We’ve all heard the term before: “Aging in Place.” What does that mean to you?

About a month ago there was an update from ALFA that included some information on a “home” specifically built for aging in place. Think of it as a “smart” house equipped with special functions and amenities that support people with disabilities. The purpose, obviously, is to offer a comfortable environment for its residents regardless of their age or circumstance.

Imagine growing old in a house with wide hallways and multiple floors designed to be wheelchair accessible. Imagine a place to store walking aids while enjoying a common area lit with the proper lighting and decorated with just the right amount of flora to provide a healthy and pleasant atmosphere.

But is this definition of “aging in place” too narrow? Many would argue that the needs of an aging person go beyond the actual space.

True aging in place involves:

• Assistance with activities of daily living
• A scalable care program (built through communication and consultation with experts and providers) to match the changing health situation of individuals
• Activities and event to keep people engaged and social
• Stability and safety provided by the strength of the COMMUNITY in which one lives

As we have seen at many facilities, activities and social interaction are among the most important things in helping keep residents happy and healthy. We all know that humans are social creatures, and that fact doesn’t go away as we get older. Cascade Park offers the rich and diverse activities program we do because we understand the importance of it to our residents.

Through these social interactions, residents build a sense of community not only among one another but also with the staff. It is that community which offers the stability and safety needed to truly age in place.

Ask yourself: How do I want to age in place?

A couple weeks ago a new website was launched. The name? Time Slips. The mission? To “bring the joy of creativity to families with dementia wherever they live.”

That’s what Dr. Anne Basting says. Basting is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and Director of the university’s Center on Age & Community. She has dedicated over 15 years in blending the fields of the arts and long-term care, with a focus on developing effective therapy methods for those with cognitive disabilities like dementia.

Time Slips is the latest of Basting’s works. It is an interactive website that enables users to read, write, and share stories, providing a powerful outlet of expression and communication.

Time Slips has been described as an ”improvisational storytelling method that replaces the pressure to remember with the freedom to imagine.” It is designed to support growth and learning for those sufferring from dementia and the caregivers who help them through creative engagement.

Time Slips offers training, certification, and consulting for facilitators and organizations.

Check out the website and see how Time Slips can benefit you or someone you know.

Earlier this month the state government announced a $1.5 billion budget gap. Governor Christine Gregoire has called for a Special Session of the Legislature that will begin on November 28, shortly after the November 17 Revenue Forecast.

The purpose of this session will be to develop a supplemental budget for the 2011-13 biennium. Since early this year, Governor Gregoire has pushed to identify options for achieving a 10% reduction in spending. Now DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus has made a corresponding public proposal, with program changes constituting a reduction of $573 million.

The potential adverse effects to long-term care in Washington are as follows:

• A total of 17,000 people will be affected
• A caseload reduction of 2,700 in assisted living
• Elimination of 1,000 client slots in boarding homes with ARC and EARC contracts
• Adult family home client load reduced by 1,000
• The number of patients served in SNFs reduced by 500
• The remaining number of beneficiaries would be removed from in-home services’ programs

In response to this, WHCA has put together a poweful e-adovacy tool to help us as care providers make our voices heard at the state and national levels. This email advocacy service is hosted online at their website and completely FREE for members and non-members.

Download more information and detailed instructions on how to use this new service.

It is critical for us to participate actively in this grassroots movement TOGETHER. Fragmented and divided, our cause is weakened. United in our efforts, we have much greater power to shape policy 

Contact Cascade Park Communities for more information on the advocacy process.

LET’S WORK TOGETHER TO PROTECT OUR SENIORS AND OTHERS WHO NEED LONG-TERM CARE!

October is just around the corner. Each season brings something new, and this October will bring major changes to consumers of assisted living in the state of Minnesota.

Next month people who choose assisted living in Minnesota will be required to go through a “mandatory consultation” giving them a list of alternative options. Consumers will then receive a verification code that senior living providers must collect prior to signing a lease.

It’s hard to precisely pinpoint the reasoning for this new law. Some argue that more information is always better, which in many cases can be true. However, there are others who feel that this is a heavy-handed move by the government to further involve themselves in what seems to be an increasingly regulated aspect of health-care.

Advocates of assisted living consistently point to the high value in saving state and federal governments money by providing a way to reduce the extremely high costs of hospitalization and nursing homes.

But its impact of state and federal budgets is also what lawmakers and officials at the Department of Human Services cite as the rationale for why necessary counseling. And, this underlies a growing belief in state governments that assisted living is an increasingly expensive option of care.

Perhaps more worrying is that the bill was enacted by legislators in Minnesota with virtually no public debate. Stakeholders object that they never saw it as a bill, amendment, or budget item. It just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

What are your thoughts?

Do you believe that Minnesota’s new rule is a positive or negative for consumers and prospects of assisted living?

How would you feel if Washington State passed a similar mandatory consultation?

Are you worried about the relative lack of transparency in the government’s adoption of this measure?

Share with us over at our Facebook Page!

Planning for Hope is a one-hour documentary capturing passionate researchers in the field today who are exploring early diagnoses for Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD.) FTD is caused by degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain, possibly extending back to the temporal lobe. It is the second most common form of early-onset dementia, after Alzheimer’s disease.

FTD has often been misdiagnosed along with other neurodegenerative diseases that cause dementia in young people in their 40s. This video increases awareness by presenting impactful personal stories alongside scientific research.

The full legnth documentary can be found at http://vimeo.com/26735336. Check out the 60-second promo below.

For more resources and dementia at Cascade Park, see our dedicated memory care services.

Cascade Park Vista recently participated in a local charity golf tournament. Tom Speer had the opportunity to become an “adopted father figure” to 10 championship golf pros.

Our Marketing Director Peter Adams helped out Tom with transportation, taking them from hole to hole on a golf cart. Local businesses such as Titus Will sponsored the event. A silent auction was also held, raising more money for charity. Attendees silently bid on a variety of sports, including a Wayne Gretsky jersey which put $850 towards pancreatic cancer research.

Tom and Peter rooted for the pros, which included Washington State golfers Ryan Moore and Andres Gonzales.

Just a sign that sometimes dreams do come true.

Check out our photos from the event on Facebook!

This past month we celebrated Cascade Park Gardens Sweet 16! Residents, staff, and community visitors joined together at the Union Avenue facility for cake, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and merriment.

Cascade Park Gardens is a powerfully positive force in the community, serving the needs of those with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. We are proud to be among the top providers for specialized and secure memory care in not only Tacoma but also Pierce County and the greater Puget Sound region.

The 16-year track record of Cascade Park Gardens?

• Approx. 650 residents since we’ve opened our doors in 1995
• 2001 Goodwill Industries Small Employer of the Year
• 2004 Pierce Transit Trailblazer Award
• 11-time sponsor of the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimers
• 4-time sponsor of Tacoma Senior Citizens Awareness Day
• 10-time sponsor of the Pierce County Alzheimers Caregiver Conference

More than any of this, we’ve provided a warm, caring, and safe environment that our residents have truly been able to call home.

LEARN MORE ABOUT CASCADE PARK GARDENS!

Dementia takes away a person’s memory. That’s more than just forgetting what you know. It also means a loss of identity, of person, and of connection.

When you lose something so precious, you try to find comfort in familiar things. Music is a powerful tool because it evokes a sensory response, as opposed to an intellectual one. Music is often attached to nostalgic moments in one’s life, and the sensory evocation of those moments through music can be a powerful force against the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s or other dementias.

We know that Alzheimer’s greatly affects short-term memory. Long-term memory generally remains intact, although the ability to access it is reduced. A dementia patient may have the memory in their head but not be able to associate it with their current reality. However, music that takes them back to that moment of the memory can strengthen the association of it to the present time period.

Music therapy also has other beneficial effects, including reducing anxiety (and sometimes pain). There have even been findings to suggest that it can improve heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure. While there is still much uncertainty regarding scientific benefits, it appears to have a generally positive effect. Anecdotally there seems to be much more support 

Do you have a loved one who suffers from dementia? Can you think of any piece of music that has significance to him or her? If so, try playing that music next time you visit them. It doesn’t have to be a big grand deal. Perhaps just having it on in the background while visiting them have an uplifting effect on their mood. 

But be conscious of the effects that music can have. If familiar music is a positive and rejuvinating force for the mind, the flipside could easily be true. Imagine what would happened if you brought Kanye West in the life of your loved one? How would they react?

Since the purpose of familair music is to help recall familiar experiences, unfamiliar music can have the result of reinfrocing the unfamiliarity imposed by dementia. It can even cause discomfort and aggravation to the patient.

The bottom line is that music can be a powerful tool for therapy in memory care. But like all methods of care, its use should follow what is appropriate based on the context of the current situation, the role of the music in memory, and the nature of the music itself.

Some say music is a universal language. Let’s use it to communicate with and comfort our dementia patients!

For more on music therapy, check out the American Music Therapy Association

Dementia is uncurable, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t many different treatments lining up to take a shot at the variety of dementias stealing the memories from millions of people. Here are three very different routes to go.

1) Cancer drug SAHA

A drug already approved for people with cancer shows early potential as a therapy for a common form of dementia, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report.

“Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) holds promise as a first-generation drug for the prevention and treatment of familial frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a progressive, inherited neurodegenerative disease for which there is no treatment,” said Dr. Joachim Herz, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and the study’s senior author.

Learn More!

2) Orange Juice

Drinking 100 percent fruit juices could have protective health benefits similar to those of whole fruits, according to research presented in a literature review yesterday at the 2011 Experimental Biology (EB) meeting.

Highlights from a new report summarizing recent research on the potential benefits of fruit juice suggest a positive association between intake of 100 percent juice and reduced risk for several chronic diseases, including cancer, markers for cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline.

Learn More!

3) Ping Pong

June is National Safety Month. Certainly we should be conscious of safety throughout the whole year, but during June the Home Safety Council (HSC) launches of a number of initiatives and efforts to educate and motivate families. They want to see people take actions to increase the safety of their homes. 

HSC has ready-made home safety resources for you to share with friends, family members, or people you know in your personal, professional, and broader communities.

Check out their website to learn more about the “Hands on Home Safety Campaign” and how you can participate!

Are you and the people you know being safe?

There are number of factors that you must consider. It’s surprisingly easy to blow the question off and simply assume that everyone is doing all they can for their protection and health. But the question is essential.

Especially as we get older, we become more prone to accidents, mishaps, and other misfortunes.

With age, we are more likely to suffer from falls. It’s a familiar story: an elderly mother who slips and lands hard on her hip. It’s also a very serious matter. Older bones have lost a good deal of their strength, and it isn’t uncommon for falls to cause serious injuries, sometimes even death.

With age, we are more suscetible to confusion and disorientation. While this is prominent in the early stages of dementia, even those who are relatively healthy in the mind can easily have memory slips and lose track of what we should be doing. Again, a familiar story: the elderly man who starts to wander outside, unsure of where exactly he is going, and ends up traversing many miles on foot before his relatives even know that he’s gone.

With age, we are much more likely to exercise poor judgement. Safety is not always a physical concept. Think to yourself, “is there anyone I know who might be prone to getting him or herself in trouble?” Perhaps it would be due to certain habits of theirs, or maybe it is a certain association they spend time with.

If you or someone you know has difficulty living safely and comfortably in his or her own home, assisted living might be the solution.

If you or someone you know is starting to experience severe cognitive and memory decline, specialized memory care might be the solution.

If you or someone you know is fully-able to remain at home but needs exercise, stimulation, and activities to enhance day-to-day living, adult day health might be the solution.

Ask yourself these questions! They are important!