The Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan is hosting cooking classes for male caregivers who may need to brush up on their cooking skills, or begin to develop them. The site is Uptown Kitchen, 423 Norwood Ave SE, Grand Rapids MI 49506. Session 1 runs on Tuesday (July 10, 17, 24 & 31) from 11:00am-1:30pm. Session 2 runs on Tuesday (September 4, 11, 18 & 25) from 11:00am-1:30pm.
You can register at registration@aaawm.org.
There is no charge for these classes.
I had the pleasure of touring Trillium Senior Homes in Grand Rapids recently. This is a new kind of assisted living residence, according to owner Pat Thompson. Pat and his wife Sandie have purchased four residences in the northeast part of Grand Rapids on a small private street. Their model is a Bed’n Breakfast-style of assisted living residence.
The home I was in is beautifully arranged, warm and comfortable and bears no resemblance to an institutional setting. It really is like a B’n B. The rooms are spacious with wide molding along the walls for mounting photos and other personal objects. Medical and personal assistance can be arranged on an as-needed basis. A few other amenities are: memory foam-toppers on beds, on-site exercise area, large yard that feels like a park, homes are conveniently located to freeways, medical care and shopping, 24/7 on-call medical assistance. The cost for a room at Trillium is average for the Grand Rapids-area.
For more information, contact Pat at trilliumseniorhomes@gmail.com.
My friend Vicki Collins, with the Oceana County Council on Aging, informed me yesterday of a new adult respite service called “Our Friend’s House”. It is located in Hart, Michigan. Their mission is to ‘..provide exceptional adult day care in a home-like, safe, and welcoming setting; with activities provided by professional and compassionate staff”. This is the only respite service in Oceana County, a lovely area 30 minutes north of Muskegon MI.
Who would benefit from respite care? Any family caregivers who need a safe and nurturing space for their care recipients for short-term periods. Vicki told me that she was very happy with the staff’s skill level. She is very enthusiastic about how Our Friend’s House will provide value to the area and serve her community’s elders and their caregivers.
In addition to operating Our Friend’s House, the OCCOA provides numerous other services to the county’s senior population. For more information, go to www.oceanacountycouncilonaging.com or call Vicki at 231-873-4461.
Grand Rapids’ local Clark Retirement Community produced a sweet lip-dub video in July 2011. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ7-n930zJo. The video simply underscores how expectations for our elders need to change. The stars of this video are independent but not without their medical issues. As Baby Boomers begin to move into senior housing, you can expect many forms of expression similar to this video. Enjoy it and think about what joy you can bring to seniors in your community.
Hospice services are becoming increasing prevalent around the country. When you face an imminent end-of-life situation, hospice services provide medical and social support to enable one’s final days to be spent comfortably, and often, at home. Look up your local hospice providers (there may be more than one in your community) and learn more about this consoling alternative.
So many things are hopping around, looking for daylight, in the senior home technology field. A few things for you to watch for:
It’s always exciting to know first-hand when your company really hits the mark. Here are a few comments from a recent letter sent to us by Marianne, a client’s daughter:
“SafeCall saved my mother a night of excruciating pain the night she fell. You provide an awesome service. They (SafeCall’s operators) treat you like family. Mom told all her friends about your service”.
Thank you Marianne. Your kind comments are appreciated and we hope that your mother recovers from her fall.
SafeCall will be at the Calvary Church Health Expo at 707 E. Beltline NE in Grand Rapids on Thursday, September 30, 2010 from noon to 8pm.. Sanford Freed will be presenting home safety tips for seniors. If you’re in the area, stop by, say hi and learn how you can keep your loved ones safe in their home. Admission is free.
I love dogs. However, a recent call about an elderly woman and her dogs made me just shake my head with frustration. The caller told me that her mother had suffered two falls AND two back surgeries due to tripping over her little dogs. ‘They scamper about and are always underfoot’ she said. Would your mother consider getting rid of them, I asked. Oh no, she replied, she just LOVES HER DOGS!!! Yep, loves them more than independence itself I guess.
SafeCall does a great job of keeping people safe at home but you gotta wanna be safe in the first place, don’t you?
There is healthy skepticism over the role of technology in serving our aging loved ones. Let’s not confuse technology with human connections. Talking to a friendly voice over a speaker is a distant second to being in the same room with a caregiver, even if the caregiver isn’t a close friend or family. People need people. Current research states that people with the most human connections are happiest.
That said, let’s understand the true value of emergency help buttons, pill reminders and the full array of medical alarms. Technology serves us very well as a monitoring and alerting platform. I think the biggest growth in serving the elderly comes from providing the human touch. That’s why there are so many private duty home care agencies in business today. Private duty caregivers don’t provide medical care, generally. They do provide companionship, help with chores, and other household needs. Technology dealers, myself included, need to find the balance point, not the tipping point.
SafeCall, Inc.
3148 Plainfield NE, Suite 243
Grand Rapids, MI 49525
(888) 291-0639
info@safecall.biz
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