Membership News
“The stormy winter’s come at last, With snow and rain and bitter blast; Ponds and brooks are frozen o’er, We cannot sail there anymore”
–Louisa May Alcott
2020 is coming to a close and I know many of us are saying GOOD. There are so many emotions that can describe this year. Words like confusion, fear, loss, challenge, success, unity, strength. I know that many of us, if not all, have experienced these emotions and more at one time or another these past months. But what has impressed all of us at Mass-ALA is how you rose above the tough emotions and worked so hard to get to the positive ones. You said BRING IT and showed us how ready you were to tackle whatever 2020 threw at us. Except Murder Hornets . . . I don’t think any of us expected Murder Hornets. When I first started working in member services my supervisor, a very wise man, told me you MUST say thank you at least seven times to your members, so just in case we haven’t said it, THANK YOU times seven for the strength, innovation and adaptability you have shown us!!!!!!
This pandemic has changed how the assisted living industry conducts business and Mass-ALA has worked closely with the state departments of EOEA, DPH and EOHHS to advocate on behalf of ALL assisted living communities in our state. We have also worked to provide you with priority access for PPE supplies including timely updates on where these supplies can be obtained. All of the information we have developed and sent to our members can be found here.
In the last edition of The Voice, I told you that I was going to Cedarbrook Village at Ware’s, grand, socially distant, opening celebration. They held a Dash and Dine event that included a delicious lasagna dinner for two that included salad, bread and cannoli’s and a bottle of wine! Cedarbrook Village offers independent living, assisted living and memory care options. It is a truly beautiful community and I was excited to see it first-hand. Here are just a few photos of this brand-new assisted living community.
At a recent Regional Connection meeting we heard some wonderful stories of how executive directors are recognizing and thanking their staff members for working so hard throughout the state of emergency. I’d like to share some of them with you:
- For CNA week Shannon Connell, Executive Director of the White Oak Cottages community had lawn signs made saying “An Awesome CNA Lives Here” and then she personally drove around late in the evening and put them on the lawns of her CNAs with balloons so that when the staff members woke up in the morning they would have a happy surprise.
- Devon Sicard, RN, Executive Director of Bridges by EPOCH Pembroke, is holding an annual turkey toss on the community’s front lawn. They literally throw a frozen turkey as far as they can to win a gift card prior to the holiday. Devon says it is a great team morale booster and we are looking forward to photos of this fun event.
And speaking of Regional Connection meetings, at the start of 2020 Mass-ALA had revived the regional discussion groups that had been active for a number of years, and we were looking forward to meeting, in-person, with our member assisted living communities in different regions of the state. Then COVID-19 hit. Not to be deterred, we got the regional meetings going again as virtual meetings. We have met with the western and central Massachusetts regions; the south of Boston, Metrowest, Boston, South Shore and Cape and Island regions. We will be holding these meetings on a regular basis in 2021, so if you missed your region’s meeting this time around, no problem as we will be setting up more of these meetings. These meetings provide a wonderful opportunity to share information with your colleagues, ask how others are handling particular challenges, and for Mass-ALA staff to provide updates and answer questions.
You should have received the new 2021 Mass-ALA Business Partner Directory. Be sure to let us know if you didn’t receive it or would like another copy and we will be sure to get it to you. You can also access the online copy here.
Three new Business Partners joined us since our last edition of The Voice:
Greenleaf Energy Solutions
Greenleaf Energy Solutions – design and execute energy efficiency upgrades to provide their customers with the most technologically innovative and sustainable products available. www.greenleafenergy.com/
PUROLighting
PUROLighting – has developed a breakthrough UV disinfection solution, which includes the first known high intensity full spectrum UV fixture that can be installed in a ceiling, suspended, or wall mounted. These fixtures kill up to 99.9% of bacteria and viruses1 and can significantly reduce the growth of fungi such as yeasts and molds2, when used at the recommended spacing and runtimes. This technology gives users the ability to disinfect a room of any size, on demand, scheduled to run overnight, or integrated into your building automation system for reporting and ease of integration in your day-to-day operations. https://purolighting.com/
Strategic Care Solutions, LLC
Strategic Care Solutions, LLC – provides specialized infection control/COVID consulting services. SCS has a team of professionals, and audit process and guidelines. They have a reporting/scoring format in this important area of quality assurance for senior care facilities. Their services have been crafted based on actual experience in serving clients in the ALR care and memory care domains. https://www.strategiccares.com/
We also welcomed a new Provider assisted living community this quarter
Duxbury House at The Village
Duxbury House at The Village – located on the Village of Duxbury campus is a specially designed memory care assisted living community that has two intimate, self-contained households. www.duxburyhouse.com
I wanted to remind you of two important member benefits provided to you by Mass-ALA.
The first benefit is the Mass-ALA HelpLine to help you with those questions that pop-up about regulations or procedures at your community. You can reach the HelpLine by calling Mass-ALA at 781-622-5999 x103 and talking with our Director of Education, Laurie Cashman, or via email at lcashman@mass-ala.org, or please reach out to me at mchamberlin@mass-ala.org. Each month the HelpLine is covered by an experienced and knowledgeable volunteer from a member community. These volunteers are also RN’s and can answer questions of a more clinical nature. We pass your question along to them and they will reach out to you within a day to answer your question.
The second member benefit is our Job Board which can be found on the Members Only page of our website. Once you have logged in, click on the Career Center link at the top of the page and follow the directions to post a job at your community. If you need assistance with logging in or posting your job give me a call at 781-622-5999, ext. 110. All jobs that are posted on our Job Board can be viewed by all job seekers by simply going to our website and clicking on Career Search at the top of the home page on our website, mass-ala.org.
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