Elevate Eldercare

Building truly age-friendly communities starts with incorporating elders' needs, wants, and goals into civic planning.

As the executive director of Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh, Laura Poskin works across the city to build bridges between elders and the decision-makers who can help create accessible, integrated spaces for people of all ages and abilities – all while centering the opinions of older people who far too often don't have a seat at the table.

Poskin joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss the World Health Organization's vision for age-friendly communities, success stories from her organization's work in the Steel City, and her own journey into elder advocacy, which began as a child and young adult with the simple realization that older people and younger people can form fulfilling friendships across generations.

Explore the full list of age-friendly communities: https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/network-age-friendly-communities/info-2014/member-list.html Learn more about the WHO's age-friendly cities framework: https://extranet.who.int/agefriendlyworld/age-friendly-cities-framework/ Join us in Detroit October 3-4 for a workshop on building innovative new care communities: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/education-events/workshops/ Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

This week on the show, we take a break from eldercare policy and best practices with a story of mindfulness and adventure. Previous guest Natalie Yates-Bolton – a senior lecturer in nursing at the University of Salford, Manchester in the United Kingdom – returns with her mother, Myra, for a conversation about their recent pilgrim walk through France.

Natalie and Myra recently walked 32 miles along the Camino de Santiago, a pilgrimage route that people have traveled since the 10th century. Along the way, Natalie and Myra experienced the simplicity, peace, and perspective that comes with walking through nature and participating in a centuries-old tradition.

As Myra, 80, advises listeners: "No matter what age you are, you should find and go on an adventure. Whether they're small or big, it doesn't really matter … With care and good support, everybody can still find and enjoy adventure in everyday life. And I really mean that – no matter what age you are."

See photos from the journey: bit.ly/45wY4Vq, bit.ly/3YWIjEF, bit.ly/44wbGPf Learn more about the Camino: https://santiago-compostela.net/ Join us in Detroit October 3-4 for a workshop on building innovative new care communities: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/education-events/workshops/ Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

The relationship between nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in nursing homes can often be fraught with hierarchy and disputes over tasks and responsibilities, as well as the normal conflicts that arise in any workplace.

To gain some insights into building collaborative care teams, we sat down with two leaders from an organization that's excelled in that department: Presbyterian SeniorCare Network's director of nursing Taylor McMahon and lead CNA Maggie Pernatozzi.

These eldercare veterans have spent 10 and 18 years with the western Pennsylvania provider, respectively, and work together to create a person-centered care force that sets the Presbyterian SeniorCare Network apart from others in the area. Tune in for strategies on cross-role teamwork, insights on inspiring the next generation of geriatric nursing graduates, training and mentoring CNAs for future success, and creating a workforce culture that retains good people for decades. Learn more about Revisiting the Teaching Nursing Home: https://www.johnahartford.org/grants-strategy/revisiting-the-teaching-nursing-home Visit Presbyterian SeniorCare Network's website: https://www.srcare.org/ Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

The people who work in state long-term care ombudsman's offices are unsung heroes for residents of nursing homes, assisted living communities, and other communal care settings, helping to amplify their voices when they aren't being heard.

This week on "Elevate Eldercare," we dive into the present and future of the ombudsman role on both the macro and micro levels. First, former ombudsman Penny Cook – who recently departed from the Center for Innovation, where she served as chief culture officer – takes a global view of the position, probing the ways that states can expand the role to achieve the twin goals of better care and overall resident satisfaction.

Then Kate Poppenhagen, the current long-term care ombudsman for Larimer County, Colorado and a fierce advocate for elders, sits down with Alex Spanko to talk about the day-to-day life of an LTC ombudsman – as well as the particular need to support LGBTQ elders at this particular moment in U.S. history.

Learn more about the ombudsman role from our friends at the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care: https://ltcombudsman.org/about/about-ombudsman Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

Within the world of aging services, there's perhaps no more popular concept than "aging in place." But what exactly does that mean, and how can we make that an attainable goal for most people?

To help answer that question, we turned to Christine Foster, an interior designer with a specific focus on developing new strategies and models to help elders age in place – whether that's in their own existing homes, or new communal care settings designed to bridge the gaps betweenliterally aging in place and moving into a more formal care community.

In both her work at her own firm – eight two three Interior Planning and Design – and her elder advocacy work with the Society for the Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE), the Moving Forward Coalition, and elsewhere, Foster looks to combine the best of biophilic and trauma-informed design to create spaces that people of all ages can truly call home.

Read Christine's white paper on her innovative new model: Innovative Solutions Available at the Intersection of Built Environment and Long Term Care (adobe.com)

Read "Can Health Care Design Away Loneliness" in Healthcare Design:https://healthcaredesignmagazine.com/trends/perspectives/can-healthcare-design-away-loneliness/

Learn more about SAGE: https://sagefederation.org/

Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

oe Carella has a bold prescription for the future of eldercare, starting with reimagining nursing homes as hubs for entire communities.

Instead of looking for ways to iterate on the institutional nursing home, such as through assisted and independent living, Carella challenges the sector to imagine a future where people actually want to move into a nursing home level of care because that's where the action is – friends, family, and the wider community gathering in places where people receive care instead of avoiding the setting altogether.

It's a model that Carella pioneered at the Scandinavian Living Center, a Massachusetts community that's technically licensed as assisted living but is so interwoven with the town of Newton that people don't immediately realize they're enjoying ice cream or attending a cultural performance within an eldercare setting.

In this episode, hear Carella discuss his unique path to eldercare and his vision for how nursing homes can be destinations, and not places where people regret moving.

Learn more about the Scandinavian Living Center: https://www.slcenter.org/

Explore cultural transformation services from The Green House Project and Pioneer Network: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/cultural-transformation/

Christopher Laxton recently retired after a 40-year career in eldercare, including the last 10 at the helm of AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. He joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss his personal definition of retirement, reframing aging in the United States, and creating a world where eldercare – and health care writ large – is a baseline human right for all people.

In this wide-ranging and provocative interview with Penny Cook, Laxton calls for universal health care access for people of all ages, challenging us to imagine a landscape where eldercare support services are exclusively non-profit or government-operated – with the goal of rectifying decades of inequality and ageism.

Learn more about AMDA: https://paltc.org/

Read about Maggie Kuhn's work with the Gray Panthers: https://www.graypanthersnyc.org/maggie-kuhn

When Georgetown University formed its School of Health last year, college officials deliberately left out the word "public" from the name – not as a slight against the profession, as dean Christopher King explains, but to indicate an emphasis on overall population health and wellbeing, not just traditional public-health initiatives like clean water and road safety.

King joins the podcast to discuss the interconnected non-medical factors that determine the wildly disparate health outcomes in the United States, from race to housing to food. While there's never been more attention on the social determinants of health, King challenges leaders to dive into the history of forces like gentrification, redlining, and discrimination to identify the sources of health care inequality – and start plotting a course toward lasting change.

Read King's article in Health Affairs, "Race, Place, and Structural Racism: A Review of Health and History in Washington, D.C.": https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01805

Learn more about the Georgetown School of Health: https://health.georgetown.edu/

While researching ways to improve the end-of-life experience as part of her PhD work, Andrea Grindrod discovered something interesting: People are almost always willing to help others experiencing the death of a loved one, but rarely wanted to ask for that help themselves.

So Grindrod – who has personal experience dealing with end-of-life care for both her mother-in-law and husband – developed a suite of resources to break down the taboos about death and dying. The Healthy End of Life Program (HELP) app lets families build and sustain networks of care that ease the strain of caregiving and provide the best death possible for people with terminal conditions.

As a nurse with a background in the promotion of healthy habits, Grindrod provocatively asks why we can't see death as a normal part of life that can even be good or fulfilling – with a little help from our friends.

Register for the CFI conference, bringing together the Green House and Pioneer Network communities in Pittsburgh July 23-26 – including a special session featuring Homecare Hub and other early age-tech startups: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2023-conference/

Learn more about the HELP App: https://healthyendoflifeprogram.org/

As a physician with an MBA and a Silicon Valley programming background, Vipan Nikore has a rare perspective on the world of health technology.

Nikore, co-founder and CEO of elder tech company Homecare Hub, joins "Elevate Eldercare" to discuss the gaps that exist between health care providers and the companies that create health-focused technology – as well as some potential bridges across those divides.

From electronic health records to remote patient monitoring to telehealth, these advancements have changed the way we provide care, but providers across the care continuum still struggle with implementing health technology to the fullest. Nikore discusses his vision for a seamlessly connected health tech ecosystem, as well as Homecare Hub's goal of becoming the Airbnb for senior living.

Register for the CFI conference, bringing together the Green House and Pioneer Network communities in Pittsburgh July 23-26 – including a special session featuring Homecare Hub and other early age-tech startups: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2023-conference/

Learn more about Homecare Hub: https://www.homecarehub.com/