Senior Living Think Tank Shares Ideas, Resources

When Denise Rabidoux, president and CEO of Evangelical Homes of Michigan, began looking for peers with whom to share knowledge and resources on senior living, the first place she looked was within CHHSM.

“We at Evangelical Homes of Michigan were looking around the CHHSM member ministries to determine if there was an affinity group of leaders within the organization to get together and share best practices,” she says.

Not surprisingly, a number of other senior living executives among CHHSM’s 71 corporate members had been thinking the same thing. Two of them were Steve Jaberg, CEO of Cedar Community in West Bend, Wis.; and Bob Anderson, CEO of Horizon House in Seattle, Wash.

“My role in getting it started was that way out on the West Coast I really don’t have a lot of CHHSM colleagues nearby, so frankly I’ve been only remotely involved in CHHSM during my 11 years at Horizon House,” Anderson says. “This was an attempt to connect with peers where each of us has made a commitment to generating collaboration strategies that would be really meaningful professionally and organizationally. So far this has indeed been the case.”

Through Jaberg and Anderson’s initiative, leaders of eight organizations formed what is being called the Senior Living Think Tank.

“The group is designed to help these care providers share non-financial resources and best practices to benefit all our organizations,” Jaberg says.

The group held its first meeting in Chicago in January and has met three more times since then, with the most recent meeting held Aug. 24.

So far, discussions have ranged across a variety of topics, from a guest exchange concept for residents of CHHSM-related continuing care retirement communities to an information-sharing network for senior care service providers.

“Cedar Community is uniquely positioned to leverage this network of resources,” Jaberg says. “It makes perfect sense for United Church of Christ retirement communities to work together to find ways to enhance our services to residents and others.”

For Scott R. Stevenson, president and CEO of Phoebe Ministries in Allentown, Pa., much of the think tank’s value comes from its grassroots start among individual executives. “The thought process really developed by us saying, “Isn’t there a way, since we’re all in similar industries, to partner and work together to enhance the benefits to our local communities as well as other organizations?”

Stevenson says an additional benefit is the geographic spread of the group. “I think that diversity is a key part of our current success and will be as we move forward,” he says. “Having that connection – me in Pennsylvania being able to call someone in Washington state and see how they handled challenges – is a blessing.”

For Rabidoux, who shared at the group’s August meeting her organization’s innovative “CCRC without walls” concept, joining the think tank is an opportunity to explore with peers larger visions of what CHHSM members can do collaboratively.

Among those ideas is what Jaberg refers to as the Passport to Travel program, which would allow residents at CHHSM-related retirement communities to “time-share” accommodations at other communities across the country.

“That’s something that individually our organizations would struggle with operationally, but when we get at a table and ideas are being shared and we’re gathered together as executives running faith-based organizations, the opportunities get greater,” Rabidoux says.

Jaberg and other think tank participants want to bring more members into the discussions, broaden the knowledge and resource base, and explore how ideas and solutions apply not just to senior care but all of CHHSM’s member organizations.

“I would hope that the think tank would grow to include other CEOs. And let’s get other people in the communities involved,” Stevenson says. “This could be pretty significant for CHHSM in the long run.”

The Senior Living Think Tank will hold its next meeting Nov. 7-8 in Cleveland. Interested leaders should contact CHHSM CEO Bryan Sickbert at 866-822-8224 ext. 2253.

CHHSM Health Boosts CCRC’s Savings and Peace of Mind

An EdenHill employee directs a resident through a cardiovascular exercise.

As epiphanies go, chances are you could count on one hand those that have taken place at corporate benefits meetings.

But that’s precisely what happened when Larry Dahl, CEO of EdenHill Communities, a continuing care retirement community in New Braunfels, Texas, attended such a meeting in St. Louis a few years ago.

There, Dahl heard representatives of the Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ (PBUCC) discuss CHHSM Health, the employee health insurance plan PBUCC offers to CHHSM members.

“At the presentation, one of the things that was attractive was that the Pension Boards operate their insurance as a not-for-profit program, so I knew we had similar values,” Dahl says. “I felt that the administrative costs and the profit margins that carriers would normally be writing into the program were really being passed back to us as savings. It was clear the Pension Boards operated the program with lots of integrity.”

With its existing health insurance plan, EdenHill was facing annual increases of 12 percent. “We are fully indemnified and self-insured and were facing large increases again even though our insurance rating was good,” he says. “PBUCC indicated they could save us between 10 and 15 percent.”

When representatives of PBUCC arrived at EdenHill in 2009, they determined that they could save the community over $100,000 on the cost of its employee health insurance program.

“That was significant for us, and as important was that their historical increases were less than half of the market increases for the last five years,” he says. “The industry average is 8 to 10 percent increases, and PBUCC was showing 3 to 5 percent.”

The math was convincing. EdenHill offered its first open enrollment with CHHSM Health in January of this year. The community has seen participation increase among its 250 employees, about half of which are enrolled.

In addition to the cost-savings, Dahl says EdenHill appreciated that CHHSM Health provides a broader menu of services to employees while keeping their premiums the same. Dahl says EdenHill will explore adding dental and vision coverage, as well as the option of a 401k next year.

“The CHHSM Health program has more value-added components that we weren’t even aware of initially, including reimbursement for physicals and monitoring for chronic diseases,” he says. “It always feels better to get more than you thought you were getting.”

The business basis for switching was sound, and the transition itself, Dahl says, was a smooth one. But beyond the bottom line, he emphasizes how impressed he has been with the way the program is run.

“My impression is that the Pension Boards are as concerned about serving our employees as we are,” he says. “They understand that we have to be good stewards of our organizations, and I think they have the best interests of our employees at heart.”

To learn how CHHSM Health can benefit your organization, contact Frank Loiacono, PBUCC’s director of health plan operations, at 800-642-6543 ext. 2806 or floiacono@pbucc.org.

Pilgrim Manor Named Outstanding Environmental Partner

Pilgrim Manor CEO George Heartwell tests out the community's composting bin.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) honored CHHSM member Pilgrim Manor Retirement Community July 28 as an “Outstanding Environmental Partner.”

The Grand Rapids, Mich., community is one of only 13 businesses statewide and one of four in West Michigan to be a 2010 honoree.

The award is given through DNRE’s Neighborhood Environmental Partners program, which urges cooperation between businesses and citizen groups to improve neighborhoods, making them cleaner and more attractive places to live and work. “When businesses and their neighbors work together to improve our environment and natural resources, everyone in the community benefits,” said DNRE Director Rebecca Humphries.

Pilgrim Manor won recognition for its “triple bottom line” business approach, which weighs environmental, social, and economic results equally as measures of success. “The overarching goal of Pilgrim Manor’s environmental stewardship efforts is to engage our community in enhancing quality of life for us all,” said George Heartwell, Pilgrim Manor’s CEO. “This award recognizes the commitment of our staff to this ideal and demonstrates what is possible when everyone is working together toward a common goal.”

Pilgrim Manor was founded in 1963 and provides a community and services dedicated to enhancing the physical, social, spiritual and emotional quality of life for older adults and their families throughout the greater Grand Rapids area.

Read more about Pilgrim Manor’s “triple bottom line” business approach here.

Wharton Homes Dedicated at Uplands

Uplands Retirement Village in Pleasant Hill, TN, recently dedicated and blessed its new skilled nursing facility, Wharton Homes. The Uplands Board of Directors gathered on May 7th to formally dedicate the new homes and on May 15 delegates to the Spring meeting of the Alabama/Tennessee Association of the United Church of Christ processed to the homes for a ritual blessing. CHHSM was represented at the blessing by the Rev. Bill Johnson, vice president for member relations, and the Rev. Bill Royster, CHHSM’s southern regional representative.

Incorporating the Eden resident-centered care concept, the two Wharton Homes will house four neighborhoods of residents – two with 15 residents; two with 16 residents. Each of the four neighborhoods has a comfortable central hearth room, a kitchen and common dining area as well as smaller seating areas for informal gatherings with family or friends. Each home also has a secure garden with accessible planters for the convenience of residents with green thumbs. The design of each home includes a spa, beauty shop and laundry. Each residential room houses a caregiver’s unit for access to electronic medical records and secure storage of medications for the resident. Each home will have a shared pet selected by the residents. Children from the nearby elementary school will visit regularly with the residents as will friends from the wider Uplands community. Nancy Himell serves as executive director of Uplands Retirement Village.

For more information, contact David Harsh, director of Development/Communications, atdharsh@uplandsvillage.com or visit www.uplandsvillage.com.

Mayor Heartwell’s Triple Bottom Line

For Mayor George Heartwell of Grand Rapids, host of the recently concluded CHHSM annual meeting, good things seem to come in threes.

He is a successful politician in the midst of his second term as mayor of Grand Rapids, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and the chief executive officer of Pilgrim Manor retirement community.

Heartwell is also a proponent of a three-part approach to sustainability that has put his city and his retirement community at the forefront of the fast-growing movement to create cost-efficient, yet environmentally friendly ways of doing business.

“If we are going to be sustainable as a government, a long term care facility and as a church, we are going to have to pay attention to three elements,” Heartwell said during an interview at the annual meeting, held March 4-7 at the J. W. Marriott Hotel. “Is what we are doing sustainable economically? Is it sustainable environmentally, and does it promote social equity?”

Hartwell’s “triple bottom line” approach nicely echoed the theme of the annual meeting, “Sustaining Stewardship: People, Money and God”s Creation,” and CHHSM members had ample opportunity to learn how both Grand Rapids and Pilgrim Manor practiced what might be called sustainable sustainability.

Since becoming mayor six years ago, Heartwell has pushed the city to investigate alternative sources of energy, especially wind power. Grand Rapids has already reached the ambitious goal of deriving 20 percent of its power from renewable resources. The city has also switched from gasoline to alternative fuels in city vehicles and implemented widespread conservation measures. It continues to monitor the water quality of the Grand River, and Heartwell serves as president of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition of more than 55 U.S. and Canadian cities that work together to advance the protection and restoration of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River.

Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that in 2007, the United Nations named Grand Rapids a “Center of Expertise” in sustainability.

Pilgrim Manor has also garnered praise, being named a Clean Corporate Citizen by the State of Michigan. In 2007, Pilgrim Manor conducted a “Light Bulb Sunday” fundraiser that enabled the facility to installed 750 compact fluorescent light bulbs and reduce its carbon footprint by 649,305pounds of carbon dioxide. More recently it planted a rain garden to reduce storm water run-off and partnered with the City of Grand Rapids WasteNot to develop a facility-wide recycling program.

“You have to overcome the objection that these initiatives are expensive,” said Heartwell, when asked about the biggest obstacles in implementing a sustainability plan. “In our case, they have saved us money.” The light bulb initiative shaved $12,000/year from Pilgrim Manor’s energy costs, and the recycling program reduced the facility’s trash hauling contract by about 30 percent.

As critics learn that sustainability make economic sense, another frequently-heard objection recedes. “I call it the “tree hugger syndrome, the idea that somehow this is not a manly thing to do,”said Heartwell, an avid backpacker, kayaker and fly fisherman. “But people are coming to appreciate environmental sustainability in a whole new way, and I don’t hear about tree hugging anymore.”

Muhlenberg Students Learn From Phoebe Residents

Muhlenberg College senior Christa Carlstrand was in for a surprise when her psychology class met the Phoebe Terrace women with whom it was paired for a 12-hour service learning project. The only elderly woman Christa had really known was her grandmother, whose interests centered on home and family.

When Christa and her fellow students gathered at Phoebe Terrace, a retirement community of CHHSM member Phoebe Ministries in Allentown, Pennsylvania, their professor oriented them by linking classroom theory and real world practice. “In class,” said Psychology of Women professor Dr. Linda Bips, “we learn theory about many aspects of women’s lives: work, marriage, motherhood, midlife, violence against women, mental and physical health and aging. This project will allow [you] to have a relationship with women who have perspectives on the things we’re studying.”

When Chista met her assigned partner, Betty Radman, she soon learned that people in her grandmother’s generation could be as different as people in her own. Betty initially confessed her reluctance to participate saying, “I was only a secretary. A lot of our residents were teachers and nurses. One even served in World War II…” Once Christa persuaded her, however, she learned that being “only a secretary”—Betty eventually became executive secretary to three presidents of Mack Trucks—was a fascinating glimpse into the women’s work of another generation. She learned that Betty, who finished high school at the end of the Depression, had attended business school because her family couldn’t afford college. “I didn’t want to be a secretary, but I had no choice,” Betty told her. “I thought maybe I’d be a writer because I didn’t like math or science, but my mother worked for the City of Allentown in the treasurer’s office and adored it. She was featured in The Morning Call in 1917 because it was unusual for a woman to be handling millions of dollars in funds She’d make me sit at her typewriter and copy things from a magazine for practice. Once I started business school, though, I loved it.”

What did the young women learn from their time at Phoebe Terrace? Dr. Bips remarked that many young women got a lesson on how to live full, active lives in retirement. “One student said, ‘I got out my planner to see when I was available, and she got out her planner to see when she was available, and she had less time than I did!’” Despite mutually-busy schedules, however, some of the relationships between the Muhlenberg students and the Phoebe Terrace women have continued long beyond the required time. Betty, who initially pleaded that she was “only a secretary” who was unable to attend college herself, recently attended a family gathering to celebrate Christa’s graduation from Muhlenberg.

To learn more about Phoebe Terrace and other Phoebe Ministries residences, please visit www.phoebe.org or call 610-794-5130.

–adapted from an article by Mary Venditta, published in the Summer 2005 issue of The Messenger, a publication of Phoebe Ministries

Old Memories Made New at Good Samaritan Home

No matter where you grew up, chances are that you can remember a place from your youth that doesn’t exist anymore. When the old places are torn down, it seems as if a part of our memories go with them. Now, however, residents of CHHSM member Good Samaritan Home in Evansville, Indiana, are rediscovering memories of the old places through an innovative project that will recreate the streets, architecture and artifacts of the city in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

The project to recreate post-war Evansville, announced at the Good Samaritan annual meeting in March, is designed to create familiar surroundings for those suffering from short-term memory loss or disorientation to time and place. Since studies have shown that 80% to 85% of nursing home residents have some form of confusion or dementia, Good Samaritan anticipates that the project will help many of its residents by creating familiar surroundings that can provide comfort, stimulate long-term memory and decrease agitation. “We owe that to people who contributed to this community and made it what it is today,” said Tom Slabaugh, administrator at Good Samaritan.

The construction, estimated to cost $1 million, will transform hallways into five well-traveled streets of Evansville’s past. Murals with a 3-D effect, along with material that looks like brick and stone, will create an urban feel, while floors will give the appearance of grass, cobblestones and pavement and indirect lighting will suggest sky and clouds. The project’s plans also call for functional porches, pillars, columns, street lights, mailboxes and porch lights.

The Good Samaritan Home, which is owned by Lincolnland, Wabash Valley, and Evansville Tri-State Associations of the United Church of Christ, opened its doors in 1962 to provide long-term health care for the elderly. Now Good Samaritan provides a nursing home, residential apartments, an Alzheimer’s community and a new Medicare unit. To learn more about Good Samaritan, visit www.goodsamhome.org; to find more senior living, long term care, or other health and human service ministry affiliated with the United Church of Christ, please visit the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries of the UCC at www.chhsm.org.

Eden Alternative Remakes the Experiencing of Aging

The Eden Alternative is a small not-for-profit organization making a big difference in the world, based on the core belief that aging should be a continued stage of development and growth, rather than a period of decline.

The Eden Alternative is seeking to remake the experience of aging around the world. The bulk of its work to date has been in de-institutionalizing the culture and environment of today’s nursing homes and other long-term care institutions.

Founded in 1991 by Dr. William Thomas, a Harvard-educated physician and board-certified geriatrician, The Eden Alternative has trained over 15,000 Eden Associates and now claims over 300 registered homes, in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. The staff and management of these homes continue to work towards meaningful culture change through ongoing training and a continued dedication to creating a life worth living for those in their care.

The core concept of The Eden Alternative is strikingly simple. Dr. William Thomas, his wife Judy, The Eden home office staff, 50 Eden Educators, 60 mentors and more than 15,000 associates teach that where elders live must be habitats for human beings, not sterile medical institutions. They are dedicated to eliminating the plagues of Loneliness, Helplessness, and Boredom that make life intolerable in most of today’s long-term care facilities.

The Eden Alternative shows how companionship, the opportunity to give meaningful care to other living things, and the variety and spontaneity that mark an enlivened environment can succeed where pills and therapies often fail. Places that have adopted the Eden Alternative typically are filled with plants, animals and are regularly visited by children.

The Eden Alternative is also about changing the culture of long-term care organizations. The departmentalized, task-orientation of the current institutional model has created a culture that is characterized by pessimism, cynicism and stinginess. By moving away from the top-down bureaucratic approach to management and moving decision making closer to the Elders, Edenizing organizations are helping to support a meaningful life for their Elders.

Studies show that implementation of The Eden Alternative is a powerful tool for improving quality of life and quality of care for those living in nursing homes. Also, in homes that have adopted Eden as an organizationalwide philosophy, there is often improved staff satisfaction and retention and significant decreases in the overuse of medications and restraints. Most importantly, Elders, supported by their caregivers, can once again direct their own daily lives.

—article reprinted from the November 2007 issue of Campus Connections, the newsletter of St. Paul Homes

Today I Have An Identity

United Church Homes Celebrates a Lifetime of Music

United Church Homes

Earlier this year, CHHSM member United Church Homes released its 90th Anniversary Annual Report, complete with its own music CD! The publication, titled Celebrate a Lifetime of Music, remembers each decade of United Church Homes history through the music and history of the day. The report opens with a reflection on the importance of music in our lives:
Music remembers, or so it seems. Hearing just a few notes of a favorite, possibly forgotten song, brings the memory of a specific moment flooding back.
A first kiss, Christmas with family, a first taste of teenage freedom at a concert, waiting for loved ones to return from foreign lands, Sunday church service, and Saturday night dancesevery moment of life seems set to music.
Throughout the years, the countrys taste and preferences in music have changed, but each generation has been touched by their music in a similar manner. At United Church Homes, the music may change as the years roll by, but our mission remains unchangedcaring for people.
Please enjoy the journey as we look back through the years and share musical memories and significant moments from United Church Homes residents and their lives.
1916-1926 DecadeUnited Church Homes traces its roots to 1916 and the generosity of siblings Matthew and Jane Smith. The Smiths bequeathed 168 acres of farmland in Holland, Ohio for the purpose of promoting the cause of an Old Folks Home. The bequest was used to purchase the brick home and surrounding farmland that was later renamed Fairhaven.
Woodrow Wilson was serving as President when the Smiths made their gift in 1916 and that same year he issued an executive order making The Star Spangled Banner the national anthem.
In the mid-1920s George Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue debuted and the program that would later become the Grand Ole Opry radio show was launched by George D. Hay in Nashville.
The Yankees won their first World Series in 1923 after acquiring Babe Ruth from the Red Sox after the 1919 season.
Enjoy the rest of United Church Homes memories at www.unitedchurchhomes.org; download the 2006 Annual Report in the News Center. United Church Homes serves more than 3800 older adults in more than 70 communities in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia.