Elder Care Alliance Supports the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk

Elder Care Alliance staff, residents, and families raised money to donate towards Alzheimer's Disease research and participated in several Alzheimer Association Memory Walks though out California. (Click image to enlarge.)

Diane Grassilli, RSM sponsor and long time friend and supporter of Elder Care Alliance died July 16, 2006

"She was a rare combination of the visionary and the realist."

Sister of Mercy Diane Grassilli, a dynamic leader in her religious community as well as its ministries, including Elder Care Alliance, died July 16th, 2006 of cancer. "She was a rare combination of the visionary and the realist" said Sister Carolyn Krohn of the Sisters of Mercy Leadership Team. "She saw clearly how to find common ground to bring people together and what practical steps were necessary to accomplish our goals. She also was an unusual blend of powerful gifts combined with little ego. Her passion was to bring Community and ministry into effective service for those who have little access to our society's resources."

Sr. Diane was the President of the Sisters of Mercy, Burlingame Region and a major contributor to the effort of shaping the future of the Sisters of Mercy. In addition she was Chair of the Board of Directors of Catholic Healthcare West from 2002-2005; a past board member and corporate sponsor representative of Elder Care Alliance; past board member of Mercy Housing and she held many other official and informal positions to help strengthen the role women religious play in health care and their moral impact in the wider world.

In lieu of flowers, contributions are suggested to the Sisters of Mercy 2300 Adeline Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010. For more information about Sr. Diane and the Sisters of Mercy visit www.mercyburl.org.

Team Elder Care Alliance Receives Top Honors for Raising Over $22,000 for Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk Fundraiser

Staff, residents, families and volunteers from six Elder Care Alliance (ECA) communities raised money to support the Alzheimer's Association commitment to find a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. ECA was the top fundraiser for non-profit agencies. Sixty percent of the funds raised will go back into ECA dementia care programs to directly benefit those we serve.

The Memory Walk was held on Treasure Island and many of those who supported our efforts also walked as Part of Team Elder Care Alliance.

California Schools Take Medical Students Into Retirement Facilities for Training
For decades, advocates for seniors have complained that medical schools treated geriatrics as a specialty, and something to be taken up late in one's training, at that. That has changed at the University of California, Berkeley, where students in the Joint Medical Program (JMP) this fall started meeting with residents at Salem Lutheran Home, a continuing care facility in Oakland. The Salem facility was chosen because it has residents at all stages of care and because it shows what a good facility looks like, according to Diane Driver, academic coordinator for the Resource Center on Aging at Berkeley. "Some people might say, 'Well, the real world is that most nursing homes aren't so good,' " Driver told OAR. "We wanted them to carry this real ideal place with them."

Getting to Know Seniors One-on-One
During each visit, a student spends up to three hours taking a resident's medical history. It could be a different resident each time, or a student could follow the same individual over the entire three years, observing any changes. Using a nursing facility as a venue for teaching makes it like a teaching hospital, and that is part of the idea, Driver says. It may also inspire students to later specialize in geriatrics, which cannot hurt in California, where there is only one geriatrician for every 4,000 seniors. Students in the JMP program, a three-year master's program followed by a year at the medical school at the San Francisco campus, are also seeing geriatric issues come up more often in the classroom, where the goal is to have geriatric content in one-third of the case studies. The two-pronged initiative was spurred by state legislation passed almost 20 years ago as well as a more recent law, the Geriatric Medical Training Act of 2000. It has parallels at four other campuses of the university system, each of which is making geriatrics a larger part of the curriculum for health science students. What makes the JMP effort special is that is paves the way for students from a wide range of disciplines, including social work, religion and law, to get first-hand exposure to geriatric care. Already, two students from the gerontological advanced practice nursing program at the San Francisco campus are spending time at Mercy Medical Center, another of the facilities run by the Elder Care Alliance. Liz Macera, an assistant clinical professor in the advanced practice program, would like to get all 40 of her unit's students involved, and plans to have them start giving presentations to residents on senior health issues. The JMP initiative has won plaudits from the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) as one way to meet a gap in the long-term care workforce. "It's great to be using actual nursing homes as a training ground for young people to learn hands on how to provide quality care for older adults," spokesman Bruce Rosenthal told OAR. "It will go a long way to attract young people into a field where there is a shortage and a field that is growing."

Contact:
Diane Driver, UC Berkeley, (510) 643-6427,
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~aging/
Liz Macera UC San Francisco, (415) 502-7774;
Bruce Rosenthal, AAHSA, (202) 783-2242,
Anita Ramlo, Salem Lutheran Home 510-534-3637

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Salem Lutheran Home
2361 East 29th Street, Oakland, CA 94606
Phone: (510) 534-3637 • Fax: (510) 534-0851

www.eldercarealliance.org
www.mercyretirementcenter.org
www.almavia.org

Equal Opportunity Employer Equal Housing Opportunity
Member, California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Member, American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging
Skilled Nursing Facility Lic. #CA 020000442 Residential Care Facility for the Elderly Lic. #015600254
Continuing Care Retirement Community Certificate of Authority #178
Affiliated with Elder Care Alliance