Aberdeen Heights
MAY 2020
Memories inspired by the pandemic Editor’s note: Aberdeen Heights resident Martha Kaelble found herself feeling particularly thoughtful on a recent morning when reading news of the COVID-19 pandemic that is gripping the world.
Aberdeen Heights receives 2020 Customer Experience Award from Pinnacle Quality Insight
“I guess I like to write, and I’ve been involved in working with the resident newsletter at Aberdeen Heights,” she said. “I read it’s a good idea to write a journal in times like this.” When news about fighting the virus compared the effort to a war, she recalled the sacrifices Americans were forced to make during the height of World War II. “I was born in 1933, so I was old enough to know what was going on. I didn’t have complete knowledge, but I was aware that you didn’t go out and buy a new pair of shoes. Sugar was rationed, as was gasoline. I know my Dad was an air raid warden, and he had books that taught him how to look up in the sky and recognize enemy planes.” She recalled a story about her grandmother, who was a baker who found herself struggling when sugar was rationed for the war effort. While she needed her sugar ration stamps, she didn’t drive much and had little need for her gasoline stamps. Martha has been a resident of Aberdeen Heights for more than eight years. She said writing and her involvement with the resident newsletter has been a hobby that helps her fill her time with work she enjoys. Martha is thrilled to know that people have enjoyed reading her thoughts about the parallels between today, and the experiences of her youth. She MEMORIES - continued on page 2
Aberdeen Heights, a PMMA senior living community in Kirkwood, Mo., is proud to announce that they are the recipient of Pinnacle Quality Insight’s 2020 Customer Experience Award™.
The Customer Experience Award is given to senior living communities that score in the top 15-percent of the nation in resident satisfaction surveys conducted by Pinnacle Quality Insight for 12 consecutive months. Aberdeen Heights received the award for independent living and skilled nursing. Pinnacle Quality Insight, a customer satisfaction measurement firm with more than 24 years of AWARD - continued on page 5
Aberdeen Heights | A PMMA COMMUNITY
1
MEMORIES - continued from page 1
is hopeful that she will find more inspiration to journal during this challenging time in history. Martha’s Journal 2020 As I hear more and more plans to “fight this war” with the coronavirus, memories come to mind of phrases used during the Second World War when I was a grade-school girl. We did things for the “war effort.” We endured things “for the duration” and experienced shortages of everyday things. Shoes were rationed, even meat. Trips were curtailed because gasoline was rationed. Some things that could not be obtained were said to be “gone to war.” Plants were converted to make things for the war. People prayed for the war to end, and now people pray that this, too, will end. There were shortages of doctors and nurses because they were needed in the armed services. My mother learned to be a Red Cross nurse’s aide and worked at the hospital, emptying bedpans and more. Now there are shortages because doctors and nurses are getting sick or in quarantine. In those days, ordinary citizens folded bandages! Now we make masks. We experienced fear when I was little, even in my Ohio town, far from the coast. We wondered if German bombers would ever come 1,000 miles inland to cripple the
steel company that was our main industry for the war effort. We had air raid drills when we closed the drapes and turned off most of the lights so the enemy couldn’t see where to bomb. Some families even built air raid shelters. Now the preparations to be safe from the virus include sheltering away from outsiders and staying safely away, at least six feet, while talking to our friends. We’re trying to find some way to be safe while living in a group. In war time, people who had family members in the service overseas worried about their survival. Now people fear for their own lives and for the health of their families. There is fear in not knowing if a cough means you or a friend are getting the virus, and there is fear of talking to someone who carries the virus or touching something that might carry it. People fear they will run out of something that is important, and they even hoard things like toilet paper. Others hoard food items, buying more than they could possibly need.
friends, especially the ones who can’t get out. Some of us can help provide entertainment, or pass along jokes, and we all can express thanks to our workers. We can look for ways to entertain ourselves: read books from the library, watch TV, play games, do crafts.
For the most part, we are not truly isolated in our rooms. The flowers If we only could buy savings stamps are blooming outside. Those who or war bonds and do our part in can should make a point to go out this war against the coronavirus. and enjoy them. As we wait for But we can do something to help, “our war to be over,” we can plan we are told. We can start by helping for how to reschedule the things we ourselves, by being calmer, taking wanted to do, only at a later time. walks, praying, reading something This will come to an end; only the devotional, meditating. We can do timing is uncertain. But nothing is our part by helping comfort each certain in life, so we have to learn other, either from a safe distance or by phone. We can check on our to live with it. ◆ Like us on Facebook to stay updated on news and events.
ABERDEEN HEIGHTS A PMMA COMMUNITY
314-909-6010 ◆ Fax: 913-599-3810 505 Couch Ave. Kirkwood, MO 63122-5536 AberdeenSeniorLiving.com
2
COMMUNITY MATTERS | May 2020
Community Matters
is published monthly for residents and friends of Aberdeen Heights by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizaton.
To submit or suggest articles: llandy@PMMA.org Rick Cumberland, executive director Lily Landy, health care administrator David Evans, life enrichment director
OUR MISSION: To provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.
April 15, 2020
Dear Residents and Family,
We continue to “Stay the Course” despite the challenges of restricting all visitors to our PMMA communities. It has been a key prevention measure in the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 virus across the United States. In addition, the CDC guidelines and the emergency “Stay-at-Home” orders for the general public in Kansas and Missouri and the guidance to social distance issued by almost all of the states, has helped our employees to protect those entrusted to our care.
Just last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) released revised models that included a strong statement as to what social distancing is doing to decrease the number of expected cases of COVID-19. The revised projections simply indicate that the policy of social distancing is working to reduce both hospitalizations and deaths, not only in the U.S., but also around the world.
What does this mean for all of the senior living communities in the PMMA system? It means that taking the stance to implement these extreme measures by the PMMA leadership, but one required by CDC guideline, remains the right thing to do to keep all our residents and employees COVID-19 free.
To this point, PMMA has a resident population of approximately 2,400 that are – as of today – COVID-19 free. In addition, we have had only one non-direct care employee out of almost 2,500 total employees that tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, and appropriate steps were put in place to assure no other employee or resident was affected. It is difficult with these outcomes, to argue with the PMMA System success due to the key prevention measures implemented in March. I sincerely thank you for your cooperation, patience and grace during this pandemic and please let me end with a personnel experience I had this past Easter weekend.
Most Easter mornings, I usually attend a Sunrise service at my local church. Unfortunately, this opportunity was not available due to the “Stay at Home” orders in Kansas. Therefore, I sat in my driveway, looking at the cloudy morning and listening to a Christian podcast of the readings from all of the gospels of the very first Easter morning. At the end of the podcast, the presenter read the following chorus from the Hymn, “Because He Lives.” The words were very reassuring to me in this very trying time. I hope this speaks to you also. Because He lives I can face tomorrow Because He lives all fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living just because He lives God’s Blessings, Bruce H. Shogren President/CEO Aberdeen Heights | A PMMA COMMUNITY
3
Coronavirus in the news: Separating fact from fiction By Julie Pfitzinger for Next Avenue
Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., the 24/7 news cycle has transformed into an even more rapidly changing landscape of information, and in some cases, misinformation. Now more than ever, it’s important to have a discerning eye as we all attempt to process updates surrounding everything COVID-19 from statistics to social distancing, both on a national and a local level. In a recent story in Stanford News, Jeff Hancock, a Stanford University communications professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab, said there are telltale signs to determine whether coronavirus stories you’re seeing are based in truth. “Compared to real news, fake news tends to include information that is more surprising, upsetting or geared to trigger anger or anxiety. Any information that fits that (and a lot of coronavirus news can) should be double-checked. Other cues that raise suspicion include unknown sources, unusual numbers of endorsements (or likes) and memes that focus on partisan topics,” he said. Coronavirus news: hoax or no? Recently, Buzzfeed published what they called “a running list” of hoaxes being promulgated about coronavirus; it’s a list the editors plan to update regularly. You may be surprised to learn that the “sources” to which incorrect information is being attributed include reputable entities such
4
COMMUNITY MATTERS | May 2020
as the United Nations and the Pentagon. Other hoaxes featured in the Buzzfeed piece spotlight claims which, in calmer times, might not gain traction, but in this period of heightened anxiety, are attracting attention. There’s a YouTube video encouraging people to inhale hot air from a hair dryer to cure coronavirus and another “home remedy” purported to kill the coronavirus — drinking excessive amounts of water to activate stomach acid — which offers what the article calls “very bad advice,” according to many medical experts. Or this fallacy: no, in fact, there isn’t any proof that taking ibuprofen can worsen coronavirus symptoms. The power of mal-information Why do hoaxes like these surface in a time when it’s more important than ever for people to have confidence the information they are seeing is accurate and in their best interests? According to Hancock, the reason is often deeply rooted in commerce and financial gain for those who definitely don’t have the best interests of anyone else in mind. “Because media business models are based on attention economics, bad actors create mal-information (which includes fake news, misinformation and disinformation) about the coronavirus in order to get people to attend to their content, and ultimately make money from that attention. Money is the primary motivation,” he said. But, Hancock added, there are
other factors lurking behind the fake news. “A second motivation is partisanship, and partisans try to lay blame for the crisis with political opponents. The third main motivation is seeking to disrupt and confuse the public. This was the Russian election interference motivation for mal-information and remains their objective along with some other hostile state actors,” he said. Our fragile emotional state In an article published on Next Avenue in April 2019, called Who Shares Fake News? (We Know it Wasn’t You), contributor Andrew Lapin addressed the issue of which age group is generally more prone to believe, and share, fake news. As Lapin reported, there are many factors and not a definitive answer about the ages of those who spread fake news stories. However, in this time of a pandemic, the role of our collective emotional state no matter our age is a contributing factor in susceptibility to fake news.◆
Students quiz residents to learn about their lives More than 100 students from Robinson Elementary School dropped by Aberdeen Heights to learn a little more about our residents before the COVID-19 pandemic reached Kirkwood.
The students gathered with pen and paper in hand and worked away, writing down the answers to some very good questions about residents’ lives and their experiences in our community.
Students gained a great deal of insight into the experience of another generation—and our residents enjoyed the chance to speak with students. The visit was also a lot of fun for everyone. ◆
Lad Luecke
Life Enrichment Aide Hannah Lefort (kneeling on the left) and Faye Prince
Ellen Umlauf
Don Lavin
Resident Mary Riegel
Jean Waldemer
AWARD - continued from page 1
categories.
experience in post-acute healthcare, conducts more than 150,000 phone surveys each year and works with more than 2,500 care providers in all 50 states, Canada and Puerto Rico.
“The Customer Experience Award affirms our staff ’s dedication to our mission—to provide quality senior services guided by Christian values,” said Rick Cumberland, executive director. “This award reflects our residents’ satisfaction with our efforts to live out our mission.”
residents gave the community high marks in food quality, cleanliness, activities and providing a safe and secure environment.
Over the course of 2019, a sampling of Aberdeen Heights’ residents and their families participated in monthly telephone interviews that include open-ended questions. They also had the opportunity to rate Aberdeen Heights in specific
Aberdeen Heights scored in the top-15 percent in variety of food and menu choices on independent living surveys, and skilled nursing
Through Pinnacle Quality Insight’s monthly phone surveys, Aberdeen Heights has gathered real-time survey results to gain a better understanding of the residents’ needs and make improvements when necessary, continuing a 9-year emphasis on ensuring the individual needs of every resident are met. ◆
Aberdeen Heights | A PMMA COMMUNITY
5
ABERDEEN HEIGHTS A PMMA COMMUNITY
505 Couch Ave. Kirkwood, MO 63122 RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Our Mission: to provide quality senior services guided by Christian values Like us on Facebook to stay updated on news and events.
Residents revel in Mardi Gras fun The revelry and celebration of Mardi Gras was in full swing this year at Aberdeen Heights. Residents spent several weeks decorating masks in preparation for the annual event. Masks in place, they gathered for a grand party that included colorful beads and a king cake with a GummyBear-style baby hidden inside. Revelers also enjoyed watching a broadcast of the iconic New Orleans Mardi Gras parade and played bingo for a chance to win a variety of stuffed animals. â—† Barbara Jordan
6
COMMUNITY MATTERS | May 2020
Resident Don Lavin