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Click here to read the July 29, 2009 article featured in the Star Tribune: Developer Sets Sight on Senior Housing Care Center in Blaine.
Click here to read the July 22, 2009 article featured in the Blaine-Spring Lake Park Life: Developer Propose New Blaine Senior Housing Complex.
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100 Years Blessing for Walker Resident
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
by Mandy Moran Froemming
Union Editor
Viola Schweikert calls herself a "cockeyed optimist." Always looking at the bright side of things has worked well for her so far, for a century at least.
Viola celebrated her 100th Birthday July 25 surrounded by family and friends at her grandson's house on the banks of the St. Croix River. A second party followed that week with her friends and neighbors at Walker Plaza, where she currently lives.
She is one of the two centenarians living at the Anoka assisted living facility. Two others, ages 101 and 103 moved out earlier this year, according to the marketing manager, Diane Rideout.
"I've been blessed with unusually good health," Viola said, crediting her family for her longevity. "I've got good genes from people I have never met."
Viola is the mother of four, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of eight with two new additions to the family on the way. Her son Tim and family currently live in Coon Rapids, and Dan and his family live in Utah. Daughter Mary Louise passed away in recent years, while John Mark died as an infant.
She moved to Anoka a few years ago and after living at Gideon Ponds in Bloomington where Mary Louise cared for her. But this follows a life lived throughout the state of Minnesota as the wife of a Lutheran minister, along with a lengthy stay in Rochester, N.Y. where Viola worked for 30 years in administration at Monroe Community College.
Viola and George Schweikert were married in 1929 in her hometown of Glencoe, a place her grandfather had homesteaded, she said, after immigrating from Germany. The couple started out their life in Cass Lake, George's first Lutheran parish. Viola has vivid memories of tough times then and the extreme poverty of the area during the 1930s. "That was the first time I saw poverty like I had never seen poverty before," she realled. 'Their toes stuck out of their tennis shoes." Viola said she got pleasure from sharing what food her family had to help put some "meat on the bones" of some of those children. Her son Tim says much of Viola's outlook on life was shaped by those early years living on a Minnesota Indian Reservation during the Depression. She was thrifty, made the most of the available resources and worked hard to take care of the family.
He said she was ahead of her time when it came to a healthy lifestyle, a believer in vitamins and supplements long before they became popular, likely aiding in the long and healthy life she has lived. In 1937, the family followed George's call to Okabena and eventually to East Grand Forks and then Rochester, N.Y. George Schweikert passed away in 1965. Viola remained in Rochester where she said she loved her work at the community college.
Tim recalls that Viola played the church organ and had a talent for fine art, doing decorative paintings on the plates. While living at Gideon Ponds, she had a small organ in her apartment and would play for other residents. Beyond a healthy lifestyle and an optimistic outlook on life, what is Viola's secret to being in such wonderful shape at the age of 100? "The Almighty has sustained me this far," she said. "At the end of the day I say, 'Thank you Lord for the gift of this day' and every morning I say, 'Thank you Lord for the gift of this night'." It's very natural at this stage if you have lived this long, there isn't much that's going to upset you."
Study Confirms Walker Methodist Transitional Care Unit and University of Minnesota Achieve 22% Reduction in Rehospitalization
Contact: Matt McNeill, Director of Marketing and Community Relations
3737 Bryant Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55409
(612) 827-8417, mmcneill@walkermethodist.org
A major study conducted at Walker Methodist Health Center confirms that a "whole patient" treatment approach, now in place for high risk patients, significantly reduces the need for rehospitalization. Hospital readmission is one of the costliest and emotionally taxing occurences in health care. As of 2004, it was estimated that unplanned rehospitalizations cost Medicare more than $17.4 billion.
The approach to care, which was jointly pioneered by Walker Methodist in partnership with the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center, has led to a 22% reduction in the need for high risk patients to return to the hospital. Nationally, about 20% of the frail elderly who undergo rehabilitation at a transitional care center, return to the hospital for unscheduled care. Walker Methodist began this new program well below the national average at 16.3% and the quality improvements have reduced this rate to 13.1% in only one year - a rate which ranks as one of the lowest in the country.
"This study confirms that frail elderly patients can benefit from a caring interdisciplinary team and a patient centered process," said Walker Methodist Chief Operations Office, John Huhn. "With these strategies in place, we were able to significantly lower the number of patients needing to return to the hospital."
The study, led by a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota, found that by shifting to an interdisciplinary team approach with the patient at the health center, patients were more satisfied and had better outcomes.
The Transitional Care Unit at Walker Methodist Health Center is open to patients coming from any hospital in the metro area. It employs an interdisciplinary care giving model with each resident receiving the dedicated attention of a multi-skilled team consisting of nursing, social service, dietary, therapeutic recreation, rehabilitative therapy, and spiritual care professionals.
It is unique in the Twin Cities because it is the only transitional care center with an inter-professional team from the University of Minnesota working on site; including professionals from the Medical School, School of Nursing, College of Pharmacy, and School of Dentistry - all specialists who have a unique understanding on how to meet the needs of this segment of the population.
"Geriatrics is a team discipline that requires more than just a physician's set of skills," said Dr. Teresa McCarthy, Director of Transitional Care at Walker Methodist and Assistant Professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Minnesota Medical School. "We pioneered this approach of shifting leadership style, in which, at any given conference or point of decision making, a doctor, nurse practitioner, or pharmacist might take the lead depending on the expertise needed."
Highview Hills by Walker Opens Model Apartment for Viewing
Contact: Jacque Mihm, Marketing Director
20150 Highview Ave., Lakeville, MN 55044
(952) 985-5155 www.highviewhills.com
Highview Hills by Walker, a new senior living community under construction in Lakeville, has opened an on-site model apartment on June 8 for viewing. Highview Hills is currently accepting reservations and will be opening in the fall of 2009. Welsh Construction, a full-service commercial real estate company, is providing the construction services for Highview Hills.
Highview Hills will offer spacious independent, assisted, memory care, and care suite apartments; all of which support active, engaging living for seniors. The new community will have 155 rental apartments and offer a variety of amenities including a variety of dining environments and cuisine choicessurrounding an open chef's exhibition kitchen, concierge, club room, fitness center, nine-hole putting green and day spa.
Highview Hills is located at 20150 Highview Avenue. The Highview marketing office is open weekdays from 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Contact the inormation center at www.highviewhills.com or (952) 985-5155.
Click here to read the article on Highview Hills in the Dakota County Tribune.
Reverie Harp: An Instrument to Soothe the Soul
Maryann Combs, Minnesota Public Radio
Thursday, May 20, 2009
Click here to listen to and/or read the broadcast and to view the photos and slideshow.
A small company in Stillwater has given birth to a new musical instrument. The Reverie Harp is a designed to be so easy to play that anyone can make beautiful music. The harp is becoming a hit with therapists, patients and their loved ones, who are using it to create a sense of peace and calm during stressful times.
Stillwater, Minn. — Harpist Peter Roberts works in a hospital in Australia, where he plays at people's bedsides to help them relax and sleep.
But after years of just sitting beside them, Roberts wanted the patients to become more involved in the music themselves.
"I just thought there needed to be something that could be played instantly, immediately," said Roberts. "Something that was gorgeous sounding, that a person could just stroke a finger across, and it would sound lush and gorgeous and uplifting."
Roberts contacted his friends at Musicmakers in Stillwater, Minn., who came up with the Reverie Harp. The harp is oval shaped, like an egg, made from cherry and mahogany. It weighs less than five pounds and can be cradled in a person's arms like a baby.
The harp is tuned to a pentatonic scale, so every note complements all the other notes. That means you can't play a specific song on it, but just running one's finger across it sounds like a cascading waterfall. And you can feel the vibrations from the music when you hold the instrument to your chest.
Peter Roberts' hunch was right. By creating an instrument that anyone could strum, and which demanded little physical mobility, Roberts could now invite patients to play, and not just be passive recipients of pretty sounds.
And he found it wasn't just the patients who needed it. Roberts saw a father sitting next to his newborn baby who had been placed in a hospital incubator. He gave the father the harp, and suddenly the worried parent could do something to soothe the baby, and himself.
A daughter played the harp for her dying mother. Nurses immediately wanted their own harps to have on hand.
Jerry Brown, the founder of Musicmakers, says the little harp is taking over his store's business. He's now selling more Reverie Harps than all his other instruments combined.
"It's a very powerful thing, and a very rewarding thing," said Brown. "We go home at the end of the day and we feel like we are helping people. Like this is a ministry."
For Ann Bergstrom, it is a ministry. She's the chaplain for Walker Elder Suites in Edina. Bergstrom regularly walks the halls of this senior residential facility with a Reverie Harp in her arms, plucking at the strings.
"If I, as a chaplain, walked in with a big black Bible under my arm, that would send a message right away that I'm here to talk about the Bible or something," said Bergstrom. "To walk in with this -- it's neutral. There's something about this instrument that opens me up and opens others up."
On this day, Bergstrom has encouraged two of the Walker Elder Suites residents to try playing a duet with two Reverie Harps. Donna Steel and Mayme Larson -- both in their 90s and neither of them musicians -- are immediately able to produce a lovely sound.
Mayme Larson describes the music as heavenly. But after playing for a few moments, her face begins to look sad, and her eyes tear up. Playing the harp brings back memories.
"I remember my husband, and it makes me remember the son we lost. It's like they're up there waiting for me," said Larson.
Chaplain Ann Bergstrom said it's the harp's ability to get people to open up emotionally that makes it such a valuable tool for her work. She says it soothes the soul and creates a place for emotional and spiritual healing.
Peter Roberts says that emotional and spiritual healing can lead a patient to be more engaged in their recovery, or face death with a greater sense of peace and dignity.
While it's hard to measure such benefits, Roberts believes the new harp has already made a positive difference for patients and their caregivers.
"The news is filled with bad ... there's a lot of greed and a lot of things going on around the world, and the repercussions are affecting everybody. But here's this little company in Stillwater, Minnesota, that's made something absolutely beautiful," mused Roberts. "It brought [the Reverie Harp] into existence, and it's really, really nice and it's going out there into the world."
Roberts says in many hospitals, patients often feel powerless. He says the Reverie Harp is giving them a chance to take some control in their own treatment, and helping them feel more human.
Click here to read the Pioneer Press article about Walker residents receiving makeovers by Sephora and having their photos professionally and complimentarily taken by Kids at Heart Photography.
Here is a letter written by a Walker Methodist resident's daughter about the event:
"It is with profound gratitude that I write this letter to you. I want you to know how overwhelmed I was with the photography event that took place at Walker last Thursday and Friday (February 26 and 27). It is hard to find the words to describe the joy that I saw on the faces of the residents who came to have a "makeover" and to have their picture taken. I was particularly touched as I watched you and your collegues meet with each resident with such grace and tenderness. You brought them great dignity, and they were glowing-both literally and figuratively. There were smiles in abundance.
Watching through my mother's eyes brought everything home to me with clarity. She loved the special attention that she received, and my heart was full as I watched Faith create a beautiful new look for her. You and your friends gave the people of Walker an extraordinary gift. Please express my thanks to everyone involved. This was a memorable day for me and my mother.
Thank you for the care that my mother has received at Walker Methodist. You have taken this journey with us, and our entire family has been blessed. "
Sincerely, Kathryn S.
