Elevate Eldercare

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...

The New Jewish Home has been serving elders in New York City since before the Civil War, but CEO Jeffrey Farber knows that even an organization with that kind of longevity needs constant innovation to survive into the future. For more than 15 years, the Jewish Home's Geriatrics Career Development (GCD) program has given teens and young adults in Manhattan and the Bronx the chance to gain practical...

In this edition of "Let Me Say This About That" we focus on innovation and how to make substantive change – from the perspective of those that are doing it, those that support organizations to make change, and those that research and have the 30-thousand-foot view.   AND it's all focused around the report released this month from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that c...

During this pandemic there has been a trusted and credible voice that has used data to shine a light on the urgent need for comprehensive nursing home reform in this country – and that voice is Dr. David Grabowski. Dr. Grabowski is a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and has published over 200 peer-reviewed research articles. He has often been called upon by government agen...

When The Green House Project talks about bringing an end to the institutional nursing home, we don't just mean the outdated, hospital-like buildings where so many elders live: We also mean the institutional culture that dehumanizes real people by treating them solely as collections of symptoms to manage. Sonya Barsness describes her role as a revisionary gerontologist, someone who challenges the i...

For years, Barry Berman and Betsy Mullen thought they'd built the best possible nursing home – to the point where people came from all over to see their state-of-the-art nurses' stations and efficient meal distribution. But then Barry's own mother needed nursing home care at their facility, and he saw firsthand how quickly even the best institutional setting can take a physical and emotional toll...

As the CEO of an eldercare organization and the chair of LeadingAge's board, Carol Silver Elliott faced a pair of daunting leadership challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic – and emerged as a shining example of strength under extreme pressure and tragedy. As we close out Women's History Month, we wanted to shine a light on the unique challenges that women in leadership roles face in the eldercare...

March of every year is declared "National Women's Month". The National Women's History Alliance designates a yearly theme for Women's History Month…and this year it is "Women Providing, Healing, Promoting Hope".   This theme is   "both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all  ...

Amid the current national debate over new nursing home regulations, Dr. Eleanor Feldman Barbera presents a provocative reframing of the system-wide problems in long-term care. A psychologist who specializes in mental health care for older adults, particularly those who live in nursing homes, Feldman Barbera lays out a distinction between dysfunction and amorality in nursing homes – in part inspire...

Jane Rohde's career in senior living architecture and design is based on a simple but often overlooked truth: What's good for elders is also what's good for everyone. Our needs don't change as we age, and Rohde joins "Elevate Eldercare" to challenge our idea of what senior living can and should look like – particularly, the notion that real answers to challenges in eldercare can be found by focusi...

The solutions to the workforce crisis in long-term care are complex and systemic, from better wages to battling deep-seated biases to inspiring young people to see caregiving as a career. But what about the immediate challenges facing the current cohort of caregivers – the people who, often at the expense of their own physical and mental health, keep working to keep elders and others safe and comf...

We continue our new format for "Let Me Say This About That" – highlighting all of the podcasts released in the month in one episode. In February three podcasts were released: - Reframing Dementia and Caregiving for the Future (Episode 135) - Editing the Genetics of Alzheimer's (Episode 136)   - Getting Closer to Home with Marvell Adams, Jr. (Episode 137) This week on "Let Me Say This About That",...

Marvell Adams, Jr. has built his career in non-profit senior services on a desire to bring the traditional spaces associated with eldercare – the nursing home, the assisted living facility – closer to home. But creating a home isn't as simple as building a structure. It's a deliberate act of fostering an environment where everyone feels included, supported, and valued. For an organization like The...

Dr. Ornit Chiba-Falek's work as an Alzheimer's researcher sounds almost like science fiction – but it's real. At the Duke University School of Medicine, Chiba-Falek and her colleagues are probing the ways that science can essentially turn off the specific DNA sequences that can lead to Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The science is still in its early stages, but Chiba-Falek is optimistic...

Amid the gradual aging of the American population, there's never been more awareness about Alzheimer's and other dementias – but the stigmas and misconceptions have also persisted alongside this public knowledge, even among well-meaning people. At the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Memory Center, Dr. Jason Karlawish and his colleagues take a holistic approach to caring for people living with Al...

It's a new year and we've got a new format for "Let Me Say This About That" – instead of highlighting just one Elevate Eldercare podcast, we will discuss all of the podcasts released in the month. In January four podcasts were released: -COVID 2022: Hope and Reality with Dr. William Haseltine   (Episode 130) -Building a True Eldercare System with Rep. Jan Schakowsky (Episode 131) - "Be Kind and Be...

As a longtime advocate for better eldercare options, Susan Reinhard knows that calls for change will always be met with tough resistance from those invested in the status quo. Her advice? Be tougher. Reinhard, the director of AARP's Public Policy Institute, joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss her work as a collector and promoter of hard data that can bolster advocacy for eldercare reform. A nurse...