Sleep Problems Up Risk of Alzheimer’s Says Study

From the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA):

Older adults with abnormal sleep patterns, whether it’s too much sleep, too little sleep, or restless sleep, have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to three new studies.

The first study, which utilized participants in the larger U.S. Nurses’ Health Study, administered cognitive tests to women over the age of 70 every two years over a six year period. Participants were also asked about their average daily sleep duration. Researchers found that women who averaged seven hours of sleep daily saw higher cognitive scores over the years compared to women who reported 5 hours or less or those who reported 9 hours or more. Participants who averaged too much or too little sleep aged, on average, two years faster than those who slept seven hours a night.

A separate study monitored 1,430 women over age 75 while they slept and measured these individuals cognitive impairment over time. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that participants with sleep-disordered breathing, such as sleep apnea, were nearly twice as likely to develop cognitive impairment. The study also found that those who woke up in the middle of the night most often were at triple the risk for entering a nursing home compared to those who experienced the fewest interruptions.

A third study followed 4,900 French seniors who were 65 or older. This study found that certain sleep problems, such as problems falling asleep and early morning awakenings, were not associated with increased risk of cognitive decline, but those who felt excessively tired during the day were more likely to experience cognitive impairments.

Although researchers are not sure if inadequate sleep is a cause or a result of cognitive impairment, the studies, taken together, make a strong case for sleep’s involvement in Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive decline.

Learn more about these studies.

Learn more about the Assisted Living Federation of America.

Ground breaking ceremony held at Twin Town Villa

On Wednesday, July 25th, Twin Town Villa held their ground breaking ceremony for their new expansion project.

 

Several community members attended the event.  It was fun to see everyone get excited about what the project is going to bring to Breckenridge.

 

We had the official ground breaking ceremony.

 

We even had some residents and staff come outside to participate.  From the look on their faces, they seemed to be extremely excited for what’s to come.The equipment is all lined up and ready to start moving ground.

As we mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, this is a $3.5 million dollar expansion to Twin Town Villa and will bring additional assisted living apartments and a memory care community.

We expect to hire an additional 12-15 new positions to work in the community.  Over time, we expect that additional positions could be added based on level of care needed.

Welcome Home operates 7 senior living communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We’ve been providing a warm, homelike atmosphere for resident to call home since 1994 in many different states. Our goal is to focus on the individual residents needs. Over the past several years, we’ve seen and heard from residents and family members to add more service options. By adding these programs to our community, it gives older adults more options for their care and life experiences.

As we age, we want to live in a place that is fun, eat great food, and have our needs cared for.  We believe that adding this community, with the additional common areas such as the movie theater, additional apartments and care programs, gives our residents and their families what they’ve been looking for.

For more information about Twin Town Villa or Welcome Home Management, please visit our website at www.wtohdevelopment.com.  You can get an “inside look” in to the daily lives of our residents by visiting all of our communities Facebook pages.  A link to those can be found on our website as well.

 

Twin Town Villa to expand

Welcome Home Management is excited to announce an expansion project to Twin Town Villa in Breckenridge, Minnesota.

Today at 12pm, we will be hosting a ground breaking ceremony at the community.
This $3.5 million dollar expansion will include an expansion of the assisted living program and an addition of a memory care community. The expansion will roughly add 38,000 square feet to the community.

In addition to the added apartments and programs, we made sure to add additional common spaces in to the community such as a movie theatre, fitness center, computer rooms and additional common spaces. This will give residents more things to do, and be able to expand our community life programs.

This expansion gives our team members the ability to meet our residents needs both now and in to the future.

For more information about Twin Town Villa, visit them on the web at wtohdevelopment.com

Mandatory Consultation – 4 months later, how’s it going?

Roman Bloemke, Director of Operations at Welcome Home was quoted in a story recently published on the Assisted Living Federation of America’s news releases.

The story takes a look at Minnesota’s new requirement regarding mandatory consultation since it was implemented October 2011.

While we are for education and information, we believe that this requirement is at the wrong stage in life.

Consumers should have this knowledge when they are in the early 40′s and 50′s. If done at that time, something similar to the “55 Alive” program where drivers get a discounted insurance rates after taking a class, would seem to be more of an appropriate time.

As we age, we all want to know what our options are. If we learn information early enough in our lives, we can begin planning for our future.

What are your thoughts?

Adding to our social network

For the past three years, we have been looking at the best outlets for our message and ways for families to see what Mom and Dad or Grandpa and Grandma are doing on a daily basis.

We first dipped our toes in the social media landscape by developing our Facebook page.  You can also find our community’s Facebook pages from our website.

Shortly thereafter, we started this blog.

• In the past year, we’ve moved towards building our space on YouTube.
• For those of you who are on Google+, we are have just opened our page there as well.
• We are also over on Twitter.  You can find us at @welcomehomemgmt
• If you are of the LinkedIn crowd, you can find us here.

In the next year, look for all of our social media channels to increase activity.  Our goal is to give you relevant information that affect our residents and their families.  We also want to show you pictures and stories about our communities and what is help shape them in to such great places.  We also want to share with you video of events and of our residents and what they are involved in.

We think of these places as our daily newsletters to you, our friends and family.

Come along on our journey as we move forward this year.  It’s already looking to be a great one!

Roman Bloemke, Director of Operations

Nomination time – North Star Leadership Award

What does it mean to be a leader?  A leader has the ability to inspire his/her “fold” to achieve the “un-achievable”.  A leader is very self critical and always seeks to improve. A leader has wisdom, courage, and integrity.

Welcome to the family!

Welcome Home Management is very proud to announce the addition of River Pointe of Moorhead senior living community to the Welcome Home family!

We’ve spent the day meeting residents and team members.  Today has been just a fabulous day meeting everyone!

River Pointe of Moorhead is based in Moorhead, Minnesota and offers Independent, Assisted and Memory Care communities to area seniors.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding pictures of the community and the team members here to this blog, as well as to our website.

For your personal introduction to River Pointe, please follow the links below:

Website: http://www.riverpointemoorhead.com/

Give them some love over on their Facebook page: River Pointe of Moorhead.  Their page is brand new, but we will be posting updates all about the activities and programs at the community.  If you get a moment, like their page and welcome them home!

If you’d like to learn more about Welcome Home Management, you’ll find it on our website at: www.wtohdevelopment.com.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Welcome aboard!

 

The Legends at Heritage Place

Welcome Home Management is very proud to announce the addition of The Legends at Heritage Place to the Welcome Home family!

Today, we were at the community getting a chance to meet just an awesome team at the community, and what a great bunch of people!

The Legends at Heritage Place is a senior living community based in Sartell, Minnesota.  We offer Assisted Living, Memory Care and Independent Living Townhomes all located on the same campus.

We will have their website up very soon.  In the meantime, you can visit them on Facebook by clicking here.  Their page is brand new, but we will be posting updates all about the activities and programs at the community.  Take a moment and head over and “like” their page.

If you’d like more information on their community, please contact David at 320-281-3343.

 

 

Deep Cuts Leave Seniors on Shaky Ground

The House Health and Human Services proposal includes a total repeal of rate equalization, but balances the budget by gouging already underfunded nursing homes and home health care programs designed to help seniors remain in their homes.

When the House budget targets for Health and Human Services were announced there was little doubt that the budget would include cuts to seniors. Today Rep. Jim Abeler (R – Anoka) released an HHS budget bill that includes deep cuts to nursing homes and home and community-based services, which are designed to provide care to seniors in their homes at a lower cost.

The Long-Term Care Imperative recognizes the effort that went into putting together the HHS budget and praises Rep. Abeler for repealing rate equalization, which is an important first step in reforming long-term care financing.

However, the effects of reforms like this do not make nursing homes and other care providers immune to the huge cuts to seniors that are included in the budget proposal. “Rather than small, across the board rate cuts for nursing homes, this budget includes $35 million in deep, uneven slices that will certainly result in facility closures at a time when demand for service is only going up,” said Patti Cullen, president and CEO of Care Providers of Minnesota. “The tone coming from the capitol this year has been that nursing homes should be protected. If nursing homes are indeed going to be protected, that is not what has happened in this bill.”

Video Games May Improve Seniors Health

The Incredi-bowls from Twin Town Villa

A new study on motion gaming, video games that involve frequent movement such as playing games on Wii and Kinect gaming systems, finds that elderly individuals can benefit physically and emotionally from these fun activities. Video games that allow seniors to participate in previously enjoyed activities such as tennis, bowling, and golf are particularly helpful in improving health.

According to a study by the Gerontological Society, virtually engaging in previously enjoyed activities increases life satisfaction, decreases reported loneliness, improves mood, and increases physical activity. Seniors also reported feeling “more apart of things” and more connected to the younger generation.