Community celebrates 50th anniversary
Community celebrates 50th anniversary, looks to future of senior care
LOWER GWYNEDD » The Foulkeways at Gwynedd community has spent half a century serving local seniors and has an ambitious to-do list for the next half-century and beyond.
Hundreds of area seniors and service providers turned out June 2 for a “50 and Forward” party and panel discussion, as Foulkeways hosted the leadership of their parent organization in an anniversary celebration.
“We’ve done a lot of talking the last few months about having finished 50 years and looking forward to the next 50,” said Board of Directors Chairman Phil Henderson.
“How can we use the experiences we’ve had to envision what the community should look like over the next 50 years?” he said.
As Foulkeways marked the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1967, local lawmakers and officials congratulated the community and its leadership for reaching the milestone.
Lower Gwynedd Board of Supervisors Chairman Stephen Paccione said he thinks of Foulkeways as the “gold standard” of similar care facilities, and state Rep. Kate Harper, R-61, recalled singing carols on the campus as a student, reviewing land development plans for Foulkeways expansions as a township supervisor and visiting with her parents whey they were searching for a care community.
“As a daughter, I’ll always be grateful to the staff at Abington House and Gwynedd House. Nobody could have been kinder, both to my parents or to the family, because for us it’s a new experience, too,” she said.
“Foulkeways was the first continuing care retirement community in the entire commonwealth, and it’s done very well — and it’s aged beautifully, if I might say so,” Harper said.
After receiving proclamations from Harper and from state Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-12, Foulkeways CEO D. Michael Peasley led Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, and former LeadingAge CEO Larry Minnix in a question-and-answer session. The two described the lessons they’ve learned from decades in the senior care industry and the innovations they’ve seen successfully implemented elsewhere.
“I think the biggest challenge is the pace of change,” said Smith Sloan.
LeadingAge is an association of community-based nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of seniors, and Foulkeways, the community care retirement center located on Sumneytown Pike in Lower Gwynedd, is one of the hundreds of partners of LeadingAge across the country.
“The challenge for an organization like this is being agile enough to be able to adapt to change,” Smith Sloan said.
Some of the country’s first continuing care retirement communities were established in eastern Pennsylvania, and the challenge for the industry is how to pair a model of care that produces results, with financial models that can provide that level of care to those of all incomes.
“The sin of the for-profit sector is greed. The sin of the nonprofit sector is sloth. We’ve got to do better, be more innovative and faster,” said Minnix.
Smith Sloan said the most immediate need she sees is for affordable housing for seniors, and a LeadingAge facility in New York recently learned that firsthand when it opened up its waiting list to new admissions.
“She had 3,000 people snaked around her building, all of whom were hoping to get a safe apartment in her building, and she’ll take in 20 of those people over the next six years,” she said.
“There’s a need out there that needs to be addressed, and an organization like Foulkeways could take a look at that,” Smith Sloan said.
Minnix said the housing model that already exists could be combined with other organizations or groups that provide simple services like transportation, food or care, so long as the two parties are able and willing to work together.
“Be thinking about collaborative partnerships, things you can do together that none of you can do separately,” he said.
“I’ve seen some small [care centers], out of pride, spend their last dime, because they refused to reach out to somebody next to them to say, ‘Can we do something together?’” Minnix said.
What disruptions will change the field of senior care in the next half-century? While hard to predict, Minnix said he has already seen senior centers start to organize ride-sharing programs, dating services, facilities to access medical marijuana (where legal) and even
“Foulkeways was the first continuing care retirement community in the entire commonwealth, and it’s done very well — and it’s aged beautifully, if I might say so.” — State Rep. Kate Harper, R-61
birth facilities for those who have children in their 60s.
“If you have an innovative, strong, committed board,= that has a will to look at things on an ongoing basis, then you’ll never grow stale,” he said.
“You’ll be surprised at how many boards say, ‘This is the way it’s always been,’ and they don’t want to change till it’s too late,” Minnix said.
Smith Sloan said further disruptions could come from political policy changes, the needs and desires of millennials as they age and even cures for diseases that may seem today like they will last forever.
“If and when we see a cure for Alzheimer’s, what we do every day, and the people we serve, and how we serve them, will change dramatically,” she said.
What separates faithbased institutions like Foulkeways from more secular ones?
“People think, ‘Ee’ll combine the overhead, sell some buildings, have a common IT program, consolidate the HR office and we’ll get all the clinical records together.’ But it isn’t about that; it’s about wether the culture fits or not,” said Minnix.
“This community is based on 300-year-old values that are more important today than they were the day they established them. Never forget that, because that’s your strength,” he said.
Why have some communities removed their religious affiliations from their names or changed their brands to remove certain terms?
“People didn’t like ‘continuing care’ or ‘retirement.’ They like ‘community,’ and the people that live in places like Foulkeways kind of like ‘continuing care retirement community’ because they’re accustomed to it, but labels change,” said Minnix.
Smith Sloan said while some communities are faster to adapt than others, she recently visited a LeadingAge facility in Florida where the management has finally internalized the reason behind a recent name change.
“The CEO of the organization said, ‘I finally get it. I finally understand why you suggested we change our names from ‘continuing care retirement community’ to ‘life planning community,’ because that’s what happens in these communities. People are planning for the rest of their lives,” she said.