Lois Bowers' Columns
It’s a perennial challenge for business professionals: How to balance the demands of our personal and professional lives. But COVID has added a new twist.
Our professional and personal lives have been upended in ways we would not have imagined a year ago. Some conferences have been canceled, and others have been rescheduled and moved online. But fall conference season has begun.
If ever there was a year that “Caring is Essential,” it is 2020. Indeed, the theme of this year’s National Assisted Living Week (with an emphasis on the AL in essential), which began Sunday, is very appropriate.
In the midst of a pandemic, when your organization is trying to keep up with and adhere to local, state and national regulations and orders to keep residents and staff members safe and healthy, staff training on human resources issues may not be foremost in your plans. Yet as recruiting and retaining workers continue to be challenges in senior living, a new survey suggests the importance of such training.
As the use of social/personal robots increases in senior living communities, a new study has uncovered a surprising group of nonfans – grandchildren — and suggests ways to win them over.
When coronavirus hit the U.S., Buckner Retirement Services’ CCRCs “acted swiftly” to protect residents and employees, Senior Vice President Charlie Wilson says. “But as the situation lingers, we are seeing another pandemic affect residents: loneliness,” he adds. Buckner and LeadingAge Texas have a plan.
For months now, industry associations have been making the case for senior living operators to be included in a federal COVID relief package. Increasingly, their messages are being heard, and other voices are joining their pleas.
As senior living organizations work to become more diverse, a new survey shares encouraging news about multigenerational workforces and anti-ageism efforts among various types of employers around the world. But work remains.
We’ve heard a lot lately about the loneliness and isolation that some residents — and their families — are feeling during the pandemic. These feelings are real, and there are real consequences of the separation of residents and their loved ones. Nonetheless, I took some comfort in the results of a recent study.
Tim R. Johnston, Ph.D., senior director of national projects for LGBT elder advocacy organization SAGE, spent a year and a half working on his new book, “Welcoming LGBT Residents: A Practical Guide for Senior Living Staff.” He recently answered some questions for me about the book and its subject matter as well as his work at SAGE.
Our virtual McKnight’s Women of Distinction Awards and Forum is only one week away! Anyone can attend, and there’s no admission fee, so please join us.
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this column that the pandemic has had mental health effects on workers. Recent research on the topic may surprise you, however.
Now that Sens. Warren and Markey and Rep. Maloney realize what the industry has been saying to anyone who would listen for months now — that senior living operators need resources to battle COVID-19, too — it’s time for them to convince their colleagues in the Senate and House of their discovery and then put their (our, actually) money where their mouths are.
Results of a new survey bring potentially troubling news for those in senior living employees and the companies for which they work: Personal exposure to the coronavirus is linked with poor mental health. Fortunately, there are steps that front-line heroes and others can take to lessen the stress they might be feeling related to the pandemic, regardless of whether they have been exposed to the disease.
Someday, when we look back on 2020, we might well say it was the year of technology in senior living.
Coming this summer wherever video games are sold: A product equally offensive to both millennials and senior living residents.
Rodney Alderfer was doing everything he could to protect himself, his family and those in his workplace from becoming sick with COVID-19. He came down with the disease anyway.
Pavlo Kononenko doesn’t think his company’s approach to battling the effects of COVID-19 is unique, but what he described in a recent blog certainly is different from media reports that portray senior living residents as lonely and isolated from fellow residents, and family members as pleading to see them after months of separation.
As Americans paused over the weekend to remember Armed Forces members who died while serving the United States, one veteran was giving thanks to several heroes who “by their sacrifice, saved lives and catastrophe.”
A new campaign aims to make sure more people understand the value of senior living.
