To Make Change Happen, Tell a Good Story

The best strategy executives can adopt when seeking to accomplish companywide change is to share insightful stories with employees that will help them truly understand the initiative, says Duke Energy CEO James Rogers. And this doesn’t accomplish just intellectual understanding, Rogers adds. It achieves an emotional understanding that is critical to success.

Senior living executives, frontline [...]

iPod Therapy Connects Residents
and Caregivers

Donated iPods provide residents in the Bronx, New York, with customized playlists – part of a life-enhancing music therapy program that is also helping caregivers connect with residents. ALFA Update reports on this next week.
A video report by The Wall Street Journal documents how residents with advanced dementia are benefiting from the music therapy program [...]

National Recognition for the Best
in Senior Living

The 2010 ALFA Hero Awards and Best of the Best Awards programs are now accepting nominations. Here are the details you need to get your company and staff the recognition they deserve.
ALFA Hero Awards
Five awards are presented in all for extraordinary service and dedication to operational excellence in senior living. The categories are Executive Director, [...]

Honoring Seniors Who Served

A video report by CNN.com looks at Honor Flight, an organization that provides WWII veterans with free flights to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. Many WWII veterans are residents of senior living communities – could Honor Flight benefit a resident at your community?
Honor Flight is the brainchild of Earl Morse, a [...]

When Alzheimer’s Affects a Marriage

The latest issue of ALFA Update features a video report by The Wall Street Journal that looks at the challenges spouses of individuals with Alzheimer’s must face, particularly as they try to cope with loneliness.
Alicia Mundy, reporter for The Journal, comments on various interviews the newspaper has conducted with psychologists, members of the clergy, and family members [...]

No Place for Union Strikes in
Senior Living

Posted by Paul Williams
Senior Director of Government Relations, ALFA
On Tuesday, the largest transportation union in Philadelphia went on strike over wage, pension, and health-care issues. As a result, thousands of citizens who rely on Philadelphia’s buses, subways, and trolleys were forced to find alternative transportation, and many were unable to do so. For many of [...]

President Proclaims November Alzheimer’s Awareness Month

November has been proclaimed National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month by President Obama, who calls for a renewed commitment to research and treatment. Yesterday’s ALFA Update reported on the president’s official proclamation, which notes that research conducted and supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Veterans Health Administration has shed light on the early effects [...]

Seniors Head to the Polls on Election Day, With Assistance

Often referred to as the largest block of reliable voters, seniors will head to the polls tomorrow for municipal elections in several U.S. cities and gubernatorial and state legislature elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Senior living providers often play a major role in helping residents access the polls, with many communities serving as polling [...]