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.”

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.”

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.

Recently, Pastor Rebecca Ebb-Speese (Pastor Becky), MapleCreek's director of pastoral care was approached by a journalist, G. Jeffrey MacDonald who was doing an article on the change of faith in seniors.

The article, titled "Soul Search," appears in the May's USA TODAY special publication, "The Best Years." Pastor Becky gives insight about what she's learned about senior faith from working at MapleCreek. She talks about how some seniors grow spiritually, even after moving into a retirement community.

She mentioned how seniors often have a hard time feeling comfortable with faith. 

From the article: "Ebb-Speese says many newcomers hesitate at first, worrying they don't have the right clothes for worship, lack the right knowledge for discussion, or can't spare a dollar for the offering ...  "But somehow when they're here, they mellow ... A lot of them enter into religious activity through personal one-on-one relationships.""

She also tried to break down some stereotypes about seniors:

""People have an assumption that seniors are very stuck in their ways, but they are not," Ebb-Speese says. "There's something about the senior years that enables them to blossom and be open to new things, much more so than middleaged people.""

MapleCreek resident, Jean Skiver, who was recently baptized by Pastor Becky, was quoted in the article as well. To read the full article click here, and to order a copy of the magazine, click here.

Mark Stutrud, president and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, has joined the board of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), a national organization based in Baltimore that contracts with the federal government to resettle refugees. LIRS works through 27 state and local affiliates, including Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, to provide services to refugees. LIRS is also very active in advocating for policies and legislation that uphold the rights and dignity of newcomers to our country.

Lutheran Social Services also serves as the Michigan affiliate for Episcopal Migration Ministries.

Last year, Lutheran Social Services resettled more than 1,000 refugees. They were primarily Chaldeans (Christians from Iraq) but also people fleeing war and persecution in Burma, Bhutan and several African countries. Lutheran Social Services provides help with paperwork and documents, housing, English language training and job placement. Most refugees are self-supporting within six months of their arrival.

MapleCreek has promoted two staff members to senior management positions. Deedre Vriesman is the new associate administrator and Scott Spencer was named director of plant operations for MapleCreek.

“Both Deedre and Scott bring a wealth of talent, skills and passion to MapleCreek. Their innovative and mission-based approach cultivates this pasa desire to provide high quality service and hospitality,” said Jay Prince, executive director of MapleCreek.

Vriesman was previously the clinical operations manager for The Woods at MapleCreek, where she managed the daily operations for the campus’ memory care unit. Her new role includes managing The Terraces healthcare operations in addition to her role at The Woods.

As director of plant operations, Spencer will provide leadership and oversight for the campus’s physical plant operations including purchasing, transportation, maintenance, housekeeping, laundry and security departments. Scott has worked for MapleCreek for five years, starting as an Administrative Services Manager.

These thoughts on Lent are from Pastor Rebecca Ebb-Speese, chaplain at MapleCreek in Grand Rapids.

I have been pondering what I should be giving up for Lent this year. A given is always sugar. But this year I have had an awakening that Lent is for receiving, which requires giving up the need for fierce independence.

I started Lent this year by having knee surgery. This has given me the gift of a little over two weeks off work. I looked forward to this time of rest and reflection at the beginning of Lent. 

Now, a few days into my leave, I have had to experience a lot of giving up: of independence, of driving, of cooking my own meals (that’s a gift in its own right!), of caring for the household chores. I have given up most of these to my husband, who is willing to give of his time to take over.

When I was in the recovery room, the surgeon came in to tell me how the surgery went. I was quite surprised to hear him say that I had donor parts in my knee. At first, I thought it was kind of creepy to realize I had a dead person’s ligaments and cartilage in my body. I didn’t even realize that donor parts were used for knee repair. When I think of organ donors, I think of the big ones, like the heart, lung and liver. It never occurred to me that that what seem like small, insignificant body parts are also used. And I never imagined myself being a recipient. Wow! Someone’s death gave me new parts in my knee so that I can experience healing. That sure sounds like Lent to me. Someone else gave his whole life so that we can have new life! 

Lent is about receiving. It’s about receiving the sacrifice of life that Jesus gave to us. It’s about receiving grace and forgiveness. It’s about letting go of our need to be gods in charge of our own lives as we let God guide us and the Holy Spirit open us up to receive wonderful gifts.

I am also learning that Lent is about letting others care for me. I am a professional caregiver. It’s hard for me to be on the receiving end. Most people want to be able to give and care. It’s a gift for them to receive. I am thankful for the gift of my donor’s knee parts, for the gifts of prayers and cards, for meals and flowers, for calls and visits and for the many other ways people are reaching out. I am humbled. As the weeks progress, I will be more and more opened to learn to receive with thankfulness, especially to Jesus for his life-giving gift of going to the cross, which led, ultimately, to his resurrection!

(Photo by Enygmatic-Halycon, Creative Commons)
 

The last couple of weeks were full of excitement at MapleCreek. Two new commercials were being filmed on campus, and the residents were the stars!

The marketing team at MapleCreek decided that our current commercial could use a little more excitement, so we hired a new production company in town, Tell Tale Productions. For the commercial, we wanted to showcase all of the fun we have at MapleCreek.

Last Monday morning started in the wellness center with five residents pretending to be involved in an aerobics class and by 10 a.m. we were watching a movie in the Life Enrichment Room. From there we staged a poker game, complete with tuxedos and visors. The day ended with a pretend happy hour, although, by the looks of it, all fifteen actors for the scene were pretty happy.

The star of this commercial, Dorothy, moved through each of the scenes, dancing as if no one was watching.

Tuesday, we began in the dining room, showcasing the service that MapleCreek provides for it's residents. We filmed a scene in one of the cottage with Tom and a pretend grandchild, and a lot of cookies. We ended in the Woods, where we were able to show the comfort of healthcare on campus. 

It was an exciting couple of days, and we now we have two new exciting commercials to show for it.

On Feb. 24 we held a premeire of the new commercials for MapleCreek residents and their families, complete with a red carpet! Look for the commercials beginning March on WOOD TV, WXSP and WOTV starting Monday.

Louis J. Prues of Grosse Pointe, director of strategic planning and business development at Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, has been named by Governor Rick Snyder to the Michigan Board of Medicine as a representative of the general public. He will take the oath of office January 25. Board members serve for eight years.

The Michigan Board of Medicine is responsible for regulating the entry of physicians and surgeons into practice in the state, for requiring continuing medical education of licensed physicians and for the disciplinary action against those who violate the public health code.

Prues previously served on the Michigan Board of Nursing as an appointee of Governor John Engler.