The Official Blog of Episcopal Retirement Services

Looking for the best way to serve your community? Don’t overlook volunteering with your local senior living organization. When you work with seniors, you make a positive impact not only on them, but on yourself and your entire community.

Here are just some of the reasons why volunteering with a senior living community or organization is one of the best ways to make a difference:

If you’re reading this, it’s clear that you care deeply about the needs and concerns of seniors in America and helping seniors in our own community to stay healthy, happy and connected. And like many who give their time and energy to the common good, you’re probably looking for ways to take this service even further.

On National Senior Citizens Day (Aug. 21) and the International Day of Older Persons (Oct. 1), consider the following meaningful ways to help and honor seniors in your community:

There's a great need for quality, dignified, person-centered elder care in Cincinnati, Louisville and the surrounding Tristate region right now.

Part of the boost in demand for professional senior caregivers is due to the Baby Boom generation's having reached peak retirement. But the labor crunch in senior healthcare isn't expected to subside as the Boomers' numbers diminish.

There's a great need for quality, dignified, person-centered elder care in Cincinnati, Louisville and the surrounding Tristate region right now.

Part of the boost in demand for professional senior caregivers is due to the Baby Boom generation's having reached peak retirement. But the labor crunch in senior healthcare isn't expected to subside as the Boomers' numbers diminish.

(Photos: Gary Kessler)

Episcopal Retirement Services (ERS) has once again been named by the Cincinnati Enquirer as one of the area’s "Top Workplaces," and we couldn't be happier.

This year, the news publisher grouped employers of similar size into divisions, under each of which it named Cincinnati's best workplaces.

This award is special to ERS because it’s purely based on feedback directly from our staff — not on revenue or census.  

As you might imagine, as one of the Cincinnati area’s premier senior living and memory care providers, we make it a point to stay closely abreast of new developments in Alzheimer's dementia research.

Lately, there have been some startling new discoveries that may one day revolutionize the way we approach dementia and Alzheimer's treatment. From new definitions of Alzheimer's to advances in gene identification and the development genetic therapies, there's much to learn about.

Today, we'd like to share with you some of the information we've learned about three promising developments in cognitive research that may help people who develop dementia in the future.

This spring, Parish Health Ministry and TriHealth presented the annual Refresh Your Soul conference on healthy aging, positive aging, dementia and caregiving. The overwhelmingly positive energy of the crowd at the Cintas Center was fed by the engaging speakers to deliver a personally and professionally tremendous experience.

Tickets to the event, which was co-sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Cincinnati in partnership with Xavier University, sold out in record time ahead of this year's conference.

Alzheimer's and dementia care are increasingly in demand here in the Cincinnati area and nationwide. That's because an estimated 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's dementia. By 2050, that number is expected to increase to 14 million.

To help families impacted by dementia diagnoses, Episcopal Retirement Services and other retirement care providers around the country are investing heavily in memory care — residential and outpatient services optimized to support dementia patients’ cognitive function, as well as their daily living needs.

Today, let's discuss some of the changes we're making to accommodate the growing population of dementia patients and look ahead at changes you may see in the future.

Mary Carol Sowar is the coordinator for Deupree Meals On Wheels Route 8. She's been a volunteer route coordinator with Episcopal Retirement Services' (ERS) meal delivery safety net service for 15 years.

For her, volunteering isn't a duty, or simply a service that she provides. It's both a calling and an affirmation of the goodness that can exist in the world.

"My most memorable Meals On Wheels delivery was my very first day on Route 8," she recounted.

We've all heard the negative stereotypes about seniors.

"Older people are grumpy."

"Seniors don't know how to use computers."

"They drive too slow."

"They're cute when they're so confused."