The Official Blog of Episcopal Retirement Services

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."

Older people are often written off as curmudgeons and grumps. They're lampooned in popular media as infantile, senile and weak.

And those negative perceptions have been, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), unfortunately widespread — especially in higher-income nations.

Elders who have been barraged by such attitudes suffer from lower perceptions of self-worth, which in turn translate to negative effects on their physical health. They're less resilient from illness or injury. Their average lifespans are 7.5 years shorter than seniors who have a positive self-image.  

For seniors, there are four pillars of healthy aging: physical health, emotional health, spiritual health and financial health.

There's an increasing amount of focus on that last one, because many Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers are woefully underprepared for the cost of retirement. But there hasn't been perhaps enough focus on retirement planning to shore up the remaining three pillars of positive aging.

And that's the crux of retirement consultant Kay Van Norman's work. A well-known speaker, wellness consultant and senior care expert, she is the founder and president of Brilliant Aging, a consulting firm designed to help people age with purpose and vitality.

We all want to feel loved by the significant people in our lives, and aging doesn't diminish that need. If anything, it might make that desire more urgent.

And, truth be told, time can be an enemy to strong relationships, in that the longer a relationship goes on, the more likely complacency, or even jealousies, can develop — es

pecially if two people don't understand that what makes one feel loved isn't necessarily what makes the other feel loved.