Elevate Eldercare Center for Innovation

As the proportion of older Americans grows, so too will the ranks of “solo agers” – people navigating the aging process without children or other relatives. And for elders who need extra assistance in making major decisions around housing and finances, solo aging may lead to legal guardianship and outcomes that don’t align with their values, preferences, or best interests.
Kimberly George, CEO of the New York-based Project Guardianship, joins the podcast to discuss her organization’s mission: building more dignified, person-directed alternatives to guardianship that ensure elders’ true wishes are honored at every step of the aging journey.
Learn more about Project Guardianship: https://projectguardianship.org/
Learn more about supported decision-making: https://acl.gov/programs/consumer-control/supported-decision-making-program
Save the date for our annual conference, coming November 11-13: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2024-conference/

In honor of National Nurses’ Week, we’re sitting down with Dr. Donna Fick – director of the Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence at Penn State University – and three of her Ph.D. student-researchers, Thakshila Dasanayake, Olivia Rubio, and Nahida Akter.
While their backgrounds and upbringing couldn’t be more different, these nursing leaders are bound by a desire to improve the lives of elders through groundbreaking research. By building on a growing evidence base for person-directed care and other more dignified and empowering interventions, F**k and her students are blazing a trail for the next generation of caregivers and elders.
Learn more about the Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence: https://www.nursing.psu.edu/cgne/
Save the date for our annual conference, coming November 11-13: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2024-conference/

Workforce development remains the number-one issue for eldercare providers of all types, and this week, we’re taking you inside a comprehensive, nationwide effort to build the care force of tomorrow.
Laura Thorn, director of the Direct Care Workforce Strategies Center, joins the podcast to discuss this vital project from the Administration for Community Living and the National Council on Aging. Along with CFI resource development specialist Ella Lawson, Thorn describes the goals of this grant-funded effort – including bringing together leaders from states to share real solutions that work – and ways that people from across the sector can get involved.
Learn more about the DCW Strategies Center: https://acl.gov/DCWcenter
Sign up for e-mail updates about the Center’s work: https://www.ncoa.org/page/direct-care-workforce-strategies-center
Save the date for our annual conference, coming November 11-13: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2024-conference/

From a very young age, Paddy Moore learned the value of speaking her mind and advocating for those facing discrimination and exclusion, and she turned those lessons into a lifetime of fighting for others – whether it was creating anti-poverty programs under the federal Office of Economic Opportunity, working to de-institutionalize care for people living with disabilities, or working to build small-home alternatives to traditional nursing homes on Martha’s Vineyard, where she has lived since the 1970s.
Moore joins the podcast to talk about her formative years in progressive movements, her work with Navigator Homes of Martha’s Vineyard to develop a Green House-inspired community, and her vision for the future of intergenerational advocacy.
Read the CoGenerate report on what young people think about intergenerational connections:https://cogenerate.org/young-leaders/
Learn more about Navigator Homes of Martha’s Vineyard: https://www.navigatorhomesmv.org/
Save the date for our annual conference, coming November 11-13: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2024-conference/ 

You can’t fix what you can’t measure, and for too many years, advocates and officials have attempted to reform the nursing home system without an accurate accounting of multiple metrics – including the flow of money and the track records of owners.
CFI strategic advisor Anne Montgomery joins the podcast to discuss her efforts to bring greater transparency to the long-term care landscape, as well as her advocacy for the EINSTEIN Option – a comprehensive federal pilot program that would support a variety of transformation efforts, including workforce development and the construction of small-home nursing communities.
Read more about the EINSTEIN option: https://www.mcknights.com/news/advocates-call-for-aca-backed-demonstration-projects-in-nursing-home-sector/
Save the date for our annual conference, coming November 11-13: https://thegreenhouseproject.org/2024-conference/

When Jennilie Brewster first started inquiring about volunteering at the Coler nursing campus on New York City’s Roosevelt Island, she never imagined that her work with the residents would have a national impact.
Brewster – a writer, painter, and film producer – joins the podcast to discuss her work with OPEN DOORS NYC and the Reality Poets, a group of younger men of color, each affected by gun violence, who all found themselves living at Coler. What started as a powerful creative pursuit soon turned into a nationwide movement in the wake of COVID-19, as the Reality Poets filmed their experiences under lockdown in real time.
The resulting film, “Fire Through Dry Grass,” shed a harsh light on the treatment of long-term care residents during the catastrophe, and inspired the Nursing Home Lives Matter movement for change; regular listeners will remember previous episodes with Andres “Jay” Molina and Vincent Pierce, two members of the Reality Poets and vocal activists for nursing home residents of all ages and backgrounds.
Learn more about Brewster’s work: https://www.jenniliebrewster.com/
Watch “Fire Through Dry Grass” for free on PBS: https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/firethroughdrygrass/
Explore the Reality Poets’ work: https://www.opendoorsnyc.org/realitypoets