Nov. 7, 2007

Our mission as an association is to create the future of aging services. This is a transformational agenda, and it must be. We are in an era of leadership where only transformation will ensure our future.

A dramatic example of a transformational organization is Selfhelp, an AAHSA member based in New York City. They were created to help Jewish refugees escape Eastern Europe before World War II, and it evolved into an organization with a mission to help Holocaust survivors. A great and noble past.

While there are still thousands of victims of Nazi oppression under Selfhelp’s wing, they are transforming that great past into a future where they believe, "there is no mission more important than preserving the dignity and independence of those struggling to build productive lives in the face of adversity."

Selfhelp helps disadvantaged people of all kinds in New York. I recently toured two of their senior housing centers. I witnessed a group of elderly Chinese individuals being prepared for citizenship. I saw a reminiscence group in action for memory-impaired people from the neighborhood. They had classes about computers, yoga and Tai Chi for seniors as well as caregiver support groups. Selfhelp touches several thousand lives, every single day through perpetual transformation.

I met their CEO Stuart Kaplan, his senior team and two of his board leaders. I asked Victor Wyler, Selfhelp’s board chair, "How do you explain the continuous transformational agenda that permeates your corporate culture?" Victor stated simply, "The board it makes sure we stay focused on mission and the people we serve."

Board focus on mission and serving people is the classic not-for- profit story. The late Peter Drucker said our product is a changed life. Dr. Lester Salamon at Johns Hopkins says our duties are to meet unmet needs, be a guardian of values, address human conditions others would avoid and create community. Selfhelp is a poster child for fulfillment of those responsibilities. And there are dozens of you who have responded to transformational challenge.

Take Todd Greeneway, the administrator of a 120-bed nursing home in rural Wisconsin. He’s part of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity network, which has a comprehensive health, long-term care and education program in their state.

Todd picked me up at the airport for a board retreat. I asked him about himself, why he’s in this field and what’s going on in his nursing home.

"You know, "he said, "It’s interesting. I accepted this job as a nursing home administrator, but we’re developing services to help people stay home. And we’re getting into hospice. No one in our area is really doing much to help the elderly and their families make decisions."

At that Franciscan board retreat, the keynote speaker, Sister Mary Roch Rocklage, had a great insight :

"We don’t change who we are…or why we are…But we constantly change the way we are…"

That’s the spirit of transformation.

So how are we doing?

First, AAHSA is about BIG IDEAS! Small ideas don’t produce transformation. So, we begin with the power of the not-for-profit difference.

Standing the test of time reflects the difference you make and the values you represent.

The most valuable thing you own is your identity and integrity as not-for-profits. Campaign contributions cannot begin to measure up to the influence you, your residents, your talented staff and your boards can have on transforming public policy. As one well-known Washington lobbyist told me, "the power of people’s voices trumps the power of money." That’s why we synergize our efforts with Catholic Health, United Jewish Communities, Lutheran Services of America and other members of our Faith-Based Cabinet.

We’re using our collective voice to transform how aging services is financed. Last year, we introduced our concept for the Long-Term Care Solution, a publicly-driven insurance plan where all are covered. I am pleased to tell you that this idea is moving forward. We recently completed some sophisticated economic modeling that showed if each of us would pay the price of a cup of coffee a day, over time, we can create a program that will provide basic long-term care coverage for all.

We’re using this data to help tell the story of why comprehensive change is necessary. The idea is catching on around Washington and we are grateful to the many members who are supporting this initiative.

Until a new plan to finance long-term care is implemented, we advocate for the elimination of therapy caps and Medicare freezes — unconscionable public policy. Such policies imply that peoples’ complex needs should be rationed and the hard work you do every day is a commodities business. What are policy makers thinking? Instead, we are advocating to improve quality in nursing homes by requiring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to track nursing expenditures so that the government can better track the relationship among nursing, quality and cost.

We are also giving focused attention to improving the flawed nursing home survey process — known to all involved to be inconsistent and increasingly irrelevant. We have a blue ribbon group of members who will present a plan for improving the process to policy leaders early next year.

We advocate for "the people of talent" who serve elders every day. We believe they should be treated ethically. Our Ethics Commission, chaired by Audrey Weiner, recently published "Our Moral Imperative," a guide you can use to establish a more ethical work culture. Each of your organizations received a copy, and if you embrace it, your organization will get stronger.

We advocate for progressive housing policy that makes sure all older American can have a place to call home. We are instrumental in the development of the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Act of 2007, which was introduced in the House by Congressman Tim Mahoney of Florida. If passed, it will make affordable housing development and preservation better funded and more flexible. In the meantime, I testified before Congress a few weeks ago to try to get the government to pay their U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contractors on time. Imagine a bureaucracy that expects you and me to pay our debts on time but drags its feet for months to cover shelter for low-income housing residents.

We continue to advocate for expanded home and community-based services programs. CCRC advocacy requires specialized attention because of the complex issues around fair housing, tax status, insurance and financing issues.

We advocate for quality across the continuum. AAHSA Quality First is about all of us and for all of us. It helps us tell our story. We recently released new versions of our Quality First checklist tools for affordable and market rate housing members to help them engage with the self-discovery and continuous quality improvement agenda that Quality First offers.

We are seeing the success of Quality First from bedside to board room. The success of Quality First led to the Advancing Excellence Campaign for nursing homes, in which your leadership is apparent. If you are from a nursing home, it is imperative that you sign up and stand for quality. Not to do so lets others tell a negative story about your work, and negative stories fill a message vacuum that you must fill through participation.

Our advocacy staff, under Susan Weiss’s leadership, has never been stronger or more competent. They respond to well over 1,000 contacts per month from members like you. Even with a staff as committed as ours who are on the Hill and in the offices of HUD, HHS and the Department of Justice everyday for you, the essential ingredient to effective advocacy is you. No one does it better than Barbara Thomas, whose Congresswoman visits Kendal at Oberlin regularly. Or Kathy Bakkenist at Ecumen, whose passion for technology innovation makes her an army of one. Or Richard Schwalberg of Menorah Park, whose commitment to righting the injustice of therapy caps is infectious.

We advocate for visionary change. We believe that technology creates an entirely fresh vision of helping older people stay in a place they call home. To help you understand and spread this vision, we distributed for free the "Imagine the Future of Aging" video. This video has sparked countless discussions from resident associations and board rooms to the halls of local, state and national legislative chambers to help find ways to improve quality of life for all of us as we age. Our Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) has expanded its mission to prompt Congress to embrace technology, to create member driven technology centers and to generate university and corporate interests in our mission. Selfhelp, Sears Methodist, Diakon, Metropolitan Jewish Health System, Eskaton, Pacific Retirement Services, Front Porch and Erickson are just a few of our members who now pioneer in technology applications.

A vision of transformation is expertly detailed in Dr. Mike Magee’s book entitled Home Centered Care. Dr. Magee, a CAST senior fellow in health policy, describes a future that integrates values, care and family in the home. This was recently provided to all AAHSA members free of charge. It’s a must-read for your strategic planning. It will elevate your thinking.

Planning has never been more complex and essential. That’s why we embraced the concept of scenario strategic planning to help all of us anticipate, prepare for and create a visionary future even in the face of major uncertainties. The book and accompanying PowerPoint presentation is available to every member at no cost because of sponsors — both business friends and members.

Advocacy and visionary transformation require visionary leaders. AAHSA’s major responsibility is to develop, support and prepare current and future leaders. Leaders who are willing to share their successes and failures with each other through state and national meetings. The success of our Leadership AAHSA program is also testament to how the power of community fuels transformation. The first class of 33 fellows is inspiring and our incoming class will surely do great things. As inspiring as people like Michelle Holleran, Dr. Judy Brown, John Diffey and Kay Kallander who are this program’s architects.

And our role as your association is to help you stay focused on the people you serve. We are the facilitators of your agenda and it is our role to help you live your story. That means advocacy that will make your job easier, shared learning to help you get better at what you do and a strong voice to tell how you live the story of being not-for-profit.

Our annual Leadership Summit will be in New Orleans in January. In addition to learning with renowned leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith about servant leadership and we will also have a special event to help our New Orleans members, who continue to struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina.

We believe it is our responsibility to bring you the most effective, tried and true practices available. In addition to our conference, FutureAge, our award-winning magazine, presents ideas the work. Many have been studied through disciplined research. Others are ideas that members have piloted and are willing to share.

A major objective in the coming years is bridging research, practice and policy. That’s why you created the Institute for the Future of Aging Services. IFAS is focused on helping you find and implement evidence-based solutions to the biggest challenges you face and the biggest opportunities you have. IFAS can help all of us do better. You can simply read and implement the successful practices reflect in our findings. Or better yet, work with us to conduct applied research in your organization. Yes, organizations big and small, housing and health care, large CCRCs and local housing projects can learn from the discipline of applied research to get better and became great.

That’s your AAHSA. And I haven’t even mentioned group purchasing or our affinity insurance program. The chances are excellent that if you use either, you have earned your dues back many times over.

The people of talent on AAHSA’s staff are a remarkable, responsive, visionary group. I admire them everyday. We are blessed with their service.

Now, the challenge before us: we must strengthen our advocacy — the clear, values-based and loud voice of the people of your communities. We cannot passively drift into acceptance of a broken, often politically tainted or uninformed wad of services that allow older and vulnerable people to be misdirected from one fragment of care to another.

Your voice needs to be heard about what’s wrong and how to create a transformational agenda to move from rest home to respite for families, from nursing home to our home where nursing is available when needed, from isolation to the power of community, from provider-centric services to person centered-services. It is all possible, feasible and even politically palatable, if you and I use our voice of vision.

Yes, our calling in this transformational era is to be the voice of vision. You know how to do that. You’ve been doing that for generations. You live your story. Thank you for all you do.


William L. Minnix, Jr.
President & CEO

AAHSA · 2519 Connecticut Ave. NW · Washington DC 20008 · www.AAHSA.org