Everything Elderly - Senior Living and Housing Awareness Week and Glacier Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center

Senior Helpers hosts Everything Elderly each week, a half-hour radio program. It’s informative entertainment all about seniors. The show is on 1290 am WLBY, each Saturday morning at 8:30. On this weekend’s program, we featured the upcoming Senior Living and Housing Awareness Week, and the Glacier Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center.

Laura Nathan from Housing Bureau for Seniors

Our first guest was Laura Nathan, the Event and Marketing Coordinator with the Housing Bureau for Seniors, part of the University of Michigan Health System. Laura talked primarily about the Bureau’s upcoming big event --- the Senior Living and Housing Awareness Week.

Highlights of the discussion included:

The bureau’s mission is to assist, enable, and empower older adults in Washtenaw County to live in safe, appropriate, and affordable housing.

The Senior Living and Housing Awareness Week is soon! May 7 to May 16.

The kick-off is the May 7th Expo at the Washtenaw Community College Morris Lawrence Building. It’s a “fabulous one-stop shop” for older adults, a rich opportunity to gather information, and explore housing options. It’s a welcoming, friendly atmosphere.

There are a large number of workshops available throughout the week, covering a huge array of subjects.

There are twenty-eight open houses during the week, at senior communities across Washtenaw County, representing a broad spectrum of facilities.

There are no costs for any of the activities thanks to the generosity of the many wonderful local sponsors (Diamond sponsors are Evangelical Homes of Michigan, Horizons Planning Corporation, Legacy Law Center, Program for Positive Aging, U.M. Department of Psychiatry). To contact Laura, or the Housing Bureau for Seniors, please call 734-998-9336, or logon to med.umich.edu/seniors. To listen to the full 12-minute talk, please click on this audio file Everything Elderly Laura Nathan 0501.mp3.

Michelle Mitchell from Glacier Hills

Photos by Sheila Doeden

Our next guest was Michelle Mitchell, the Memory Care Program Manager, at the Glacier Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center.

Highlights included:

Glacier Hills is a non-profit continuum of care community, from independent living to assisted living, to the Care and Rehabilitation Center.

People don’t really want to be in a “nursing home”. Glacier Hills works hard to make the facility as home-like as possible, and to make being there a positive experience.

Rehabilitation services provide a bridge between the hospital and the patient’s home.

Long-term care houses an eclectic group of residents, with all sorts of abilities - some with major physical concerns, and some with major cognitive issues.

The facility stays very busy. They review up to 200 referrals each month, and have up to 90 move-in/move-outs monthly.

Glacier Hills offers Life Enrichment opportunities, including a mobile activity cart with music/movies/games/literature -- whatever a resident may enjoy.

Volunteers (many!) help out at Glacier Hills, providing more one-on-one interactions, and helping with transportation needs.

To contact Michelle Mitchell, or the Glacier Hills Care and Rehabilitation Center, please call 734-769-0177. You can also visit the Glacier Hills website at glacierhills.org. To listen to the full 12-minute talk, please click on this audio file Everything Elderly Michelle Mitchell 0501.mp3.