We had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Susan Wehry, Chief of Geriatric Division of Primary Care for the School of Osteopathic Medicine at University of New England prior to her presentation at The Cedars Annual Meeting on May 2. It’s an interesting time with so few people going into geriatric medicine and the number of older adults rising every day. What is your goal and vision in your role at UNE? Whether future physicians want to go into geriatric medicine or not, they are going to be treating a lot of older adults because that’s who’s here. They’ll be working with older adults in orthopedics, primary care, gastroenterology, or even pediatrics – since many grandparents will be caring for their grandchildren. My goal isn’t to create more geriatricians – that situation will take care of itself. Rather, my goal is to ensure that tomorrow’s physicians will know how...
“We experience a deeper connection to events in our lives that we associate with music,” says Nick Viti, OTR/L, Manager of Life Enrichment at The Cedars. “Certain songs conjure up very rich and specific memories. For anyone experiencing memory loss, music is a powerful tool.” Thanks to a generous new grant from the nonprofit group Music and MemorySM, The Cedars has exciting new ways to use the power of music to help residents preserve and protect their memory, calm or uplift their emotions and enrich their lives. The Cedars received the entire Music and MemorySM program, an assortment of iPod shuffles, headphones and music downloads as part of the grant. Staff are working with families and loved ones to craft customized playlists for each resident, and to choose music connected with events in each resident’s life story. “Do you ever turn up the radio on your way to work...
When Nancy Meyer arrives at the Osher Inn at The Cedars Retirement Community, she unpacks watercolor paints, brushes and paper. Eager hands await the materials, ready to get to work adding color and personal flair to the watercolor paper. Teaching and facilitating watercolor painting with seniors has had a great effect on Meyer, a New York native who now calls Baldwin home. “It’s so rewarding,” said Meyer. And the Osher residents love it, her many loyal attendants wouldn’t miss her class. Nancy focuses on nature in her watercolor sessions, bringing pieces of the natural world inside especially for those who are unable to go out-of-doors. It may be apple blossoms, flowers or pumpkins. These special still-life subjects are sure to bring smiles, said Meyer. “I learn from them,” she said, of her students. Some smile, paint and have a great time. Others are slowed down by the details. Others...
Posted in our blog on by Katharine& filed under Atrium, Featured.
Thinking about a move for you or a loved one to a retirement community? Although approaching this transition can seem overwhelming, our members at The Atrium at The Cedars have told us that it was one of the best decisions they have ever made for themselves. And their reasons are as much practical as they are personal. We find that our new members are either moving from the home that they have lived in for years or from a residence to which they’ve already downsized. Some members have moved from out of state to be near their adult children and others had lived in Maine for much of their lives. In either case, the benefits of living in a retirement community, from our members’ perspectives, are plentiful. Freedom from Managing a Home which means no further worries about maintaining a home, managing the upkeep, or even changing a light bulb. ...
Melanie Desjardins, MSW, Household Coordinator on the Shapiro Neighborhood at The Cedars Personal visits can make a big difference for loved ones who live at The Cedars. Although our Life Enrichment Department offers several activities, arriving with a planned activity can make your visit more pleasant and meaningful for both you and your loved one. Here are some creative things to do while visiting: Bring photos of family and friends from days gone by and/or recent photos of their house or hometown. Help your loved one write letters or send cards to people. Together, start to create a photo album, framed photograph collection or a poster to hang in their room. Cook your favorite family meal together in our Life Enrichment kitchen. Create a life story to frame for all staff to see. Write about the great life of your loved one! Play word and...
Posted in our blog on by Katharine& filed under Atrium, Featured.
When starting the search for a senior community for either yourself or your parent or loved one, first impressions are key to finding the best fit. Here are some tips to keep in mind when making your initial visits. 1. Do you like the community’s location and outward appearance? Is the community convenient to restaurants, shops, symphony, theater, physicians, hospitals and pharmacies? Does it connect you to opportunities beyond the campus that allow for enjoyment of a larger community? Are the grounds and building well maintained, with plenty of gardens and walking trails? 2. Are you welcomed with a warm greeting from the staff? And does the staff address residents by their names, interacting with them during the tour? Is it easy to connect with both the residents and the staff? You want to make sure that the staff not only provides excellent services, but also gets involved with the residents and...
“We let families visit whenever they want. All they have to do is ring the doorbell, just like home.” —HANNAH TEMPLE, RN, The Skilled Care Center at The Cedars THE CEDARS is a bright and bustling place during the day, but the compassionate care and sense of community don’t stop when the sun goes down. In fact, they don’t even slow down. It gets quieter, but The Cedars still hums with activity after dark. “Part of creating a homelike environment is letting residents and patients create their own schedules,” explains Hannah Temple, RN, Evening Shift Supervisor. “We have early risers and we have night owls—and we take the very best care of both.” EVENING SHIFT An admitted night owl herself, Hannah has always loved working evening shift. Hannah and her team begin working at 3PM, helping residents get ready for dinner, socialize in the evening and prepare for bed....
At The Sam L. Cohen Rehabilitation Center at The Cedars, we have over 40 physical, occupational and speech therapists that provide rehabilitative therapy to our short term patients, long term residents, and outpatients living in the Portland area. Brian DesPres, Director of Rehabilitation at The Cedars and an occupational therapist Himself, describes the role of an OT as restoring balance in the patient’s life by helping patients return to their optimal level of functioning in self-care. Balance in self-care is a combination of caring for our bodies through bathing, dressing and grooming, and as well as through the reintegration of leisure activities into our lives. During the initial evaluation with patients, the OT asks about prior level and immediately starts to problem solve in order to get that patient home safely. The therapy goals are often achieved through purposeful activities where the OT incorporates basic tasks with strengthening, fine motor or balance...
“To make The Skilled Care Center truly feel like home, we have to know what ‘home’ means to each person … we want to recreate their world as mush as possible.” – Nick Viti THE CEDARS holistic approach to skilled care nurtures mental and spiritual well being, not just physical health. Embracing person-centered care and transforming nursing wings into close-knit, thriving “neighborhoods” is one way The Cedars achieves this level of holistic wellness. Our Life Enrichment programming is another. Our Life Enrichment team engages residents in rich and meaningful activities while fostering a true sense of community. Nick Viti, an occupational therapist, is thrilled to have the opportunity to lead it. As our new Manager of Life Enrichment, Nick provides one-on-one occupational therapy to residents while creating and customizing programming to reinforce and enhance that therapy. “Because I’m in the therapy gym with residents, I know their strengths and...
Are you anticipating a short-term, inpatient rehabilitation stay in the near future? If so, The Cedars Rehabilitation Team would like to provide you with some insight into the experience. As patients enter the rehabilitation process, we recognize that they are not feeling as “whole” as they had been; they’re suffering a loss of health and may be uncertain about putting trust into the rehabilitation team. This key team consists of physical, occupational and speech therapists, nursing staff, dietician, physician and care coordinators who are all there to assess your needs and arrange a treatment plan with you. The medical staff largely focuses your medical issues – the reason you were admitted to the hospital. While the therapists concentrate on helping you get back to “doing.” Sometimes returning to your prior level of activity comes in phases where you need to learn compensatory strategies during an interim period. For instance,...
We had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Susan Wehry, Chief of Geriatric Division of Primary Care for the School of Osteopathic Medicine at University of New England prior to her presentation at The Cedars Annual Meeting on May 2. It’s an interesting time with so few people going into geriatric medicine and the number of older adults rising every day. What is your goal and vision in your role at UNE? Whether future physicians want to go into geriatric medicine or not, they are going to be treating a lot of older adults because that’s who’s here. They’ll be working with older adults in orthopedics, primary care, gastroenterology, or even pediatrics – since many grandparents will be caring for their grandchildren. My goal isn’t to create more geriatricians – that situation will take care of itself. Rather, my goal is to ensure that tomorrow’s physicians will know how...
“We experience a deeper connection to events in our lives that we associate with music,” says Nick Viti, OTR/L, Manager of Life Enrichment at The Cedars. “Certain songs conjure up very rich and specific memories. For anyone experiencing memory loss, music is a powerful tool.” Thanks to a generous new grant from the nonprofit group Music and MemorySM, The Cedars has exciting new ways to use the power of music to help residents preserve and protect their memory, calm or uplift their emotions and enrich their lives. The Cedars received the entire Music and MemorySM program, an assortment of iPod shuffles, headphones and music downloads as part of the grant. Staff are working with families and loved ones to craft customized playlists for each resident, and to choose music connected with events in each resident’s life story. “Do you ever turn up the radio on your way to work...
When Nancy Meyer arrives at the Osher Inn at The Cedars Retirement Community, she unpacks watercolor paints, brushes and paper. Eager hands await the materials, ready to get to work adding color and personal flair to the watercolor paper. Teaching and facilitating watercolor painting with seniors has had a great effect on Meyer, a New York native who now calls Baldwin home. “It’s so rewarding,” said Meyer. And the Osher residents love it, her many loyal attendants wouldn’t miss her class. Nancy focuses on nature in her watercolor sessions, bringing pieces of the natural world inside especially for those who are unable to go out-of-doors. It may be apple blossoms, flowers or pumpkins. These special still-life subjects are sure to bring smiles, said Meyer. “I learn from them,” she said, of her students. Some smile, paint and have a great time. Others are slowed down by the details. Others...
Thinking about a move for you or a loved one to a retirement community? Although approaching this transition can seem overwhelming, our members at The Atrium at The Cedars have told us that it was one of the best decisions they have ever made for themselves. And their reasons are as much practical as they are personal. We find that our new members are either moving from the home that they have lived in for years or from a residence to which they’ve already downsized. Some members have moved from out of state to be near their adult children and others had lived in Maine for much of their lives. In either case, the benefits of living in a retirement community, from our members’ perspectives, are plentiful. Freedom from Managing a Home which means no further worries about maintaining a home, managing the upkeep, or even changing a light bulb. ...
Melanie Desjardins, MSW, Household Coordinator on the Shapiro Neighborhood at The Cedars Personal visits can make a big difference for loved ones who live at The Cedars. Although our Life Enrichment Department offers several activities, arriving with a planned activity can make your visit more pleasant and meaningful for both you and your loved one. Here are some creative things to do while visiting: Bring photos of family and friends from days gone by and/or recent photos of their house or hometown. Help your loved one write letters or send cards to people. Together, start to create a photo album, framed photograph collection or a poster to hang in their room. Cook your favorite family meal together in our Life Enrichment kitchen. Create a life story to frame for all staff to see. Write about the great life of your loved one! Play word and...
When starting the search for a senior community for either yourself or your parent or loved one, first impressions are key to finding the best fit. Here are some tips to keep in mind when making your initial visits. 1. Do you like the community’s location and outward appearance? Is the community convenient to restaurants, shops, symphony, theater, physicians, hospitals and pharmacies? Does it connect you to opportunities beyond the campus that allow for enjoyment of a larger community? Are the grounds and building well maintained, with plenty of gardens and walking trails? 2. Are you welcomed with a warm greeting from the staff? And does the staff address residents by their names, interacting with them during the tour? Is it easy to connect with both the residents and the staff? You want to make sure that the staff not only provides excellent services, but also gets involved with the residents and...
“We let families visit whenever they want. All they have to do is ring the doorbell, just like home.” —HANNAH TEMPLE, RN, The Skilled Care Center at The Cedars THE CEDARS is a bright and bustling place during the day, but the compassionate care and sense of community don’t stop when the sun goes down. In fact, they don’t even slow down. It gets quieter, but The Cedars still hums with activity after dark. “Part of creating a homelike environment is letting residents and patients create their own schedules,” explains Hannah Temple, RN, Evening Shift Supervisor. “We have early risers and we have night owls—and we take the very best care of both.” EVENING SHIFT An admitted night owl herself, Hannah has always loved working evening shift. Hannah and her team begin working at 3PM, helping residents get ready for dinner, socialize in the evening and prepare for bed....
At The Sam L. Cohen Rehabilitation Center at The Cedars, we have over 40 physical, occupational and speech therapists that provide rehabilitative therapy to our short term patients, long term residents, and outpatients living in the Portland area. Brian DesPres, Director of Rehabilitation at The Cedars and an occupational therapist Himself, describes the role of an OT as restoring balance in the patient’s life by helping patients return to their optimal level of functioning in self-care. Balance in self-care is a combination of caring for our bodies through bathing, dressing and grooming, and as well as through the reintegration of leisure activities into our lives. During the initial evaluation with patients, the OT asks about prior level and immediately starts to problem solve in order to get that patient home safely. The therapy goals are often achieved through purposeful activities where the OT incorporates basic tasks with strengthening, fine motor or balance...
“To make The Skilled Care Center truly feel like home, we have to know what ‘home’ means to each person … we want to recreate their world as mush as possible.” – Nick Viti THE CEDARS holistic approach to skilled care nurtures mental and spiritual well being, not just physical health. Embracing person-centered care and transforming nursing wings into close-knit, thriving “neighborhoods” is one way The Cedars achieves this level of holistic wellness. Our Life Enrichment programming is another. Our Life Enrichment team engages residents in rich and meaningful activities while fostering a true sense of community. Nick Viti, an occupational therapist, is thrilled to have the opportunity to lead it. As our new Manager of Life Enrichment, Nick provides one-on-one occupational therapy to residents while creating and customizing programming to reinforce and enhance that therapy. “Because I’m in the therapy gym with residents, I know their strengths and...
Are you anticipating a short-term, inpatient rehabilitation stay in the near future? If so, The Cedars Rehabilitation Team would like to provide you with some insight into the experience. As patients enter the rehabilitation process, we recognize that they are not feeling as “whole” as they had been; they’re suffering a loss of health and may be uncertain about putting trust into the rehabilitation team. This key team consists of physical, occupational and speech therapists, nursing staff, dietician, physician and care coordinators who are all there to assess your needs and arrange a treatment plan with you. The medical staff largely focuses your medical issues – the reason you were admitted to the hospital. While the therapists concentrate on helping you get back to “doing.” Sometimes returning to your prior level of activity comes in phases where you need to learn compensatory strategies during an interim period. For instance,...