All posts by Julie Boggess

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute and provides education and training to private and professional caregivers through her company Enlighten Eldercare. She lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburbs of Mount Prospect, IL.
Senior Care Professionals

Age-integration Study in Higher Education

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Students at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL experience Dementia Live and share with classmates their feelings of frustration, anger, and anxiety.

Psychology Professor Laura Carstensen discusses the need for an age-integrated society. Her “The New Culture of Aging” Ted Talk reveals that our ancestors in the 20th-century built a world exquisitely around the young.

Infrastructure to meet the needs of the young was appropriate and functional at the time. However, we now need to envision an exquisite society also built around the old.

Just as differently-abled individuals and families have pushed the barriers of accessibility, baby boomers will break down structural age barriers such as role opportunities in work and education.

The idea of an age-integrated society becomes clearer the older I get. The small writing on medication and food labels is frustrating. Consider also airline gate attendants that give fast and muffled directions over the intercom.

Dementia and an Age-Integrated Society

An age-integrated society must also adapt to the needs of persons with dementia. This segment of the population will grow to the point that it can no longer be ignored.

The Alzheimer’s Association, Facts and Figures Report, projects 14 million people will live with this disease by the year 2050. It is the young that need to be the movers and shakers toward a more age-integrated society. However, it is incumbent upon wisdom-holders to provide them the information and education.

It is essential to expose students early to what it means to live with the symptoms of dementia.  Additionally, how the symptoms should factor into a truly age-integrated society.

Higher education should consider involving students in age-integration studies. Also, learning about  Dementia-Friendly Community movements should be a part of their learning objectives.

Exposing students to the study of dementia is vitally important. We need to expose young students to the diverse needs of older adults so that they can envision an age-integrated future. In doing so, we increase the chances that they will innovate and move us closer to a society that embraces the young and the old.

 

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving to private and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

Compassionate Touch®, Family Caregiver, Hospital Professionals, Senior Care Professionals, The Family Caregiver

A Reflection: The Comfort of Touch for Family at End of Life

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Touch is is a comforting gesture for both the dying and their loved ones.

My friend Andrew shared with me his reflections on the care his family received while his mother was in the hospital dying. He poured out his heart on paper to discuss how frequent expressive touch was a comfort to his mother, and himself.

He writes, “We would kiss her forehead, touch her shoulder or hold her hand with varied responses. Holding her hand was the clearest communication and the best way to tell if she was with us or not. Most days she would squeeze our hands or lift them to her face for a kiss. At times, these actions were silent, and other times accompanied by grunts or whispers or even an attempt to speak.”

“The staff were lovely and compassionate people who understood her needs, but also our needs as family members. I saw many nurses and aides greet Mom on a good day with a hug or try to wake her gently with a hand on her shoulder, but there were also hugs for us.”

“We craved something to do, some way to comfort her and let her know she wasn’t alone. These small gestures of touch were all we had in her final days and the only way we could communicate with her.”

Touch:  A Final Connection

“In the end, she no longer responded to touch because hospice was doing their job correctly. We will never know what she understood and felt in those precious moments, so we continued to touch her. That small amount of physical contact was as much a comfort to us as we hoped for her.”

“Holding her hand, the hand that comforted me as a child, was again comforting me as an adult.”

Andrew’s words flew off the page at me because it gets to the heart of the work we do at the AGE-u-cate Training Institute with Compassionate Touch training. Touch is the first sense that develops in the womb and is a fundamental human need throughout our life course.  Through touch, care-giving professionals who work with families of dying persons can positively impact end-of-life care for both patient and family.

Thank you, Andrew, for reminding us of the impact that touch can have on the living, and the dying.

 

Shared by permission from Andrew Azzarello, a person with a personal and professional passion for eldercare.  Andrew continues caregiving responsibilities for his father and is the former Director of Human Resources for two aging services organizations.

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving to private and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

Senior Care Professionals

Importance of Aging Courses in Higher Education

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Students at Northern Illinois University experience Dementia Live

Higher education should not overlook the benefit of educating students on issues related to aging.  In addition, tremendous career opportunities exist in Aging Services.  The field is a legitimate career choice.  However, students are largely unaware.

I didn’t give much thought to growing old when I was 20.  But, while attending college at Northern Illinois University many moons ago, I elected to take two courses about aging, and that was the beginning of my career path into aging services.

The subject was interesting, and the focus of the two courses was very different.  The first had more of a negative perspective- how growing old usually means depression, disability, and disease.   In comparison, the second course painted a more optimistic view.  Growing older can be a time for renewal, a life encore so to speak.

Fast forward 35 years, and I now teach aging courses at Northern Illinois University.  With the wisdom that is acquired with age, I have a keen understanding of why it is important for young people to learn about issues of aging.

Young Minds Learning about Aging

First, the more we understand about the process of aging when we are young, the more influence we can exercise over our aging experience.  I ask students who they want to be when they are 80, and what they will want out of life.   It is not surprising that most students are unable to answer this question.

Second,  we need to nurture more professionals into the Aging Services industry.  To that end, my second course discusses Leadership in Aging Services.  I introduce students to the possibility of a career in Aging Services.  It is wonderful to witness their “aha” moment!

Many students find the topic of aging fascinating, especially when coupled with experiential learning.  One student shared, “The book put the process of aging an interesting light. I also thought the Dementia Live experience is something that all students should continue to participate in.  This was an experience that I will remember moving into my career, and even as a human being.”

“I am actually shocked at how much I learned in this course and how interesting it really is” shared another student.  Many students discuss their own family members and gain a heightened appreciation for their challenges and how to support their personhood.

Teaching the young about the process of aging surely will produce positive benefits all the way around.

 

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving to private and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compassionate Touch®, Dementia Live, Hospital Professionals, Senior Care Professionals

Employee Education = Engagement = Quality Care

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Employees at Emerald Health and Rehab in North Carolina are immersed in education about the positive effects of expressive touch.

We understand the negative impact on quality care as a result of high employee turnover.  However, more elusive is an understanding of how lackluster engagement of employees with longevity impacts quality.

Much of the focus is on recruiting new employees, and rightly so. Estimates show employee turnover nationally at 45%-66%.

At the same time, it is important that we also maintain the spirit and engagement of current employees. However, scare resources have forced employers in Aging Services to make tough decisions.

Cuts into the marrow of the employee education budget in light of the current staffing challenges could be devastating.  In doing so, we inadvertently create a more disengaged workforce and impair quality.

Defense Against Declining Quality Care

The vital connection in health care is that employee engagement drives quality of care. To that end, one of the best ways to engage employees is through ongoing hands-on education and training.

Guard against what could become turn-over induced decline in quality with a robust and engaging employee education program for your experienced and dedicated employees.

Employees with longevity have also felt the devastation of workforce challenges.  Fatigue with over-time and the constant flow of new employees in and out impacts the spirit of our dedicated workers.  All the more reason to dedicate resources and efforts towards their ongoing growth and engagement.

The absence of training appears on this list of reasons for poor employee engagement. Employees with longevity also need to continue to learn and adopt best practices. In doing so, we ensure the evolution of our quality of care and service.

In conclusion,  a corporate culture that supports growth and education for long-term employees will promote engaged workers and defend against declining quality care and service.

 

Julie has worked in Aging Services for over 30 years and has been a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator since 1990. She is a Certified Master Trainer with the AGE-u-cate Training Institute. Through her company Enlighten Eldercare,  Julie provides training and educational programs on elder caregiving to private and professional caregivers.  She is an instructor and the Interim Director of Gerontology at Northern Illinois University and lives in the Chicago Northwest Suburb of Mount Prospect, IL.