Elevate Eldercare

It's been a momentous year for The Green House Project and Pioneer Network, as the two organizations formally united under the new Center for Innovation banner. Three CFI leaders – CEO Susan Ryan, chief culture officer Penny Cook, and chief learning officer Marla DeVries – look back on a year that saw the culture change movement gain even more power and influence among operators and policymakers....

Part of the enduring stigma surrounding dementia is the collective misconception that a diagnosis means the end of someone's life – or at least the end of a person's ability to contribute to society. Bobby Redman turns that notion on its head, living on her own and serving as an advocate for the entire community years after her diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia. In this episode, Redman shares...

In Lynne Sewell's telling, her husband Rick seems almost larger than life, trotting the globe with his family as his job in technology took him from their home in Australia to Europe, Asia, and North America – winning friends and professional admiration at every stop along the way. But when Rick was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and aphasia, their lives entered a challenging new phase. Ly...

Architect Nick Seemann joins the podcast to discuss social architecture and design – the idea that people and physical spaces interact to create each environment – in eldercare and beyond. The founder and managing director of the Australia-based Constructive Dialogue Architects, Seemann has a range of experience across a variety of settings, from overseeing housing improvements in remote Nepalese...

Dr. Samir Sinha has emerged as a leading voice for eldercare improvement in Canada, and he joins CFI's Penny Cook to discuss the lessons that leaders can learn from each other across the globe. Sinha argues that there's a core misconception in international analyses of countries, such as Denmark, that have emerged as eldercare leaders; while those nations generally do have a more compassionate fra...

A Thanksgiving tradition continues as we gather around a virtual gratitude table with the folks who make Green House homes work. This year, GHP's Susan Ryan and Rebecca Priest welcome a trio of employees from St. John's Senior Services in Rochester, N.Y. – dining practice partner Linda McCoy, dementia and quality of life specialist Mimi DeVinney, Shahbaz Annette Robles, and nurse Jen Dean. You'll...

It's official: The Green House Project and Pioneer Network are now formally aligned under the Center for Innovation umbrella.   GHP senior director Susan Ryan and Pioneer Network CEO Penny Cook go inside the new alliance and share updates on some of the exciting work coming in the year ahead – including a new e-learning platform, their participation in the Moving Forward Nursing Home Quality Coali...

Canadian Association for Long-Term Care CEO Jodi Hall joins Penny Cook to discuss the challenges and opportunities around systemic change post-COVID. Hall's answers will probably sound familiar to providers and reform leaders on both sides of the border – funding questions, staffing shortages, and regional regulatory variations loom large as lawmakers and advocates look to reshape nursing home car...

As a chronic cancer patient and senior lecturer in nursing at the University of Salford in Manchester, England, Natalie Yates-Bolton knows about the importance of compassionate health care from both sides of the equation. She joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss her extensive work in the field of compassionate leadership in nursing homes and other care settings, from coaching caregivers through CO...

Even the most well-meaning people sometimes talk about "keeping our seniors safe" from a variety of possible outcomes, from disease to falls to the dangers of poor diet – as though elders have no autonomy or ability to make decisions on their own. Zero-tolerance COVID lockdowns have helped to reframe the discussion in recent years, but too often we rob elders of the right to take the same acceptab...

Persistent staffing issues in long-term care don't have a single solution. In fact, leadership expert and educator Christopher Ridenhour argues that creating a stable, resilient, and satisfied workforce requires the intersection of multiple goals – from diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to employee recognition to fostering a culture of true respect and appreciation. In conversation with Pen...

Harvard researcher David Grabowski returns to the podcast to discuss the financial incentives that have created our current long-term care landscape – and how small changes to the way the federal government funds and regulates nursing homes can lead to significant improvements in quality, safety, and satisfaction. Too often, nursing home reform is presented as a false binary between increasing gov...

The pandemic threw a harsh light on the lack of autonomy that far too many people experience when receiving care in an institutional setting, and supporting resident choice and decision-making ability has become an important area of reform action.   Jill Vitale-Aussem, president and CEO of Christian Living Communities, argues that it's not enough to focus on resident choice of activities and meals...

Frequently lost in the debates over nursing home reform is an uncomfortable fact: the federal and state governments spend billions on care in outdated, understaffed institutions that don't always put residents' needs first, and we're all collectively getting what we're paying for. By better aligning reimbursements with the factors that matter most to residents, families, and staff – private rooms,...

Susan Ryan and Alex Spanko discuss a pair of interviews with care professionals conducted at the recent Pioneer Network conference. First up, Lauren Flores – director of life enrichment at Green House adopter Mt. San Antonio Gardens in Pomona, Calif. – discusses her path from Disney to eldercare, and why she thinks more people should consider a pathway into working with elders. Then, CNA Jonas Wei...

Organizations in all industries have embraced the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their operations – but how can eldercare organizations go beyond trainings and workshops to create truly inclusive cultures? We asked that question to a variety of leaders at the Pioneer Network conference this past July. Join an all-star team of voices from across the eldercare spectrum for a chal...

The voices from the Pioneer Network conference continue to speak as Alex Spanko and Penny Cook break down a pair of interviews focusing on the need for inherent humanity – and not just medical care – in eldercare settings. First up, Paul Falkowski discusses his advocacy for the vital role of nursing home volunteers, unsung heroes and lifelines for elders who were among those shut out of buildings...

In this edition of "Let Me Say This About That" we focus our discussion on health care innovations, a closer look at employees in skilled nursing and a new term for those team members – CAREFORCE, and why a formal alliance between the Green House Project and the Pioneer Network will be a single address for eldercare transformation.   This episode features:   -Inside the Green House Project-Pioneer...

During COVID, many long-term care organizations have leaned heavily on employee assistance programs (EAPs) to support employee mental health. While these programs are valuable, psychologist and consultant Kelly O'Shea Carney passionately argues that EAPs are just the tip of a pyramid of services and systems that providers must implement to truly foster mental wellbeing among residents and staff. O...

When Lori Porter was a young CNA, she relied on the support – both moral and financial – of others to access the training she needed to advance her career.   As the co-founder and CEO of the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA), Porter has dedicated decades of her career to providing those opportunities for training and advancement to CNAs across the country. Ahead of CNA Week 20...

Before he was the CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, Louis Woolf's career started in consumer research, where he worked with Children's Television Workshop – the creators of "Sesame Street." Those children's TV visionaries taught him a valuable lesson that he carries with him today: Whether it's young children, elders, people with disabilities, or other often marginalized groups, we do society a disservice...

Since we announced a formal alliance with Pioneer Network this spring, we've gotten a lot of questions: Why now? What will happen to the Pioneer brand? What are your plans for the future? In this bonus episode, Pioneer Network CEO Penny Cook joins Susan Ryan for answers to those questions and more – including an exploration of Pioneer and GHP's overlapping histories and a preview of our shared eve...

As we close out Older Americans Month, "Elevate Eldercare" takes a wider look at the societal problem of ageism with Paul Irving, the former president of the Milken Institute and the founding chair of its Center for the Future of Aging. Irving, now a senior fellow at the institute, shares his bold vision of a future where people are just as excited at the prospect of aging as they are by other lif...

As soon as Larry Carlson saw a CNN piece about a unique dementia village in the Netherlands, he knew he had to see it for himself – and once he did, he knew he had to bring the model to his organization back home in New Jersey. Carlson, the CEO of United Methodist Communities, joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss the groundbreaking project, which will feature single-family-sized homes, neighborhoo...

In honor of National Nurses Week, we convened an all-star panel of nurses from the Green House and Pioneer Network communities to discuss the vital role that RNs, LPNs, and other nursing professionals play in truly driving culture change in long-term care. You'll hear real-life examples of how nurses can take small steps that lead to big quality-of-life improvements for elders and people living wi...