Elevate Eldercare

This December, we're taking a look back at some of the top episodes from 2024, with a special focus on the speakers and ideas that took center stage at our annual conference in Grand Rapids, Mich. last month. Please enjoy this encore presentation of our interview with Joe Velderman. The topic of responsibly integrating technology into eldercare communities is so rich and complex that we needed two...

It's an "Elevate Eldercare" tradition: Each Thanksgiving, we set up a virtual gratitude table for the people who live the values of culture change every day. This year, we welcome a team from The New Jewish Home's Sarah Neuman campus in Westchester County, N.Y. — assistant administrator Miriam Levi, nurse Wendy McDonald, and CNA Joycelyn Scott-Adir. They share the reasons why they've each spent at...

U pholding civil liberties, addressing fear, and creating flexible systems to support individuals who are living with dementia are passionate goals for the three guests on this episode of Elevate Eldercare.  Susan Ryan sits down with Jennifer Carson, PhD, director of the Dementia Engagement, Education, and Research (DEER) program at the Univ. of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health; Al Power , MD...

For Michala Gibson, creating empowering environments for people living with dementia is both a professional and personal mission. As the co-founder of Prairie Elder Care in Overland Park, Kan., Gibson has built a unique farmhouse setting for elders living with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia — complete with a garden and farm animals. She also serves as a family caregiver for her husband, J...

As everyone listening knows, there was an election last night — but while another contentious political season comes to a close , the real work of policymaking in Washington and state legislatures is just beginning.  To discuss the policy work that will have the most impact on the eldercare reform space, we invited two of our favorite experts on the show today — Anne Montgomery and Joe Angelelli ....

Even the best communities that serve elders with varying levels of care needs often face a logistical problem: moving residents from one physical area to another as their care demands increase. The Towers at Tower Lane, an innovative community in New Haven, Conn., eliminated that problem by creating services that come directly to residents ' apartments. No matter what they need, up to and includin...

As a child, Freeman Hrabowski had already made a bigger impact on the world than many people do in their entire lives: Inspired by hearing Martin Luther King Jr. speak at his church, young Freeman was arrested for protesting against segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.   But Hrabowski didn ' t stop there, building an impressive career in academia that culminated with a 30-year tenure as president o...

Far too often, eldercare reform is presented as a binary choice between mortal adversaries: providers who believe that regulators are out to get them, and regulators who assume every provider is up to no good. The truth is obviously more complicated, and leaders like Jennifer Belden prove that there are ways to protect residents ' rights while also working with providers to improve the lives of el...

As someone in her 40s living with multiple rare autoimmune diseases, Nancy Stevens doesn ' t necessarily seem like a typical nursing home resident. But her journey through the long-term care system came with the same frustrations, challenges, and disappointments experienced far too often by people twice her age. Stevens uses her experiences as fuel to help hundreds of fellow nursing home residents...

In today's episode, Beth Furlong, RN, Community Relations Manager , and Hilary Camino, a certified n eurologic m usic t herapist at Sage Living in Jackson, Wyo., sit down with Susan Ryan.  Furlong offers a history of the Living Center and its evolution into Sage Living, emphasizing the need for a larger, more home-like space. She describes the collaboration with architects to design a dedicated mu...

Equity in aging is a topic that must be discussed more often in the field of eldercare. Today , Susan Ryan sits down with guest Marvell Adams Jr. to address this topic head on . Together, they unpack the many ways in which he is working to dismantle inequities in aging and create communities of inclusion.  Leveraging his two decades of work in the aging services field, Adams has created the Longev...

To be the developer of The Green House Project's BEST LIFE Approach for supporting persons living with dementia, it takes a very special commitment to person-directed living, the dignity of risk taking, and maintaining mobility.  This is certainly the case for today's guest, Anne Ellett. As a certified nurse practitioner and gerontological nurse, a dementia specialist, educator, author and speaker...

Upholding civil liberties, addressing fear, and creating flexible systems to support individuals who are living with dementia are passionate goals for the three guests on this episode of Elevate Eldercare.  Susan Ryan sits down with Jennifer Carson, PhD, director of the Dementia Engagement, Education, and Research (DEER) program at the Univ. of Nevada, Reno School of Public Health; Al Power, MD, g...

If you've never heard Homeboy Industries, you're just a brief Google search away from discovering an incredible nonprofit that is considered to be the most the most successful gang intervention, rehabilitation, and reentry program in the country.  In this episode, Susan Ryan talks with Homeboy CEO Tom Vozzo, who will also give the opening keynote talk at our upcoming Center for Innovation 2024 con...

Biophilia, the desire or tendency to commune with nature , is top of mind for author Julia Hotz , who joins the podcast to talk about her new book " The Connecti on C ure : The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging ."  Hotz explains how the phenomenon of social prescri bing , a non - medical approach to improving health by connecting with nature and community resource...

It ' s a presidential election year in the United States, with politics dominating the headlines from now until November. For many older people living in communal care settings, the ability to vote isn ' t always guaranteed, even though it ' s a baseline right that citizens do not lose as they age. Kate Poppenhagen, formerly the long-term care ombudsman for Larimer County, Colo. and currently a Ph...

The ability to navigate crises is a vital trait for any leader — and so is the ability to emerge from a crisis stronger, bolder, and better than before. Dr. George Everly, a renowned psychologist who helped to pioneer the field of disaster mental health, joins the podcast to discuss the keys to strong, steady leadership both during and after crises — such as the COVID-19 pandemic in eldercare. Eve...

So many of the systems in place to support older Americans were created at a time when people didn't expect to live much longer than 65, and the concept of retirement was a handful of years at most. Part of true system reform is acknowledging that elders today and tomorrow aren't the same as they were decades ago, and that we must create new structures and systems to better match our changing demo...

Deke Cateau is the kind of leader that the eldercare community desperately needs more of: committed to creating better environments for elders regardless of the challenges, willing to have nuanced conversations about the need for smarter regulations, and always inspiring others to do more than the status quo. The A.G. Rhodes CEO joins the podcast to discuss his Atlanta-based organization's new hou...

We go down under this week to speak with Angela Raguz, the chief operating and risk officer for HammondCare — a pioneering operator of small-home eldercare cottages in Australia, and one of CFI ' s partners in the Household Model International Consortium. Angela dives into her 30-year career at the forefront of dignified and radically non-institutional eldercare services and supports, whether it h...

Tireless advocate Carrie Leljedal returns to the podcast to discuss her work to bridge the worlds of advocacy for elders and people living with disabilities, which began after her adult son experienced a prolonged lockdown away from family and friends during the pandemic. She turned her anger and frustration into a new career as a champion for essential caregiver legislation, ensuring that familie...

It ' ll soon be that time again: We ' re gathering the Green House Project and Pioneer Network communities together at the Center for Innovation conference, coming to Grand Rapids, Mich. from November 11-13. This week, join CFI team members Susan Ryan, Marla DeVries, and Stacey Bergmann for a preview of the conference, a discussion of why in-person connections are so important at this point in the...

Across all industries, it can be difficult to separate promising, useful tech solutions from the hype — especially in senior living and eldercare, which have historically been slow to adopt even basic systems like electronic health records and high-speed wifi. Parasol Alliance CEO Amber Bardon has spent nearly a decade trying to change that reality, working with providers across the spectrum to ad...

While the Green House model is the most widely implemented small-home nursing care concept in the U.S., it ' s not alone — innovators around the world have developed person-directed, human-scale communities where elders of all abilities can thrive. Belong, a non-profit provider organization, has brought its own household model — the Belong Village — to towns across the United Kingdom. CEO Martin R...

With each year that passes, Pride celebrations become more and more mainstream — but in our current political and social climate, LGBTQ+ people of all ages continue to face demonization and stigmatization, a reality that is sometimes magnified for elders. Today in the United States, about half of older LGBTQ+ adults live in states where they can legally face housing discrimination simply for being...