October 30, 2019

Fighting ageism and shifting the mindset about aging among the general public are two of the goals Carol Silver Elliott outlined for LeadingAge members as she was introduced Tuesday as the incoming chair of the organization’s board of directors.

Elliott, who is president and CEO of the Jewish Home Family, Rockleigh, NJ, will begin her term in January.

The general public’s current mindset about aging, she told those attending a general session at the LeadingAge annual meeting, is that aging is a healthcare issue rather than a societal issue. 

Todd Murch, president and CEO of Eskaton, Carmichael, CA, will join the board.

October 17, 2019

The East Bay’s only Jewish retirement residential community, Danville’s The Reutlinger Community (TRC), has announced its official affiliation with regionally-based senior living nonprofit Eskaton, a move that may allow the Danville community to expand its services throughout the Bay Area.

Officials from both agencies say that the affiliation will enable TRC to update its infrastructure and services to its current residents, while still preserving TRC’s Jewish heritage, values and ideals.

“Our main goal is to improve the lives of seniors in our care throughout Northern California. This agreement is another step forward for us,” Eskaton president and CEO Todd Murch said in a statement. “We never had reservations about the financial, care quality and religious stipulations from the community. Everything Reutlinger communicated as a priority has become a necessity for Eskaton as well.”

October 16, 2019

Carmichael-based Eskaton Properties Inc. is poised to continue its expansion into the Bay Area with a new $5 million deal with The Reutlinger Community.

With 29 locations, Eskaton is one of the largest operators of senior living, memory care, and skilled nursing sites in Northern California. The nonprofit said in March that it was entering into an affiliation agreement with The Reutlinger Community, a 180-unit senior housing facility in Danville.

The two organizations have signed and sent a formal affiliation agreement to the California Attorney General’s office, said Eskaton CEO Todd Murch, which will have to sign off on the agreement. The agreement will see The Reutlinger Community become a subsidiary under Eskaton, Murch said. 

August 22, 2019

All of the companies included in this year’s Best Workplaces for Aging Services list share one thing in common: one way or another, they built a winning culture.

The list, released Thursday, ranked the top 50 companies for employee satisfaction for both large and small-to-medium senior housing and care companies. Some notable names on this year’s rankings included Brightview Senior Living, Vi, Merrill Gardens, Senior Star, Sunrise Senior Living, HumanGood, Holiday Retirement, Benchmark Senior Living, Belmont Village Senior Living and Silverado.

Here is what top executives from some of the senior housing honorees shared about how they hire, build a winning culture and invest in their workers.

August 22, 2019

Caregivers and patients often form bonds that resemble familial connections. The most exemplary of organizations that facilitate caregiving extend this feeling to interpersonal relationships among colleagues, too. To tally the second annual Best Workplaces in Aging Services list, Fortune research partner Great Place to Work analyzed survey results from more than 223,000 employees working in the at-home care and senior housing sectors of the aging services industry. Read more.

June 18, 2019

Eskaton, a nonprofit community-based organization believes in the importance of aging well and enhancing the lives of older adults through innovative approaches to health and wellness. Recently, Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks retrofitted its occupational therapy room with a new piece of rehabilitation equipment—a Chrysler PT Cruiser.

“There are several physical skills that a person may need to relearn through practice after experiencing an illness or injury,” said John Mueggenburg, rehabilitation program manager at Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks. “Getting in and out of a vehicle is one of these skills.” After someone leaves the hospital and enters skilled nursing, physical therapy helps the person recover, and sometimes finding new ways to complete everyday tasks is necessary. Read more.

June 14, 2019

The Golden State is about to get a lot older.

By 2030, the 60-and-over population will be 40 percent larger than it is now, according to the California Department of Aging. Seniors will be a larger share of the population than kids under the age of 18 by 2036, the state projects.

The number of Californians 80 and older will grow by about 65 percent, or about 960,000, in the next 10 years, a growth rate more than 10 times faster than the projected rate for the rest of the state, according to the Department of Finance. There will be twice as many Californians 80 and older in 2033 as there are today and three times as many in 2043, the state projects.

FRAGMENTATION
Karen Robison, 81, and Karl Bucholz, 82, moved to Sacramento from Milwaukee in 2009. Bucholz was a “reluctant recruit.” He wanted to age in place rather than move into Eskaton Village Carmichael, the continuing care retirement community where the couple now live.

“My husband is a very competent guy and really felt he could be up on an extension ladder cleaning gutters on the second floor,” Robison said. “I felt that after age 70 men did not belong on ladders.”

When the couple came to visit the facility, Bucholz found he liked the fitness programs, transportation services, meals, different levels of care to meet all needs and maintenance crews available to take care of issues like changing light bulbs. Read more.

June 10, 2019

Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks recently retrofitted its occupational therapy room with a new piece of rehabilitation equipment – a Chrysler PT Cruiser, it announces in a media release.

“There are several physical skills that a person may need to relearn through practice after experiencing an illness or injury,” says John Mueggenburg, rehabilitation program manager at Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks. “Getting in and out of a vehicle is one of these skills.”

After someone leaves the hospital and enters skilled nursing, physical therapy helps the person recover, and sometimes finding new ways to complete everyday tasks is necessary.

“Eventually, a patient will need to get in a vehicle and be transported home,” adds Mueggenburg, an occupational therapist, in the release. Read more.

June 7, 2019

Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks recently retrofitted its occupational therapy room with a new piece of rehabilitation equipment – a Chrysler PT Cruiser, it announces in a media release.

“There are several physical skills that a person may need to relearn through practice after experiencing an illness or injury,”; says John Mueggenburg, rehabilitation program manager at Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks. “Getting in and out of a vehicle is one of these skills.”

After someone leaves the hospital and enters skilled nursing, physical therapy helps the person recover, and sometimes finding new ways to complete everyday tasks is necessary.

“Eventually, a patient will need to get in a vehicle and be transported home,” adds Mueggenburg, an occupational therapist, in the release. Read more.

June 6, 2019

Eskaton, a nonprofit community-based organization believes in the importance of aging well and enhancing the lives of older adults through innovative approaches to health and wellness. Recently, Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks retrofitted its occupational therapy room with a new piece of rehabilitation equipment – a Chrysler PT Cruiser.

“There are several physical skills that a person may need to relearn through practice after experiencing an illness or injury,” said John Mueggenburg, rehabilitation program manager at Eskaton Care Center Fair Oaks, “Getting in and out of a vehicle is one of these skills.” After someone leaves the hospital and enters skilled nursing, physical therapy helps the person recover, and sometimes finding new ways to complete everyday tasks is necessary.

“Eventually a patient will need to get in a vehicle and be transported home,” said Mueggenburg, an occupational therapist. Eight years before it became a reality, Mueggenburg envisioned this vehicle. He worked closely with Eskaton’s project manager Summer Dales and a local mechanic Greg Sahr of Rock and Road in Loomis, California. Sahr designed a system that allowed a car to lift to specified heights that mimic different makes and models of vehicles. Read more.

May 16, 2019

Earlier this month, Eskaton Village Roseville became the first senior living provider in California to offer Amazon Alexa to all its residents in one community.

The new voice-first enhancements reach 100 seniors in assisted living and are built on the community’s existing Smart Home capabilities. Residents can use them to turn lights on and off, adjust their thermostat, call the front desk, and ask for the events of the day.

Eskaton, a nonprofit senior living organization based in Sacramento, partnered on the project with K4Connect, a mission-centered technology company. K4Connect first deployed Smart Home, Smart Wellness, and Smart Living capabilities in Roseville starting early last year. Read more.

May 7, 2019

A newer piece of technology is helping senior citizens keep their independence. The small device is helping the elderly in a big way.

Joyce Lynch, 92, is a resident at the Eskaton Village Roseville, a non-profit senior-based living community.

“My children keep thinking I should join the 21st century, and I think Alexa has made it possible,” Lynch said. “She’s really great, she tells me what time of day it is.”

Eskaton Roseville is the first assisted living community in California to provide every resident with an Amazon Echo, thanks to a partnership with K4Connect, a technology company that works to empower older adults.

“We actually started about a year ago testing out home automation, and residents right away told us, ‘we would like to control this with our voice,’” said Sheri Peifer, the Chief Strategy Officer for Eskaton.

The voice command tool was installed in all rooms about four weeks ago and helps residents play their favorite music, hear the menu for the day and news headlines, and in an emergency, Alexa can also contact the front desk.

“I don’t know if it’s lazy or old age or… hahaha… it’s convenient!” Lynch said.

For Lynch, who now lives alone, Alexa also serves as a companion.

“After having a family of five children, it’s peaceful and quiet but I do have a friend here,” she said.

Eskaton said they plan to use Amazon voice across all of their residential living communities. Watch news video.

May 6, 2019

Eskaton, a nonprofit Sacramento-based senior living organization, and K4Connect, a mission-centered technology company, announced an expanded partnership to bring voice assistance to all residents living at Eskaton Village Roseville. Eskaton is the first senior living provider in California to offer the Amazon Alexa to all its residents in one community.

“Eskaton believes in creating adaptive living environments that empower the independence and well-being of all residents regardless of age and ability,” said Sheri Peifer, chief strategy officer. For Eskaton, the integration of voice control means transforming the way we interact with our environment.

“Eskaton believes an environment should be livable at any age and we are leveraging voice-first technology to achieve that goal,” said Peifer. The new voice-first enhancements are built upon existing Smart Home capabilities at Eskaton Village Roseville that enable residents to turn on and off lights, adjust their thermostat, call the front desk and ask for the events of the day. Read more.

April 9, 2019

Around 2006, Marika Beck was visiting her grandmother in Tuscon, Arizona. While there, the current English teacher at Sierra Academy of Expeditionary of Learning noticed something about many elderly: they were disconnected from others.

“I just felt like there’s this whole group of people who have lived these incredible lives and are essentially housed away,” said Beck.

In February, 17 groups of 44 students were paired with about 20 senior citizens at Eskaton Village, a Grass Valley retirement community. In May, the students will produce 17 mini-documentaries, in addition to several written pieces, about their experiences with elders. Read more.