Elevate Eldercare

Laura Tamblyn Watts has a mantra for her work in eldercare reform: Be kind and be useful. The temperature around long-term care reform debates can often rise into rancor – understandably so, given the abuse and death that too often occurs in the setting, particularly in the wake of COVID. But Tamblyn Watts believes that we'll collectively go farther if we operate with the understanding that so man...

Among the many long-simmering problems that COVID-19 revealed in long-term care, a lack of coordination among providers and leaders may be one of the trickiest to solve – but Rep. Jan Schakowsky believes it's possible with collaboration and a groundswell of grassroots action. Schakowsky, who represents Chicago and its suburbs, joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss the concrete steps that leaders ca...

To kick off yet another uncertain year, "Elevate Eldercare" welcomes back Dr. William Haseltine for a dose of both hard reality and hope for managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In the first part of the interview, conducted in late October, Dr. Haseltine – a renowned expert on virology and infectious disease – accurately predicted the ongoing risk that new variants will present to health care p...

In this last episode of the year, Susan Ryan and Alex Spanko look back at some of the guests and ideas that stuck with the entire Green House Project team from the "Elevate Eldercare" podcast in 2021. From the importance of inclusion in eldercare settings to the need for collaborative and transformative change, the leaders who joined the podcast this past year brought bold visions for the future r...

This week we have another inspirational woman to highlight on "Let Me Say This About That" – Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former Surgeon General of the United States and current Green House Project board member. Get ready for a wonderful discussion of her trailblazing life and career, and another "barrier-breaking" physician that inspired Dr. Elders.   You will be in awe of their accomplishments and the i...

This week, "Elevate Eldercare" has the true honor of welcoming former U.S. surgeon general and current Green House Project board member Dr. Joycelyn Elders for a discussion of her trailblazing life and career. Dr. Elders's drive and talents took her from a childhood in poverty to the heights of federal influence, serving as the first Black surgeon general in American history – while also powerfull...

Dr. Edith Eger's life took her from unimaginable despair to peace and a calling to help others.   As a teenager, Dr. Eger survived the Nazi concentration camps – and the murder of her parents – by relying on her inner strength to remember that she was still a valuable human being despite the indignities and evil imposed upon her. She then went on to build an influential body of work as a psycholog...

The arc of Dr. Edith Eger's life took her from unimaginable despair to peace and a calling to help others. This week, she joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss her unique and powerful perspective on grief, hope, and forgiveness – as well as the continued need to fight ignorance and hatred with love and understanding. As a teenager, Dr. Eger survived the Nazi concentration camps – and the murder of...

This Thanksgiving week, "Elevate Eldercare" hands the mic over to three dedicated caregivers from the Green House Cottages of Homewood in Mena, Ark. Administrator Vicki Hughes, RN Toni Lawrence, and Shahbaz/CNA Kerri Rye gather around a virtual gratitude table to discuss their reasons for working in eldercare, the power of the Green House model for staff and elders alike, and how caregivers can cr...

As leaders from across the long-term care continuum continue to search for solutions to the worsening workforce shortage Robert Espinoza has a simple piece of advice: Learn more about caregivers' challenges and solve them to help them stay in the sector. Espinoza is the vice president of policy at PHI – an eldercare workforce advocacy and research group. In this episode of "Let Me Say This About T...

As leaders from across the long-term care continuum continue to search for solutions to the worsening workforce shortage, Robert Espinoza has a simple piece of advice: Learn more about caregivers' challenges, and solve them to help them stay in the sector. As the vice president of policy at the eldercare workforce advocacy and research group PHI, Espinoza has a front-row seat to the litany of issu...

What might be the answer to the workforce crisis in long-term care?   In this edition of "Let Me Say This About That" we explore the possibilities that Robyn Stone recently shared on Elevate Eldercare. Robyn is the senior vice president for research at non-profit provider organization LeadingAge and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass-Boston. Mary takes a closer look at the LTSS Cen...

With the workforce crisis in long-term care more dire than ever, providers face difficult decisions on an almost daily basis around maintaining a high level of care while managing a growing shortage of qualified candidates. Robyn Stone – senior vice president for research at non-profit provider organization LeadingAge and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass-Boston – says that the so...

This past summer, the American Bar Association overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging Congress to make private rooms and bathrooms, along with other small-home touches, a prerequisite for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.   In this episode, Mary and Marla take a closer look at the work of the longtime director of the ABA's Commission on Law and Aging, Charles Sabatino, and...

This past summer, the American Bar Association overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging Congress to make private rooms and bathrooms, along with other small-home touches, a prerequisite for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.   To learn more about this attempt to overhaul the landscape by radically changing the financial incentives at play – as well as the ABA's future plans f...

Research gives you a solid foundation on which you can build your ideas and opinions and in this episode of "Let Me Say This About That" we explore the work from two leading researchers in the aging sector. University of Chicago researcher R. Tamara Konetzka, who was behind some of the earliest research into COVID-19 and nursing homes, which often generated provocative and unexpected results. And...

University of Chicago researcher R. Tamara Konetzka was behind some of the earliest research into COVID-19 and nursing homes, which often generated provocative and unexpected results: While media coverage focused on individual outbreaks and historic lapses in infection control, Konetzka's work suggested that past quality didn't have much of an impact on a nursing home's pandemic risk when compared...

Evidence-based practices form the bedrock of quality health care services, but as we continue to seek real reforms in long-term care, Sheryl Zimmerman believes researchers need to flip the script – and also embrace practice-based evidence. Instead of waiting years to see which new theories and ideas may eventually pan out into best practices, Zimmerman – a distinguished professor at the University...

Safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines brought a long-overdue end to a blanket federal ban on nursing home visitations this past March, but the surging delta variant has brought back the isolation and uncertainty of 2020 to nursing homes and other communal care facilities across the country. This week, Susan Ryan and Alex Spanko sit down with a pair of grassroots leaders working to ensure that famil...

Safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines brought a long-overdue end to a blanket federal ban on nursing home visitations this past March, but the surging delta variant has brought back the isolation and uncertainty of 2020 to nursing homes and other communal care facilities across the country. This week, Susan Ryan and Alex Spanko sit down with a pair of grassroots leaders working to ensure that famil...

As president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Bill Dombi is a prominent supporter of the Choose Home Care Act of 2021 – a piece of federal legislation that would expand Medicare coverage of in-home health care services. In this episode Marla takes a closer look at what is included in the Choose Home bill – what does it mean for discharge planning from hospitals, the implicati...

As the CEO of National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Bill Dombi is a prominent supporter of the Choose Home Care Act of 2021 – a piece of federal legislation that would expand Medicare coverage of in-home health care services. Addressing the relative lack of home care alternatives to nursing facilities has become a rallying cry for lawmakers and advocates alike in the wake of the COVID-19...

In this episode of "Let Me Say This About That" Marla and Mary explore the conversation that took place between Susan Ryan and Shawn Bloom, the CEO of the National PACE Association (NPA) in Episode 109 of Elevate Eldercare. PACE, or the Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly is community-based and provides a comprehensive set of services designed to prevent unnecessary admissions to nursin...

COVID-19 continues to spur loud calls for expanded home- and community-based services for elders, which are too often lacking in many parts of the country. But there's an already powerful blueprint that organizations have followed, gradually but steadily, for decades: PACE, or Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly. Across the United States, community-based PACE organizations provide a com...

With the delta variant surging among the unvaccinated and the looming specter of increased restrictions even for those who've gotten their jabs, the cycles of uncertainty that defined most of 2020 are currently making an unwelcome comeback. In Episode 107, Susan Ryan welcomes Tammy Marshall and Alex Spanko back on the podcast to talk about strategies for pandemic resiliency. In this episode of "Le...