By acquiring a 50 percent share of Christian Home Health, a licensed, Medicare-certified home health provider based in Clinton Township, Lutheran Social Services is now able to provide Medicare-paid licensed, professional health services such as nursing, physical therapy and respiratory therapy to clients recuperating at home after a hospital stay. The agreement closed on April 30. Lutheran Social Services is partnering in this effort with POBLO (People of the Book Lutheran Outreach), a ministry of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, which established Christian Home Health in 2008. For many years, Lutheran Social Services has provided non-medical home care services, such as housekeeping, cooking, help with bathing and dressing, and help with errands, for low-income seniors through the Medicaid Waiver program and for people with disabilities through Community Mental Health. Last fall, Lutheran Social Services acquired the Michigan franchise of Home Care Assistance, a nationally branded private duty home care provider. The addition of home health services means the organization is now able to provide the full range of home care services for just about anyone who needs them. Sue Lemon, vice president of Services for Senior Adults, is the administrator responsible for the Christian Home Health program.

Apparently they call it cognitive dissonance—a mental phenomenon that occurs when the ideas or beliefs commonly tied with an event or place conflict with reality. Dissonance usually breeds discomfort. Think of that scene, for instance, from “The Sound of Music” when Julie Andrews returns to the nunnery after months of nannying for the Von Tropp children; she expects a happy homecoming, a return of the comfort, safety, and familiarity from her days of youth, but what she experiences is dissatisfaction, displacement, and a longing for what has become her new home with the Von Tropps. If you have your PhD, you say that Julie Andrews is experiencing an identity crisis fueled by cognitive dissonance. If you’re a normal person, you say she is confused, and has a bit of soul-searching to do.

I think I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance one Sunday last month when, returning from my lunch break, I could hear singing coming from the Woods’ chapel—quite normal, you say, but imagine my shock when I found it was not the chorus of some old spiritual (“Come Thou Fount” perhaps), but the roistering anthem of sports fans everywhere, Queen’s classic “We Will Rock You.” A retirement community. On a Sunday. Singing Queen. Was I missing something?

Further dissonance ensued when, upon investigation, I found not only alter pieces, vestments, and hymnals adorning the chapel, but speaker boxes, laptop computers (macbooks no less), and eclectic lighting effects. The congregants, too, joined in the fray, a mixture of well-mannered, venerable seniors and spunky teenagers, complete with ripped denim and spiky hairstyles. Myself: a mixture of wonder, fear and trembling. Apparently it’s called “Intergenerational Rock Choir”— the brainchild of Kameri Muir, a senior from Florida State University who, for her final project in the Music Therapy program concocted a way of bridging the gap between the young and old through song. “I just love doing this,” says Kameri energetically after choir practice, held typically on Sunday afternoons. “Everybody responds to music—it’s a great connector. And it’s multipurpose, you know: you refresh the older generation while inspiring the new.”

 The formula itself is inspired: take a group of teenagers eager to exercise their melodious chops (drawn, in this case, largely from volunteers from Forest Hills Eastern high school); put them together with a group of thriving retirees (drawn, of course, from the vivacious population of MapleCreek); place a dynamic song leader in front of them (I don’t think Kameri stopped singing or moving once), and the result is no less than orchestral. But the core of her concept lies in finding classic hits that both ends of the age spectrum will recognize and consider “their own” in some degree; music thus becomes the common ground, a mutual space in which the two groups, so different in so many ways, can relate and engage one another effectively. In other words, real community between the two populations is possible with ambassadors like Freddy Mercury, James Brown, and Bob Dylan.

With my dissonance dissipating, I was more prepared than most, I think, when on April 17^th the Intergenerational Rock Choir held its first concert in Trinity chapel. It was (I can’t help myself) a show for the ages; a chapel full of family members and loved ones sat in awe as hit after classic hit

issued from the choir, from the soulful camaraderie of “Lean on Me” to the exuberant frivolity of “I Got You!” Many songs took on deeper meanings, given the context—The Who’s “My Generation,” for example, struck exactly the right theme of unification that the choir seemed to manifest, and when Dylan’s “Forever Young” poured forth, there were, as Woods’ Life Enrichment Coordinator Beth Terborg recalls, “tears everywhere!”

“It was such an awesome time,” Beth reminisces, offering her kudos to Kameri for a job well done: “families were really impressed.”

Alison House in Delta Township, an apartment community managed by Lutheran Social Services of Michigan  for adults with physical disabilities, has received a $1,000 grant from the Eaton County Community Foundation, a sub-fund of the Capital Region Community Foundation, to install steel kick plates. “Most of our residents at Alison House use some type of mobility assistance, such as wheelchairs, scooters or walkers,” said Manager Jessica Cage. “Since the building opened in 2007, the apartment walls and doors have sustained significant damage from wheelchairs and other mobility aids. The steel plates will help us protect the building and keep the apartments looking good.” The grant was approved on March 29. The plates will be installed in June. Schneider Sheet Metal Supply is custom making the plates to fit the doors and walls at Alison House.

Hope Village will serve as a gathering place seniors as part of an expansion of the Grand Traverse County Senior Center Network. The network has provided programs for adults 50 and over throughout the county, with active sites in Interlochen and Kingsley. This spring the Network expanded into Fife Lake and Acme. By providing space and staff support, Hope Village will enhance the offerings provided to seniors on the east side of Grand Traverse County.

“We are delighted to partner with the Network in providing this wonderful programming to not only our residents, but to other area seniors,” said Cathy Stathakis, Hope Village manager.

Starting next week, Sharon Neumann of the Senior Center staff will be at Hope Village every Monday morning from 9 to 10 a.m. to answer questions and recruit interested volunteers. Programming has started with a painting class by renowned watercolor artist and teacher Charles Murphy. An open house will be held at Hope Village on Monday, May 21, at 2 p.m. to introduce staff, programs, and future plans. For reservations, call the Network at (231) 922-4911.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that normal people are afraid of needles. It is also true that this fear is probably rooted in childhood trauma—I still shudder when I think of my early trips to the doctor’s office for annual shots: the quiet anxiety of the car ride turning slowly to agony in the waiting room, building quickly towards panic upon entering the patient room, yielding to horror as the doctor unsheathed his weapon, and culminating finally with uncontrollable sobs as the needle plunged. If preventative health required sharp pokes to the arm, I preferred the flu.

Perhaps Virginia Speese never got her shots. Or maybe she’s just not a wimp. Either way, the 84-year-old resident of the Lodge at MapleCreek went willingly, even happily, to an establishment called “Screaming Needles,” a moniker evoking all the warmth and charm of a haunted house. Insanity, you say, but with her birthday month just around the corner, Virginia could think of no better way to celebrate than by fulfilling a life-long dream—getting a tattoo!

“I’ve always wanted to get one,” says Virginia with a tinge of rebelliousness in her voice, “but I never dreamed it was possible, especially at my age!” Inconceivable though it may seem, her wish, dismissed for so long as an opportunity missed, was reborn during a conversation with her great granddaughter, Brittany Wellman. Realizing this was something more than mere mid-life crisis mischief, Brittany sprang into action with all the fire of a new generation. Buses were called, appointments were made, and on April 7, 2012, laughter could be heard coming from the operating room of Screaming Needles.

Before you ask, “it did NOT hurt. Why does everyone always ask that first?” More interesting for Virginia is the meaning behind the tattoo itself: a small, curled-up kitten perched at the top of her shoulder, representing her own cat “Sandra,” which currently lives in another building on campus. Its real meaning, however, is best summed up by Virginia herself: “I’ve learned this—you are never too old to do the things you want to do.”

As part of an ongoing commitment to family caregivers, Home Care Assistance is hosting a free, online seminar, Caregiver Burnout and How to Protect Your Health, on May 1 at 2 p.m. Eastern to discuss the warning signs of burnout and helpful everyday tips for family caregivers to protect their health .

 The webinar will be held on Tuesday, May 1 at 2 p.m. Eastern. It will be led by Dr. Jennifer Hoblyn, professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and chief medical officer of eTherapi, an online therapy provider that connects adults seeking to improve their mental and emotional wellbeing to licensed therapists who provide counseling online via live video conferencing. To register for the Caregiver Burnout webinar, please visit www.homecareassistance.com/caregiver-burnout and reserve your spot today.

Caregiving has rapidly become a second profession for many individuals; nearly one in three adults provides ongoing care to an elderly or chronically frail loved one. The typical family caregiver is a 50-year-old female, often married and employed, providing care for an elderly parent. Family caregivers often juggle commitments to their work, their children, their family and friends and their communities alongside their caregiving responsibilities. They often lack or do not know where to seek the resources and supports they need to manage the stress associated with their responsibilities; it’s no wonder then that 46 percent of family caregivers suffer from clinically significant symptoms of depression and other forms of caregiver burnout. In addition to causing depression, caregiver burnout can lead to changes in energy, mood and diet. Full-time caregiving can reduce an individual’s life expectancy by up to eight years. Education and awareness about caregiver burnout are important steps in prevention and control of this insidious and all too common problem.

Individuals currently providing care for a family member or loved one can use Home Care Assistance’s Caregiver Burnout Checklist to evaluate the impact of caregiving on their life. For more information about Home Care Assistance, visit www.HomeCareAssistance.com. For additional resources for family caregivers, call a local Home Care Assistance office at 1-866-454-8346 and speak to one of the care managers today.

Think of a time you heard a classic song come on the radio, an old favorite from years ago. You’re driving along, perhaps, or doing the dishes when those first notes come through the stereo, and suddenly you’re back in time, highway driving in your first car or dancing the night away at prom. You can hardly remember what you ate for breakfast that morning, but somehow you can remember every word to that 80’s cult classic and the names of everyone in the band. That’s the uncanny power of music—nothing transports us so quickly to other times and places, and nothing quite so easily primes the feelings and emotions that are deeply connected with past experiences.

But that’s not its only power, not for Lindsey Perrault and the residents at the Woods at MapleCreek. On a given Saturday morning, the Woods’ dining room is transformed into a veritable concert hall, complete with guitars, tone chimes, and most importantly, a chorus of voices. While caregivers and nurses move about their daily tasks, the echo of vintage tunes reverberates through the halls and offices, from “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” to “Wild Irish Rose” to “Auld Lang Syne,” sung by the residents themselves and led by Perrault, one of the Woods’ Activity Coordinators, a Board Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC), and a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Choir. 

“Music can also be used as a tool,” Perrault informs me after a morning of singing with the residents, “it can be used to reach functional goals.” Such goals include increasing social skills, improving memory and mood, decreasing physical pain, and motivating activity. Certainly there are other activities meant to do as much, but none so aesthetically pleasing, and none that share another of music’s peculiar advantages: because music is stored in and uses many different areas of the brain, damage or deterioration to one area does not prevent a person from participating. For residents of the Woods, the majority of who carry cognitive deficits to a certain extent, music thus becomes a particular blessing, a means of reaching across the divide, of communicating and expressing themselves both personally and to one another. 

Perrault is very intentional in the songs she chooses (songs from a person’s twenties, apparently, are best for long term memory), and she is more than happy to share the rationale behind each specifically; songs like “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” for example, provide visual cues for clapping and other upper extremity exercises, while others such as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” prompt emotional mirroring and feeling response. Residents are even able to participate directly in the music-making, casting tone chimes to “Auld Lang Syne” as a group.

Of course, the music is not meant to be wholly practical. The other dimension of music therapy is the one to which we can all relate, that aspect of song which feeds our inner lives, strongly manifested in the hymn-singing that takes place on Sunday afternoons. Again with Perrault’s lead, the residents sing many of the church favorites—“Amazing Grace,” etc.—and the effect is certainly moving. For many of the Woods’ residents, access to the inner self is increasingly clouded, at times impossible. And yet, it seems, with every resident joining together in chorus, the human side is being reached. The dam bursts, memories flood, and as Perrault puts it, “the spirit revives. It’s special—it really brings out so much life.” Witness the lively, boisterous scene on Saturday mornings or the peaceful, meditative sobriety of hymn-singing on Sundays afternoons, and you’ll know what she’s talking about.

On March 23 and 24 Rita Livingstone, In-Home Support Specialist in the Monroe Home Care Services office, took her client, Melina King,to Grand Rapids for the special Olympics. It was the first time the Monroe group attended the Special Olympics“Melina was so excited that she laughed on and off the whole time,” said Rita. “There were many activities including dancing, arts and crafts, a dental checkup, a smile class (to teach people to smile no matter how bad things are), souvenirs, and a meeting with state beauty contestants. We all enjoyed our time there.” It’s obvious from the photo that Melina enjoyed the outing! Lutheran Social Services’ Monroe team won a medal for basketball.

“Cut throat.” It’s a word that usually describes pirates, politicians, and certain citizens of Wall Street. Oddly enough, it also applies to certain residents of MapleCreek. How, you ask, could such a sinister adjective possibly be attached to the dear denizens of a retirement community? The answer might surprise you. But then again, it might not.

During the work week, the Woods’ lobby is an ever-changing, at times unpredictable scene of hustle and bustle, but one constant I can always rely on is the regular afternoon card game that takes place at the corner table near the coffee pots, and it is not to be missed: four-player, winner-take-all Uno. The scene itself is a bit of an irony: nowhere is the dark, smoky, fiendish atmosphere of some back alley card club, exchanged instead for the effervescent, cheerful environment of the Woods’ lobby. But don’t be fooled, warns Judy Hoult, a daughter of one of the residents and the game’s main facilitator, your grandmother’s game of Uno this is not—“These ladies are card sharks! It’s all business when you’re at the table.”

Of course, even as she says this, a smirk touches her lips; with cards in hand, Judy visits her mother Margaret frequently during the week, and she sees firsthand the big smiles that a competitive game of cards can bring to the residents’ faces, most of whom were probably raised playing some game or another. For her own mother, playing cards was almost nightly ritual—growing up in the country, Judy reminds me, in the days before the Internet or movies, card-playing was the done thing. “You either played cards or went to bed, and mother rarely went to bed.” For Margaret’s family, the game was Euchre (another four-player battle royale), and sessions would sometimes last well into the morning hours. Now the game is Uno, and games last only an hour or so, but with her daughter’s help, Margaret still carries that fiery passion for a good game of cards with friends and neighbors.

I myself can’t help but smile at the ladies of the corner game, catching snippets of laughter and conversation as I move about my office tasks. Perhaps it’s the mood that the game creates: seeing the life that a simple deck of cards can bring to the residents here is encouraging, and there’s something comforting about the nearness, the familiarity of the lobby ritual. More likely, though, it’s the heavy nostalgia that certain moments of the game bring. For my family it was Scrabble—listening to Judy and Margaret reminisce, I can’t help but think of my own family’s late night-sessions, the laughter, the fierceness, the drama. Does it surprise me, then, that a game of Uno in the afternoon can turn cut throat?  Like I said, for my family, it was Scrabble. 

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Livonia hosted several hosted Lutheran Social Services of Michigan foster parents and their families on March 24, providing respite, a good meal and some entertainment. In the afternoon, teen and adult volunteers did crafts and games with the children so the foster parents could take a few hours off. Then the families came together for dinner.

Al and Cynthia Lucas attended with four members of their extended family. Al recently retired from Chrysler but maintains his position as pastor at Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit. He and his wife have been foster parents with Lutheran Social Services for more than 20 years. He estimates they have cared for over 100 children. They adopted several, and many of their foster children have gone on to college. With them at Holy Trinity were their daughter Shania, 9, and three sisters, aged 5 to 8, who they are adopting. Michelle Wells is an unmarried grandmother caring for two of her grandchildren. She also has two foster children, 10-year-old Peter and 13-year-old Nicole.  She has been a foster parent for many years, and is often asked to take on a case in an emergency situation. She hopes all four of her charges can attend Lutheran Social Services’ camp for foster children this summer.

“It was humbling to spend time with these people who have opened their homes to the very vulnerable young people here in our area,” said Paul Drenkow, a longtime Lutheran Social Services volunteer and a member of Holy Trinity. “It was inspiring to see Holy Trinity members reach out to these families—especially our young people who spent the day playing with the foster children. I also enjoyed seeing Jack Bailey, who provided entertainment, delighting the young girls by dancing with them.”

Audrey Williams-Burton, director of Lutheran Social Services’ programs for children and families in Southeast Michigan, says there are about 14,000 children in foster care in Michigan. She noted that children become “eligible” for foster care at all ages. There is a critical need for homes for teenagers, who will “age out” of foster care support when they reach 18. Host families are needed to house these youth and be a role model so they can become independent adults. In this situation, the host families do not need to go through the same training as foster parents, but do receive compensation.

Members of Holy Trinity know the value of a strong family. “By continuing to support Lutheran Social Services’ foster care program, we can help can help those in need experience the same feeling,” said Drenkow.