AGING WELL: Worth the Investment! Your Gift Makes the Difference!

Photo by Jim Fish, Carlsbad By The Sea resident.

Front Porch and its philanthropic partners, FACT Foundation, Pacific Homes Foundation, Sunny View Lutheran Communities and Services and California Lutheran Homes and Community Services, believe our individual journeys, experiences and generosity toward others enhances the opportunity for all of us to age well with meaning and purpose.

Your support helps us to strengthen and enhance the lives of more than 5,000 individuals who are aging across our retirement and affordable housing communities. We believe aging is a gift to be enthusiastically embraced, enjoyed, supported and honored. A monetary gift of any size today makes a difference.

How do we do this?

We do this by honoring the whole person — in mind, body and spirit. Through programs and experiences that encourage engagement and honor individuals as they age, our philanthropic partners support charitable care, celebrate milestones and holidays, enhance memory care, honor those whom we have lost, attend to those who give care, and tailors cutting-edge technology to grow important and meaningful connections throughout the full experience of aging. 

We do this through your gifts, through volunteer-led programs, and programs like Operation Snowflake, a holiday fund that brings holiday cheer to families living in low-income communities managed by Front Porch subsidiary CARING Housing Ministries; Joyful Hearts Chorus, a 40-plus member choir comprised of residents living at Summer House and Villa Gardens and the Villa Gardens Health Center; as well as the Amazon Echo, voice controlled technology that assists residents in the tasks of daily living.

Giving Tuesday (#GivingTuesday), which happens annually on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, is the international day of charitable giving. Each year, Giving Tuesday has had greater and greater impact on both our local communities and our international causes. We believe the best of giving comes from the heart, the central place of gratitude.  

Together, with many others around the world it is a day to support the causes you believe are most important and most meaningful to you and your loved ones. Giving Tuesday is a day of communal giving.  

So, thank you for investing with your gift for those you love today.

Please visit the Front Porch website “Give Now” page and consider supporting one or more of our philanthropic partners or causes.

Greetings from the Alexa Club!

Carlsbad By The Sea Resident Takes "Alexa" for a Test Run

By Corinne Sawyer, resident at Carlsbad By The Sea

Enthusiasts were delighted that so many people (perhaps 40-50) attended the first meeting of the Carlsbad By The Sea Alexa Club last week.

Using the Amazon Echo or Dot technologies has proved great fun and an enormous convenience for many of us, and sharing the latest “trick” we’ve discovered with our own use of “Alexa” has become a daily pleasure. We act like proud parents showing off our kids … or the owners of especially cute dogs … who revel in the admiration of others. Speaking personally, I haven’t had this much fun with a “gadget” in years and years, not to mention that I find it useful. And Jessica Yoon (a member of Front Porch’s Center for Innovation and Wellbeing, who shepherds the Alexa trials here) finds us new “skills” to try all the time … i.e., new things Alexa can do.  

How is it useful, the uninitiated may ask? Well, I don’t have to find a clock (and be sure it’s got the right time and hasn’t run out of batteries!) — I just ask Alexa the time. I figure out what to pull out of the closet to wear, and whether to put on extra sun block during my walk by asking Alexa for a weather report the night before. I get a “flash news briefing” from my favorite station (she gives you your choice — CNN, Fox, CBS, PBS. and even the BBC, if you prefer your news with a high-toned accent.) I am now letting Alexa keep my personal appointment calendar to back up my written notes (which I too often mislay).

I’m happily part of a small test group using Alexa to set our thermostats — all without moving from my easy chair, mind you — and turn on (or off) a night light at the far end of the living room, just by voice command. I set alarms and timers on Alexa — just in case I doze off over the novel I’m reading. I don’t want to miss the time for my bridge game, do I? Nor leave the laundry in the dryer to get re-wrinkled because I nodded off and didn’t get it out in time. Alexa doesn’t nap and she wakes me in time to get the wash-and-wears out and onto hangers (Now if only I could train her to do that part too).

She plays my favorite music on request ... though a secondary speaker would enhance the sound the Dot can deliver. (Echo is better than the Dot on sound, and the new Show is best of all, with twin Dolby speakers ... but that’s a subject for another day.)

Most fun of all was setting up Alexa-to-Alexa messaging with two friends who also have started using this magical device. Alexa’s usual bright blue signal ring (when she has an alarm for me) shows bright greenish-yellow, and a bell rings ... and one of my friends has left me a message. Yes, we could wait ‘till we saw each other in the lobby. Yes, we could use the telephone. But there’s something so personal and private AND FUN about using Alexa. I haven’t had this much fun since we were kids and strung a wire between two tin cans and played “telephone.”

If you’re a “hold out” who says, “Who needs this complication? I do fine without it,” well yes, you do — thanks to all the help and services Carlsbad By The Sea offers us. True. But once you have accustomed yourself to saying “Alexa ... good morning” and had her cheerfully announce “Good morning. Did you know this is National Shark Week? Ask me to tell you a shark joke.” You’ll be hooked. And you’ll love it. Ask John Sanders or Chris Craig-Jones to set you up and get you started. There are Dots available through the Alexa Club. As the ad used to say “Try it ... you’ll like it.” Guaranteed.


The Amazon Alexa, a voice-activated personal assistant, has commanded the attention and excitement of consumers since its release. In collaboration with residents and staff at Carlsbad by the Sea, a Front Porch retirement community, the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing launched a pilot to explore the potential use case scenarios of this emerging innovation.

To learn more check out MIT Technology Review's recent article The Octogenarians who love Amazon's Alexa, or read our impact story on FPCIW.org.

 

5 Ways Tech Products Will Help Us Age Well

A visit to CES 2017 turned up caregiving robots and vital sign 'tattoos'

By Jim Pagliarini for Next Avenue

One of the many helpful robot prototypes at CES using voice recognition to assist humans with daily tasks

It is the year 2025 and I have just celebrated my 85th birthday. I still live at home. This afternoon, I got into my self-driving car and went to my great granddaughter’s house for a visit. She introduced me to a group of her friends over lunch and I heard every word they said. I was a part of the conversation.

Two weeks ago, I fell in the bathroom and within minutes, my son’s voice came over my watch to ask me if everything was ok. Last night, I sat in my massage chair, and asked “Alexa” to play the top musical hits from when I met my wife in college. I closed my eyes and it brought back wonderful memories.

And although I technically live alone, I have one of the greatest companions I have ever had in my life — Tina, my personal assistant robot. Life ain’t bad.


Back to 2017 now: I recently returned from the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas — the largest, electronics show in the world where the most innovative cutting-edge technology products are introduced each year. Nearly 200,000 people attended and wandered through some 2.47 million square feet of exhibit space.

I was invigorated by the energy and innovation that I saw. Whether these products will materialize or not, I applauded each one — even the “smart” hair brush which helps make those critical decisions about how to comb your hair.

While I don’t really want a hairbrush that is smarter than I am, I can note five consumer electronic trends with great potential to help us be more independent, safe, purposeful and productive as we age. Most products are not ready for prime time yet. But if you are like me — planning and thinking about how to be as vital, productive and non-burdensome as possible as our bodies and brains start to fail — these innovations and trends represent some encouraging news:

1. Put down that mouse and talk to me. Thirty months ago, voice recognition software would get one out of every four words wrong. Today, “machines” are on parity with how we hear each other as humans. Over the course of the next couple of years, expect an explosion of voice-activated things you can do — order groceries, send your son an email, turn up the heat in your home, turn on the lights when you have to go to the bathroom at night. You get the picture. Lately, much to the dismay of my spouse, I have been spending a great deal of time talking to Alexa, Amazon’s disembodied voice that lives in the company’s Echo cylinder. It is quite remarkable what she can do today, and I feel certain that Alexa will only get better.

2. Let your car do the (autonomous) driving. If you have been lucky enough to be with your parents as they age, you will know that one of the hardest things to get them to do is give up the keys to the car. The car is independence. Freedom! Well within the next decade, however, you’ll be able to keep your car, tell it where you want it to go and not have to worry about your eyesight or reflex time. It will be like having your own personal chauffeur.

3. I can hear you now. As we age, we all lose some capacity to hear and to distinguish certain sounds. One statistic I heard at CES was that the average person waits seven years before he or she does anything about a loss in hearing. Speaking from personal experience, we spent thousands of dollars on hearing aids for my parents, which they seldom wore. Why? Well, in addition to adding to what they perceived as a social stigma, hearing aids were often buggy — whistling and uncomfortable with constantly-dying batteries. And with little competition in the marketplace, the product has improved only slightly. However, a recent decision by the FDA has opened the floodgates to tech innovators who will be able to sell some amazing new products to help people cope with age-related hearing loss without going through doctors or audiologists. Even better? These products won’t break the bank in a way hearing aids can today. (For more information about hearing loss and how to treat it, please visit Next Avenue’s hearing loss guide.)

4. I am 80 and getting a tattoo. A Chinese company at CES introduced a product that looked and worked a bit like a fake tattoo (just press on your skin and peel off, leaving something looking like a tattoo) but actually functioned like a computer sensor that monitored vital signs. Reports from the “tattoo” could then be generated and sent over the Internet to medical professionals or families and caregivers. The wearable monitoring device trend was ubiquitous at CES this year.

5. My son moved out, but my robot moved in. Remember Rosie from The Jetsons? Robots resembling her were everywhere at CES this year, with companies introducing them as “babysitters” and “elder care companions.” While not yet fully realized, these first-generation companions, I predict, will be great friends to many of us as we age. (If you’re having a hard time envisioning what I mean, watch this video of a companion robot in action.)

Neither I nor Next Avenue endorse any product mentioned here. It is not what we do. What we do is hope to open doors and windows to your world for you to walk through and explore.

I am feeling pretty good about what is coming our way from a remarkable generation of innovators who are creating tools and products that will make us live fuller and more independent lives (even if they are doing it so they won’t have to take care of us)!

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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Making Communities Friendlier for Those With Dementia

That's the goal for the ambitious Dementia Friendly America initiative
By Beth Baker for Next Avenue

Volunteers pass out laminated bookmarks with the 10 signs of Alzheimer's at the local supermarketCredit: Courtesy of Paynesville (MN) ACT on Alzheimer's

Can a strong community network help ease the challenges faced by people with dementia and their families? That’s the hope of a national volunteer-driven initiative known as Dementia Friendly America (DFA).

“Our goals are to foster dementia-friendly communities that will enable people who are living with dementia and their care partners to thrive and to be independent as long as possible,” says Olivia Mastry, who’s guiding the effort. “The side benefit is that it’s beginning to normalize [Alzheimer’s], to reduce the stigma. It’s created an environment that’s allowed people to talk about this disease.”

Mastry comes to the issues from personal experience. She and her husband cared for her mother-in-law, who had dementia, the last four years of her life. “That’s given me deep context and understanding of what this takes,” she says, “The caregiver role is so big it can be made easier by an entire community coming together.”
A New Initiative

DFA next month will make live a web portal that offers communities a roadmap to create a dementia-friendly environment in many sectors of life, from churches to banks, government agencies and supermarkets.

“From a pure business perspective it makes a lot of sense for us to do this kind of work,” says Frank Fernandez of BlueCross/BlueShield Minnesota (BC/BS Minnesota), which insures many older adults. “Beyond that, the work aligns with our mission, which is to make a healthy difference in people’s lives.”

BC/BS Minnesota, one of 50 organizations on the DFA national council, is offering educational brown bag lunches to its employees and training its customer service representatives to better equip them to talk to people with dementia and their caregivers. It also contributed $750,000 to ACT on Alzheimer’s, a statewide initiative on which DFA is modeled.

Mastry adds that DFA will help communities find local funding to launch such efforts. But even without funding, she stresses, organizing can begin.

“If there is a champion in the community, you can do it,” she says. “Communities can really move this. So we’re trying to encourage them to take that first step.”

Here is a sampling of what communities around the country are doing to become dementia-friendly:

Minnesota’s first dementia-friendly canine

Credit: Courtesy of Paynesville (MN) ACT on Alzheimer's

Rural Challenge: Identify Those Who Need SupportIn 2014, Paynesville, Minn., population 2,400, launched an ambitious multi-pronged effort to reach out to an estimated 200 local people who have dementia. “The most difficult challenge we have is finding the people,” says Linda Musel, co-chair of Paynesville Area ACT on Alzheimer’s.

They began by surveying residents. “We went to every faction we could think of — bankers, lawyers, caretakers, government, teenagers — and we surveyed them,” says Musel. Some 90 people showed up at their first organizing event, a big turnout for a small town. The group decided to focus on educating the public and assisting caregivers.

They offer a class called “Dementia Friends,” which helps people overcome their fears and uncertainty about communicating with folks who have dementia. They also provide classes to emergency medical personnel and firefighters, who requested specialized training.

To reach young people, the group purchases relevant books for school libraries and teaches classes at the high school.

“We were surprised in our survey that the teens said, ‘That’s my grandma. Mom and Dad whisper about this, but they don’t tell us what’s going on.’ They want to help too,” Musel says.

Advocates also faithfully go to the town’s only supermarket on Wednesdays: senior discount day. They assist with shopping to relieve caregivers and pass out literature, including bookmarks with the 10 signs of Alzheimer’s, and let people know how to find support.

For their part, local ministers organized an Alzheimer’s Awareness Sunday. Caregivers often feel their loved one is not welcome at church, Musel says, and part of their educational effort is simply to remind people to smile and be welcoming.

Denver: Entrepreneurs Develop Technology for Connecting

One unusual dementia-friendly initiative is in Denver, Colo., led by Amanda Cavaleri, 27. Denver is one of DFA’s pilot communities, along with Tempe, Ariz.; Santa Clara County, Calif.; Prince George’s County, Md.; Knoxville, Tenn. and the state of West Virginia.

Cavaleri (see her TED Talk), whose expertise is new technology for older adults, has brought together key players who are interested in dementia-friendly efforts: Prime Health, made up of 1,000 health care administrators, physicians, entrepreneurs, investors, technologists and academics; the Colorado Technology Association; Catalyst, a digital health consortium; Jiminy Wicket, which promotes intergenerational croquet for people with dementia and Cavaleri’s nonprofit Connect the Ages, an intergenerational digital storytelling program.

“We wanted to see if there was interest from the entrepreneurial community and there was,” she says, including many who had family experience with dementia. “We chose to focus on the ‘extreme user’ — someone who is home alone, with dementia.”

Such individuals face many challenges, she explains — changes in depth perception, vision and cognition.

“We’re trying to figure out how we can help entrepreneurs so they can partner with home health organizations or communities,” says Cavaleri. “How can they receive funding and help them be successful and lower health care costs and improve quality of life?.”

Cavaleri works to create opportunities for elders, including those with dementia, to tell their stories. “Reminiscing is a really good tool to help people with dementia feel safe emotionally and have more stable behaviors,” she says.

Students meet face to face with people in retirement communities who have dementia, and capture their oral histories. Another pilot project that engages students is the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

Cavaleri hopes DFA will eventually spark monthly coffee shop gatherings where caregivers, people with dementia and students can go to interact with each other, to participate in storytelling and reminiscing.

“We’re able to pass down these older adults’ knowledge and experience,” she says. “For both older and younger, it’s an avenue to systemically reducing isolation and building purpose — and hopefully attract some young talent for the longevity workforce.”

West Virginia – Statewide Pilot

Of DFA’s initial pilot programs, West Virginia is the only statewide initiative. “As I learned more about the work in Minnesota and the experiences with the medical community, it seemed like a natural fit for West Virginia,” says Helen Matheny, with the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute in Morgantown, who is leading the effort.

The initiative builds on partnerships already in place with AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association and other groups related to senior care and healthy lifestyles, she says. Phase one will be to raise awareness statewide and build capacity for doing dementia-friendly work in many sectors. In 2016, they hope to begin implementing programs in local communities.

“First we’re going to educate our citizens about the prevalence and the economic impact of dementia,” she says. “In addition we’re going to target four specific areas: faith communities, legal and financial services, businesses and emergency response personnel.”

They also will use social media to connect people with local resources.

“The idea is not to reinvent the wheel,” Matheny says. “We have a lot of resources readily available, so we want to be a convener and help facilitate getting residents to the right resources and tools that they need.”



© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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Summer House residential memory care communities introduce PARO robot therapy

Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing Releases Results of Largest  

Effective Use Study of PARO to Date

Glendale, Calif. March 23, 2016 – Front Porch today announced results of a six-month use study of the therapeutic, socially assistive pet robot PARO (www.parorobots.com) with

residents at Summer House memory care neighborhoods within seven Front Porch retirement communities in California. The study demonstrates the efficacy of PARO and its benefits to residents. PARO, a therapy robot created in the likeness of a baby harp seal, was invented by Japanese engineer at AIST and MIT AgeLab research fellow Dr. Takanori Shibata after years of research. Socially assistive robotics is a growing area for geriatric research, including dementia and memory care.

“Front Porch has been using PARO very effectively at their Summer House memory care neighborhoods,” Shibata said. “Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing documented 920 instances of PARO intervention and the resulting therapeutic effects on older adults with dementia. This is the largest quantitative evaluation of PARO so far and the outcomes show the benefits of PARO for improving the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia and reducing the usage of psychotropic medications.”



The study data demonstrated positive impact among the residents; specifically, PARO:

• Produced calming effects for residents, in 46% of wandering and 60% of anxious behaviors

• Helped increase social behavior by 97% among isolated adults 

• Helped 153 out of 193 residents (79%) stay alert from initially sleepy behavior, resulting in improved moods, socialization, and appetite

• Was used to avoid psychotropic medications in 61% of cases when medications were considered 

“We continue to be astounded by the impact on mood, social interaction and communication,” said Davis Park, director of the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing (FPCIW) who led the six-month study at Summer House memory care neighborhoods at seven Front Porch retirement communities in California: Claremont Manor in Claremont, Fredericka Manor in Chula Vista, Sunny View in Cupertino, Vista del Monte in Santa Barbara, Villa Gardens in Pasadena, Walnut Village in Anaheim and Wesley Palms in San Diego. During the six-month study period, the FPCIW organized training sessions for caregivers and therapists to understand and utilize PARO. Staff used tracking surveys for every resident and corresponding intervention, and, as a result, collected 920 tracking surveys.


"Front Porch is exploring creative solutions to address needs for which we currently don’t have an easy solution: agitation in the middle of the night, sundowning, engaging withdrawn or isolated residents," said Kari Olson, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer, Front Porch and President, Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing. “PARO is one example of our continuing efforts to work with thought leaders and implement various modalities to bring greater wellness and quality of life to our residents based on leading edge innovations in the areas of adaptive technology, music therapy, telehealth and more.”



About PARO

PARO is a therapeutic, socially assistive pet-type robot with an appearance of a baby harp seal, as people are generally interested in interacting with robots modeled after non-familiar animals. Equipped with different kinds of sensors, including tactile, light, audition, temperature, and posture, it can respond to different stimulations given by the users, or recognize the direction of voice from them. PARO was designed by Dr. Takanori Shibata, and has been used with positive and promising results since 2003 in many countries including Japan, Denmark, Canada, Italy, and the United States. PARO is certified as a type of neurological therapeutic device by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and includes a caregiver’s manual for robot therapy to achieve effective therapy.



About Front Porch

Front Porch is a not-for-profit ‘human serving’ organization based in Glendale, California, that serves individuals and families through full-service retirement, active adult communities, affordable housing communities and related management and development services. Front Porch retirement and active adult communities offer options ranging from independent living to skilled care, including assisted living and memory care. Founded in 1999, Front Porch embraces a leading-edge approach to enhance wellbeing with innovative communities and programs that meet the changing needs of people as they age. Front Porch serves more than 2,000 people in 10 full-service retirement communities in California and two adult living communities: one in Louisiana and one in Florida. Summer House memory care neighborhoods are located in seven Front Porch retirement communities in California.



The Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing is part of Front Porch, and strives to harness technology solutions that support and enhance wellbeing in older adults. Core initiatives focus on how technology can: assist in maintaining brain health; enhance social connectedness; promote engagement and growth; empower control over health and wellness; prevent emergencies or serious events; and increase resources and support for formal and informal caregivers. It is the winner of the Bronze Award for the Dignity category in the 2015 McKnight’s Technology Awards and the Aging 2.0 Pilot Pioneers 2015 Innovation Award. More information can be found at www.fpciw.org.

Front Porch and Intel-GE Care Innovation Partner Up to Put Telehealth to the Test

by Cassandra Dowell  

Telehealth holds promise as a way for seniors to receive medical evaluations and interventions from the comfort of their own home — including in senior living communities — through technologies such as video and wearable sensors.

Providers see telemedicine as a way to potentially avoid hospital admissions and improve residents’ well-being. But with the technology still in its early stages, some operators wonder: Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

Senior living operator Front Porch is embarking on a pilot with Intel-GE Care Innovations to find out.

Read article in full at SeniorHousingNews.com

Watts Project Keeps Sunny View on the Cutting Edge of Technology

With the generosity of residents Lyn and Bruce Watts, Sunny View Retirement Community has launched the “Watts Project” to help with resident care through innovation and technology.

This project brings new technology along with training for Sunny View staff and was inspired by a pilot project in partnership with the Front Porch Center for Innovationand Wellbeing and Intel.

The pilot provided Sunny View staff members with 10 Microsoft Surface tablets to use in their daily duties. Intel and the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing implemented the study to analyze how technology can help increase staff productivity. At the conclusion of the study Sunny View was able to keep four tablets.

“Four Surface tablets just didn’t seem to be enough to get the work done,” Bruce said. “I wanted to make sure the staff had enough equipment to ensure we had the best care available.” With the Watts’ contribution, Sunny View will purchase seven additional tablets. The Watts will also contribute additional funds each year to help keep this project funded into the future. Whether it’s new technology or more training for staff, the Watts Project will keep Sunny View at the cutting edge of resident care.

“I am extremely excited about the Watts Project,” said Sunny View Executive Director Sally Plank. “We learned a lot from the study. Putting technology into the hands of our staff helps us understand how it streamlines some of our processes and motivates our staff to implement new ideas.”