put their heads together with colleagues.- Openess to take risks to make things better, and abandoning fear of failure.- A wide open door, where people can have candid conversations and ask about things on their mind.- An understanding of the big picture. People in places that have IT know how their job contributes to something larger.- Plenty of opportunities for people to continue learning and growing.- Looking forward. People at places that have IT are continually looking forward, striving to improve upon IT.This is just a partial list of what I think contributes to IT. What do you think contributes to IT? One other thing about IT. You know you have IT when your customers and team members want to be part of the community you help create rather than simply 'having to be there.'