Elevate Eldercare
Episodes
Inside the Direct Care Workforce Strategies Center
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Workforce development remains the number-one issue for eldercare providers of all types, and this week, we're taking you inside a comprehensive, natio...
Lessons from a Lifetime of Advocacy
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From a very young age, Paddy Moore learned the value of speaking her mind and advocating for those facing discrimination and exclusion, and she turned...
Improving Nursing Home Care with Transparent Data
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You can't fix what you can't measure, and for too many years, advocates and officials have attempted to reform the nursing home system without an accu...
Opening Creative Doors for People Living in LTC
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Jennilie Brewster first started inquiring about volunteering at the Coler nursing campus on New York City's Roosevelt Island, she never imagined ...
Balancing Risk, Responsibility, and Reward with Aging Tech: Part II
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The topic of responsibly integrating technology into eldercare communities is so rich and complex that we needed two episodes with Joe Velderman, vice...
Tackling Diversity and Inclusion on All Fronts
27 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Marvell Adams, Jr. not only talks the talk when it comes to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion in eldercare – he walks the walk, holding mul...
Equipping Solo Agers for Success
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reminiscent of the ageist discourse around the "silver tsunami," the concept of people aging without the support of children or a spouse – once refe...
Building New Frameworks to Tackle Racial Inequality in Eldercare
13 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that structural racism has a direct impact on all facets of American life – including the experiences of elders in care settings – should...
Remembering Naomi Feil, a Pioneer of Dignified Dementia Care
06 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Naomi Feil, who originally developed the Validation method of supporting and communicating with people living with dementia, died this past December 2...
Finding the Will to Change Systems and Champion Equity
28 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tetyana Shippee first became fascinated with the power of structural forces to shape individual lives as a grad student from Ukraine studying the soci...
Balancing Risk, Responsibility, and Reward with Aging Tech
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence is the tech buzzword of the moment, but as eldercare providers know, implementing any technology in the aging space comes with...
Banding Together to Protect Empowering, Non-Profit Care
14 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As non-profit nursing home operators continue to shutter their doors and cede ground to for-profits, one organization in New England is helping missio...
Incubating Innovations from Ideas to Practice
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Individuals and companies frequently develop new solutions to make life easier for elders and caregivers, but not all of them have what it takes to ac...
Building Safe, Empowering Spaces for Family Caregivers
31 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In an eldercare field that's populated with unseen and unsung heroes, family members of people living with dementia can often feel the most isolated a...
Fostering Creativity, Growth, and Fulfillment in Nursing Homes
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Far too often, people – even well-meaning folks who work in the field – fail to see nursing home residents as humans capable of the same growth, c...
Diversify the Perspectives, Reimagine the Care
17 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As eldercare CEOs and women of color, Anita Holt and Frances Salinas are relative rarities in a sector that's supposed to serve people of all races an...
Revisiting – and Re-Energizing – Teaching Nursing Homes
10 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Revisiting the Teaching Nursing Home was designed to pair Pennsylvania nursing homes with area schools of nursing, introducing up-and-coming nurses to...
Predicting the Future of Eldercare Innovation
03 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Kramer – the founder of think tank Nexus Insights, as well as the co-founder and former CEO of the National Investment Center for Seniors Hou...
Highlights, Hardships, Hesitations, and Hope: 2023 in Review
27 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every December, we use the last "Elevate Eldercare" episode of the year to take stock of the previous 12 months and make some predictions for the year...
Checking In with the Moving Forward Coalition
20 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shook the eldercare world in April 2022 with a scathing report on the nation's broken nu...
Finding Hope and Light in the Darkest of Times
13 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As we navigate a holiday season set against the backdrop of global and domestic conflict, this 2021 interview with Dr. Edith Eger feels even more vita...
Speaking Up for Nursing Home Residents of All Ages
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It's easy to forget that not all nursing home residents are elders – and Vincent Pierce is dedicated to making sure leaders, advocates, and the gene...
Creating "Unpretentious" Housing and Care for All Ages
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Unpretentious" isn't a word you see often in marketing materials for senior living communities, but it shows up several times in the description of N...
Gathering Around the Gratitude Table 2023
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each Thanksgiving, "Elevate Eldercare" centers gratitude by handing the mic over to the people who make Green House homes such great places to live. T...
Cross-Pollination: Sharing Person-Directed Practices Across Silos
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Stacey Bergmann joined the Center for Innovation this month as the new director of network and community relations – tasked with serving as the main...
Probing the Incentives that Shape Eldercare
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Brian McGarry's research at the University of Rochester has focused on the ways that financial and economic factors affect care in nursing homes — a...
Surviving vs. Thriving: Training for Long-Term Success
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For the last three years, many eldercare organizations haven't had the ability to truly thrive, with leaders focused squarely on surviving the many ch...
Reframing Nursing Home Reform as a Housing Issue
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In both the public and policymaker imagination, nursing home reform is strictly a health care issue, the domain of state health departments and the fe...
The Heart and Soul of Person-Directed Living
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
David Simpson is an accomplished musician who's been singing since the age of 12, performing alongside music legends like the Staples Singers, Dionne ...
Envisioning an Eldercare System Beyond Nursing Homes
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The discourse around improving the eldercare landscape tends to focus on narrow, discrete metrics: What's the correct number of nursing home staff hou...
Architecture as a Verb: Creating Human-Centered Aging Spaces
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Biophilic design – incorporating nature into the built environment – has grown in popularity in recent years, but the term itself may still seem d...
Finding Creative – and Social – Solutions to Top Eldercare Issues
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Faced with the workforce issues plaguing the entire eldercare sector, Goodwin Living in Northern Virginia developed a citizenship assistance program f...
Rebuilding Trust After a Complete System Failure
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, Dr. Samir Sinha was given a potentially daunting job: serving as the technical committee chair for a group tasked with establishing new, nati...
Empowering Elders to Build Age-Friendly Communities
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Building truly age-friendly communities starts with incorporating elders' needs, wants, and goals into civic planning. As the executive director of Ag...
Find an Adventure No Matter Your Age
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 Yate...
Building Empowered and Collaborative Nurse-CNA Teams
30 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in nursing homes can often be fraught with hierarchy and disputes over tasks a...
Support, Guidance, Advocacy: Rethinking the Ombudsman Role
23 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The people who work in state long-term care ombudsman's offices are unsung heroes for residents of nursing homes, assisted living communities, and oth...
Designing New Ways to Age in Place
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 mak...
A Destination, Not a Regret: Nursing Homes as Community Hubs
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
oe Carella has a bold prescription for the future of eldercare, starting with reimagining nursing homes as hubs for entire communities. Instead of loo...
Enshrining Eldercare as a Civil and Human Right
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Learning from the Past to Build a Whole-Person Health System
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Georgetown University formed its School of Health last year, college officials deliberately left out the word "public" from the name – not as a...
Building Palliative Care Communities – Right from an App
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While researching ways to improve the end-of-life experience as part of her PhD work, Andrea Grindrod discovered something interesting: People are alm...
Bridging the Gap Between Health and Tech
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
Celebrating 200 Episodes of Elevate Eldercare
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join the Green House-Pioneer team for the celebratory 200th episode of "Elevate Eldercare." What started as a pandemic-era project to stay connected...
Using Tech to Kickstart Person-Directed Care in LTC
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Long-term care is notorious for lagging behind other parts of the health care continuum – including hospitals and doctors' offices – in the adopti...
Fighting the 'Demographic Drought' with Diversity, Dollars
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Under Jeannee Parker Martin's leadership, LeadingAge California has achieved some remarkable workforce development numbers, graduating more than 1,000...
Using Data to Break Stereotypes Around Aging
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his years marketing major brands like Gillette, Pepsi, and Dannon, Jeff Weiss never encountered any push to pitch products to consumers over the ag...
'You Made Me Feel Relevant': Telling Elders' Tales on the Road
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Jack York first started bringing computers into senior living communities in the 1990s, he never could have imagined the ways elders use technolo...
From Aging in Place to Aging in the Right Place
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the concept of aging in place – already the overwhelming preference for most people – received more media an...
Prioritizing Emotional Safety in Long-Term Care
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The traditional nursing home took its design and operational cues from hospitals – a setting defined by its focus on physical health over all other ...
Moving Forward with Real LTC Workforce Solutions
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, the groundbreaking NASEM report on nursing home quality laid out a host of recommendations for improving the broken long-term care system i...
The Case for Compassion in Eldercare and Beyond
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eldercare – and U.S. health care writ large – too often is a cold, impersonal experience for the people both giving and receiving care, as ever-in...
Bringing Green House Homes to Australia
03 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When the Australia-based ACH Group agreed to become the first provider outside of the United States to fully implement the Green House model, CEO Fran...
Powering Workforce Recruitment, Retention with Data
26 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
More than 30 years ago, current Center for Innovation board chair Michele Holleran launched her eponymous data analytics firm with a focus that was co...
Inside the First Annual CFI Conference
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For the first time ever, The Green House Project and Pioneer Network are hosting a single conference under the Center for Innovation banner, and we wa...
Abilities, Not Deficits: The Montessori Approach to Dementia Care
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Montessori approach to education empowers children to learn by doing activities that emphasize their innate abilities, not by rote or one-size-fit...
Opening a Box of Memories: Exploring Dementia on Stage
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
During the pandemic, the father-daughter team of Duncan and Erin McKellar teamed up – over Zoom, of course – to create a passion project based on ...
BONUS: Introducing the Mission Possible Podcast
29 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This week, please enjoy the first episode of our new podcast series, "Mission Possible," produced in conjunction with the National Consumer Voice for ...
Founders' Perspectives: Pioneer Network's Rose Marie Fagan
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Rose Marie Fagan first applied for a job as a nursing home ombudsman, she had no prior experience with long-term care or health care in general –...
Inside Key Nursing Home Policy Discussions
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lori Smetanka of the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care returns to "Elevate Eldercare" for an update on the key nursing home reform po...
Founders' Perspectives: Pioneer Network's Barry Barkan
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Barry Barkan played a crucial role in the formation of Pioneer Network in 1997, but his experience in eldercare goes back 20 years before that, to a f...
Bringing Nature to Elders, One Garden at a Time
01 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Even as a self-described "mediocre gardener," Orla Concannon has brought the joys of nature to thousands of elders across the country – all by bring...
Building a Circle of Care for Elders
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the president of the Point Roberts Circle of Care board, Galen Wood has a unique task in a unique place – providing services and supports for eld...
Raised in Eldercare: The Story of a 16-Year-Old CNA
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
High school junior Eli Grundy has been immersed in eldercare for as long as he can remember, thanks to his parents: One of his moms is the administrat...
Art and Expression at Any Age
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Elevate Eldercare" often welcomes academic researchers from across the aging field, but Anne Basting is the first English professor to sit down behin...
Reports to Results: Solutions for Real Change
01 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The new year year kicked off with another report analyzing the failures of the nursing home system during COVID-19, this time from the HHS Office of t...
Leadership at Play: Inside the Evolution of a Green House Community
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every Green House community is different, from the people who call it home to the surrounding neighborhood and landscape. At Londonderry Village in Pa...
Taking Action with the Moving Forward Coalition
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Moving Forward Coalition launched with a clear but ambitious goal: Operationalize the host of recommendations from the National Academies of Scien...
2023 Eldercare Reform Outlook
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The past year brought significant momentum for real eldercare reform, and the year ahead promises even more progress toward our goal of overhauling th...
Rethinking Geriatrics for a Person-Centered Future
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Michael Wasserman's unique combination of professional experience makes him one of the most incisive voices in the long-term care reform space: As...
Looking Back – and Forward – After a Year of Change
28 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's been a momentous year for The Green House Project and Pioneer Network, as the two organizations formally united under the new Center for Innovati...
Embracing Dementia as a Stage of Life
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Part of the enduring stigma surrounding dementia is the collective misconception that a diagnosis means the end of someone's life – or at least the ...
Fighting for Rick: A Dementia Caregiver's Story
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Lynne Sewell's telling, her husband Rick seems almost larger than life, trotting the globe with his family as his job in technology took him from t...
Bringing Social Design to Eldercare and Beyond
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Architect Nick Seemann joins the podcast to discuss social architecture and design – the idea that people and physical spaces interact to create eac...
Building an 'Unstoppable' Coalition for Change in LTC
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Samir Sinha has emerged as a leading voice for eldercare improvement in Canada, and he joins CFI's Penny Cook to discuss the lessons that leaders ...
Gathering Around the Gratitude Table: St. John's
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A Thanksgiving tradition continues as we gather around a virtual gratitude table with the folks who make Green House homes work. This year, GHP's Susa...
Inside the Center for Innovation: The New Home for Pioneer and Green House
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It's official: The Green House Project and Pioneer Network are now formally aligned under the Center for Innovation umbrella. GHP senior director Su...
Building LTC Bridges Across Borders
09 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Canadian Association for Long-Term Care CEO Jodi Hall joins Penny Cook to discuss the challenges and opportunities around systemic change post-COVID. ...
Compassionate Care Starts with Compassionate Leadership
02 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As a chronic cancer patient and senior lecturer in nursing at the University of Salford in Manchester, England, Natalie Yates-Bolton knows about the i...
Rethinking "Surplus Safety" in Long-Term Care
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Even the most well-meaning people sometimes talk about "keeping our seniors safe" from a variety of possible outcomes, from disease to falls to the da...
Reframing the "Workforce Crisis" in Long-Term Care
19 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Persistent staffing issues in long-term care don't have a single solution. In fact, leadership expert and educator Christopher Ridenhour argues that c...
Breaking the Binary Between Funding and Transparency
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Harvard researcher David Grabowski returns to the podcast to discuss the financial incentives that have created our current long-term care landscape –...
Autonomy Through Community: The Citizenship Model in LTC
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic threw a harsh light on the lack of autonomy that far too many people experience when receiving care in an institutional setting, and supp...
Incentives Matter: Paying for Performance in Long-Term Care
28 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Frequently lost in the debates over nursing home reform is an uncomfortable fact: the federal and state governments spend billions on care in outdated...
Workforce Voices: Different Paths, Same Heart
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Susan Ryan and Alex Spanko discuss a pair of interviews with care professionals conducted at the recent Pioneer Network conference. First up, Lauren F...
DEI Beyond Workshops: Creating Real Belonging
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Organizations in all industries have embraced the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in their operations – but how can eldercare organi...
Volunteers and Validation: Infusing Humanity into Care
07 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 fo...
"Let Me Say This About That" – June Recap
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Beyond EAPs: Building the Mental Health Support Pyramid
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
During COVID, many long-term care organizations have leaned heavily on employee assistance programs (EAPs) to support employee mental health. While th...
Respect, Wages, Education: Paying It Forward for CNAs
15 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 he...
Keep Learning, Keep Growing, Keep Thriving
08 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before he was the CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, Louis Woolf's career started in consumer research, where he worked with Children's Television Workshop –...
Inside the Green House Project-Pioneer Network Alliance
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Do You Want to Do When You're Older?
25 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Bringing a European-Style Dementia Village to New Jersey
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
How Nurses Can Drive Nursing Home Culture Change
11 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ro...
Growing the Next Generation of Caregivers
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
"Let Me Say This About That" – April Recap
27 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
A Comprehensive Roadmap for Meaningful Reform in Nursing Homes
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Dismantling Institutional Culture in Long-Term Care
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Going Beyond Good Enough for Elders and Workers
06 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...