|
December 8, 2015
Remembering Brian Capshaw
Consumer Voice is mourning the passing of Brian Capshaw, a tremendous advocate for residents' rights and quality long-term care.
Brian was born in Connecticut and graduated from Newington High School in 1980. He was active throughout college, playing for the tennis team, and in 1984 earned a degree in Accounting from Nichols College. In 1994, he earned a Master’s Degree in Accounting from Indiana University. Brian worked for 23 years in corporate cost accounting for auto manufacturing firms.
In September of 1994, Brian was injured in a car accident and was paralyzed from the chest down. Health complications required him to move back to Connecticut in 2007, where he became a full-time resident at a nursing home. There, he regained much of his strength and passion for life and devoted his energies to the cause of advocacy for nursing home residents.
Brian was President of the Greensprings Health Care Center Resident Council, initiating a variety of programs to enhance the quality of life for his fellow residents. He served on the Executive Board of CT's Presidents of Resident Councils. Brian lobbied and testified at legislative public hearings on a wide variety of issues related to improving nursing home care, including staffing, video monitoring, and the Personal Needs Allowance. He was a board member of the Statewide Coalition of Presidents of Resident Councils in Connecticut since 2010 and was the Chairperson of the Consumer Voice Leadership Council. This past July, Brian was the only nursing home resident invited to the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. He was frequently interviewed by and quoted in the press.
Brian was a passionate and articulate voice not only for the residents of CT, but for residents nationwide. He aimed high and made others do the same. Brian’s obituary notes that he: “was doggedly determined, un-phased by his physical limitations, stubborn, generous, and good-humored about life's challenges, a valuable lesson for all of us.” Brian will be deeply missed.
Read Brian’s full obituary here.
Many family, friends, colleagues and partners in advocacy have shared their thoughts and memories of Brian’s tireless advocacy work for long-term care residents’ rights. Visit our website to read a multitude of comments, and submit your own thoughts to be posted online by sending them to info@theconsumervoice.org
Back to Top
2015 State of the Art of Person-Centered Care Survey
The 2015 State of the Art of Person-Centered Care Survey, a study by the Rothschild Foundation, in collaboration with IDEAS Institute, Perkins Eastman and The Beryl Institute, focuses on the changing culture of care in the United States. This transformational shift prioritizes individualized, resident-oriented practices that embrace choice and autonomy for both consumer and providers of long-term care. Person-Centered care communities have crafted highly diverse and contextualized strategies for advancing resident choice and control, residential-style living environments, empowering staff to meet residents’ needs and desires, and multi-disciplinary collaboration and team decision making.
The collaborators of this study are asking assisted living and nursing home providers to complete this survey because it has been over a decade since the last national survey explored how care communities are moving away from more traditional systems of care and adopting individualized care practices.
Please share information about this survey and the survey link (below) with assisted living facilities and nursing homes so they are aware of this opportunity to share information about providing person-centered care.
2015 State of the Art of Person-Centered Care Benchmarking Survey
Back to Top
Justice in Aging Webinar on State Strategies for Meeting Assisted Living Residents' Health Care Needs
Justice in Aging is holding a webinar on Thursday, December 17th at 2:00pm ET entitled "Assisted Living: State Strategies for Meeting Residents' Health Care Needs." This webinar will present an overview of state approaches to meet resident health care needs. It will discuss current state laws as well as trends within assisted living. Register here.
Back to Top
CMS Releases Survey Tools for Dementia Care
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has developed new survey materials to assist in citing poor dementia care practices and overutilization of antipsychotic medications. The tools were created for a 2014 “Focused Dementia Care Survey Pilot” and then revised as part of an expansion project in 2015 that was a more intensive, targeted effort to improve surveyor effectiveness.
CMS is now making .these surveyor worksheets available online. Its stated intent is for facilities to use these tools to assess their own practices in providing resident care. The questions and points to observe in these survey materials may also be helpful to ombudsmen and other advocates, as well as residents and families, in evaluating care practices.
You can access these tools here.
Back to Top
Spotlight on Educational Resources
The Consumer Voice and the National Ombudsman Resource Center (NORC) have a multitude of resources available online covering a wide range of long-term care topics. Visit the Consumer Voice website and the NORC website to explore all the available resources. Take a look at this week's highlighted resource:
Dementia Care Issue Page - The NORC issue page on dementia care provides reports, resources and ombudsman best practices.
Back to Top
|
In this Issue
Remembering Brian Capshaw
2015 State of the Art of Person-Centered Care Survey
Justice in Aging Webinar on State Strategies on Meeting Assisted Living Residents' Health Care Needs
CMS Releases Survey Tools for Dementia Care
Spotlight on Educational Resources
Combined Federal Campaign
#10552
Thank you for your support!
Get Your CARE Matters Buttons and Wristbands
CARE Matters wristbands and buttons are sold in packs of 20, 50 and 100. See the Consumer Voice online store for more information.
Calendar of Events
Wednesday, December 9: Patients with Cognitive Impairment: The Rumble in the Bundle, 2pm ET, Free webinar from Cognitive Solutions LLC (Repeat of Dec. 2nd)
Wednesday, December 16: Hospital Care and Dementia: A Tough Mix, 2pm ET, Free webinar from Cognitive Solutions LLC
Thursday, December 17: Assisted Living: State Strategies for Meeting Residents' Health Care Needs, 2pm ET, Webinar from Justice in Aging
Wednesday, January 6: Hospital Care and Dementia: A Tough Mix, 2pm ET, Free webinar from Cognitive Solutions LLC (Repeat of Dec. 16th)
November 2-5, 2016: Consumer Voice 40th Annual Conference, Arlington, VA
Join the conversation and follow us on social media!
Last Week's Most Popular Post:
Tuesday, December 1:
It's Giving Tuesday! All contributions made today count towards our end of year Matching Campaign
Last Week's Most Popular Tweet:
Tuesday, December 1:
Today is #GivingTuesday Support the rights and quality care of individuals receiving long-term services and supports
Long-Term Care Resources & News
Read past issues of The Voice here.
|
