The Official Blog of Episcopal Retirement Services

For many seniors nationwide, 2017 has undoubtedly felt like a year of uncertainty. Here in the Tristate, though, Episcopal Retirement Services has continued to make great strides in improving care for our region's elders. And we've achieved some tremendous successes.

With 2018 approaching, we'd like to take a moment to look back at the past 12 months and reflect on some of those successes. Here are our Top 8 ERS Moments of 2017.

Have you heard the news? Episcopal Retirement Services' (ERS) Bee Healthy Wellness Program has been recognized as an "Outstanding Project in the Field of Aging" from our local Association for Professionals in Aging (APA)!

Our Director of Resident & Health Services, Anthony Williams, will receive the award on our behalf at the Tristate APA's annual Awards and Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 14. Tickets for the event are available here.

When is retirement care a health care service, and when is it a hospitality service? There are, of course, aspects of both.

Episcopal Retirement Services has long pondered that question. And we keep coming back to the answer, "sometimes, and all the time."

Retirement care is sometimes health care. It's always hospitality. With service that’s personal.

What options are there for dementia or Alzheimer's treatment in Cincinnati? There are many, for residents of Episcopal Retirement Services' Marjorie P. Lee (MPL) and Deupree House (DH) retirement communities.

The memory care staff at both senior living centers employ a variety of innovative learning- and activity-based therapies for residents with dementia.

From SAIDO Learning, music and art therapy, and iN2L computer-based memory therapy, to our newest 360 Wellbeing program, there's no shortage of memory care options for Tristate seniors and their loved ones.

We’re approaching the end of the year — the time when many Americans start thinking about their upcoming tax bill and wondering where they might make an end-of-year charitable contribution.

If like many folks, you’re looking for a way that your year-end contribution could make a positive impact on the lives of others, you might consider making a donation to Episcopal Retirement Services’ Good Samaritan Mission Fund.

Here at Episcopal Retirement Services (ERS), we strongly believe in transparency. We believe that our residents, their family caregivers, and members of the community should know who is leading our organization.

When we last checked in with the ERS Board in August, we introduced you Tom Cooper, Albert Smitherman, and Tom Ottenjohn.

The holidays can be a hectic time for seniors and their family caregivers in Cincinnati, in Louisville or indeed anywhere.

Between working, shopping for Christmas gifts, running errands and planning family get-togethers or travel, family caregivers have a lot more on their plate than usual.

So, how can Episcopal Retirement Services (ERS) help? What services do we offer Cincinnati seniors and their families, that can help them get through the holiday crunch and continue living well through the coming year?

Let’s talk about them.

ERS caregivers don’t expect gratitude. But it’s always nice when we find out, after the fact, just how much our words, actions, and kind gestures mean to our senior residents and their families.

And one of the ways we find out is through the annual Trish Martindell Award program, which allows residents and their family caregivers to recognize excellence in care.

There’s not just an ethical or moral case to be made for making communities more age-friendly — there’s a strong economic case for it, too.

The average person might guess that attracting young, upwardly mobile adults and families to an area would drive its economic growth. But, if you think about it in terms of available wealth, that’s an assumption based on a fundamental misunderstanding: young people typically don’t have wealth.

Senior care isn’t a single type of care.

In fact, it represents an entire spectrum, from community-based or in-home services designed to help seniors age in place, to lifestyle-focused communities that provide older people an easier-going, worry-free retirement, to residential nursing and memory care for elderly people who can no longer safely provide for themselves.