Some of the most heartwarming connections are made by crossing the gap between generations. Knowing that, PioneerCare is launching Junior Volunteer Day Camp this summer for students entering sixth, seventh or eighth grade.

Program participants will meet six times in June, each Tuesday and Thursday, June 12-28. Participants can choose either a 10:00 a.m. to 12 noon session or a 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. session.

“This is a great opportunity for a young person to learn what it means to volunteer,” said EvLyn Gilbertson, PioneerCare’s volunteer coordinator. “In just six days, participants will find out what it’s like to serve others and find fulfillment in a job well done.”

Participating in Junior Volunteer Day Camp also immerses participants within the healthcare field, affording the chance to see what such a career may be like. Participants will work closely with Pioneer staff including those in nursing, homemaking or dietary, housekeeping, maintenance, activities and administrative roles.

Participants will need parent/guardian permission and provide their own transportation to and from PioneerCare.

Those interested in Junior Volunteer Day Camp can call PioneerCare’s volunteer services office at 218-998-1506 or visit the web site’s Volunteer Blog to download and print a registration form for the program.

Scott Meldahl, Chef for Pioneer Pointe, PioneerCare Suites and New Day Adult Day Services takes his cooking very seriously.

His competitive nature even prompted him to apply as a contestant on Chopped, a television program on the Food Network. The show pits four chefs against each other to compete before a panel of expert judges. According to the program’s Web site, they must take a basket of mystery ingredients and turn them into an extraordinary meal to impress the judges. Course-by-course, the chefs are eliminated or “chopped” from the competition until only one winner remains.

Scott’s credentials are impressive and equip him well for competition. Before joining PioneerCare as a chef, he worked at several highly regarded restaurants including Ledge Rock Grille in Two Harbors, the Duluth Grille and Hell’s Kitchen. He trained at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Minneapolis.

Scott and his small staff at PioneerCare prepare delectable snacks and meals from scratch each day for up to 20 tenants at PioneerCare Suites, about 50 at Pioneer Pointe and for those who sign up for lunch through Adult Day Services.

“I love the food,” said Jo Cole, a tenant at PioneerCare Suites, in a recent interview, “especially the beef stroganoff!”

PioneerCare has started an online campaign to raise awareness of Scott’s candidacy as a Chopped contestant. Readers can show their support for Scott by clicking the “like” button in the Vote for Scott posting on PioneerCare’s Facebook page.

PioneerCare and M|State Custom Training are partnering to provide Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training for people interested in a caregiving career.

Timeline to Your New Career:

Now: Complete and submit your application for the program to PioneerCare’s human resources department.  Go online to our Careers Page  to download and print your application.

April 9 – May 4: Selected candidates will be interviewed. NCRC Bronze Level Certificate preferred.

May 8 – 23: Candidates will participate in a shadowing experience at PioneerCare Center and complete the NCRC test through the Minnesota Workforce Center.

May 29 – June 19: Successful candidates will begin the CNA Training Program. Classes will meet:

• May 29, 30 and 31: 8:00 am to 6:30 pm (class/lab)
• June 4, 5, 7, 11, 12: 8:00 am to 12 noon (class/lab)
• June 14: 8:00 am to 3:30 pm (class/clinical)
• June 18 and 19: 6:00 am to 4:30 pm (clinical)

June 21: 9:00 am at M|State – Complete and pass CNA exam

June 25 & 27: New Employee Orientation at PioneerCare

All training expenses are paid for those who successfully complete the program and become a Certified Nuring Assistant at PioneerCare. Check out our online Careers Page or contact us at 218.998.1500 today to get started!

A ribbon-cutting event served as the capstone to the day’s events. Pioneer and New Dimensions staff provided guided tours of remodeled and repurposed spaces throughout Pioneer’s original location.

Those participating in the ribbon-cutting were Mayor Hal Leland, New Dimensions co-owner Wendy Erlandson, New Dimensions staff members Donny Braeger and Carrie Miller, Pioneer Corporate Board Chair Dick Werner, Pioneer CEO John Richards, Pioneer Corporate Board Member Mark Eifert and Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Lisa Workman. About 200 people attended the event.

PioneerCare and the Fergus Falls campus of Minnesota State Community and Technical College are partnering to provide Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training for people interested in a caregiving career.

CNAs work directly with patients in a variety of medical settings, including nursing homes, doctors’ offices and hospitals. They are an important part of any medical team, working closely under RNs, physicians, or LPNs. CNAs are trained in all the basics of healthcare, and they often can be found checking vital signs, administering medication, and caring for patients.

“In today’s job market, the healthcare field is one of the few career fields that provide stability and growth,” says Nathan Johnson, Administrator at PioneerCare.

Current economic conditions have had little effect on careers in caregiving. Locally, the demand for trained and certified caregivers is strong and continues to grow with new developments such as the opening last spring of the new PioneerCare Center and the anticipated opening of PioneerCare Suites later this month. In fact, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton came to PioneerCare in August 2011 after hearing about PioneerCare’s innovative approach in workforce development. PioneerCare uses a blended-worker concept that is more responsive to its residents and at the same time enhances the employees’ work experience.

PioneerCare is offering job shadowing experiences for people interested in learning whether a career in caregiving is a good fit for them. Shadowing sessions will be scheduled between Jan. 11 and Feb. 9, and anyone interested in participating should contact Pioneer at 218-998-1500 as soon as possible. All interested individuals are required to pass a background check.

Caregiver training begins at PioneerCare on Wednesday, Feb. 14, with classes, labs, and clinical experience scheduled during daytime hours. Students who finish the program will be prepared to complete CNA testing in early March, allowing placement in a new career within just a few weeks.

A detailed program schedule is available online. More details are also available by calling M State at 218-736-1500 or PioneerCare at 218-998-1500.

Before forging ahead into 2012, we pause and remember the many blessings PioneerCare has received this past year. True to our mission, we continued our commitment to diverse and holistic care through PioneerCare Center, Pioneer Pointe apartments and through Pioneer Cottages at Fergus Falls and Breckenridge.

The most pronounced evidence of a blessed 2011 we see is the completion of PioneerCare Center. We thank so many of you for helping fulfill this vision. Leadership through our Corporate Board of Directors and Foundation Board of Directors helped steer the process. Committed staff developed and implemented a new way to serve our people – a new culture – to provide better care in this new space. Neighbors and community members supported our vision through donations, volunteerism and countless other ways. Many of you may look back, as I do, to the excitement of move-in day in May. Since then, PioneerCare Center has become a wonderful place to call home.

As residents, staff and volunteers settled into new surroundings at PioneerCare Center on Mabelle Avenue, crews began remodeling our historic location on Sheridan Street. Pairs of rooms in our former south unit have been transformed into PioneerCare Suites to create a new option for housing and care in Fergus Falls. PioneerCare Suites will begin providing enhanced assisted living services through a partnership with New Dimensions Home Health Care.

We are very pleased to partner with New Dimensions, which will expand and enhance services to Fergus Falls and surrounding communities. The PioneerCare Suites project is just one of many planned between New Dimensions and PioneerCare.

PioneerCare is committed to assisting people in all stages of need. To help people remain independent and in their homes we’ve continued to grow the PioneerLink® program. PioneerLink now serves 175 clients in five counties. PioneerLink has added MedSmart® to its care system. MedSmart is a device that reminds people to take their medicines properly and on time. Coupled with the Home Monitor System and Personal Emergency Response System, PioneerLink is able to make people feel safe and supported in their own homes.

Now we look forward to an equally busy and blessed 2012. Please join us as we expand our current services and build new ones, all toward our mission of Christ-like care.

-John Richards, CEO

Staff at Pioneer Cottages are boosting their ability to care for individuals with all forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease. Linda Zimmerman and Heather Nelson recently completed the Dementia Care Certificate Program and earned their certificate of completion – 30 hours of in-depth professional study specifically devoted to providing high quality dementia care. This first-of-its-kind program was developed by Aging Services of Minnesota in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota Chapter and offered for the first time in 2011.

“Specialized dementia care has been an integral piece of PioneerCare’s spectrum of services since well before the first of our Pioneer Cottages was built. We’re proud of our staff for positioning themselves as leaders in their field,” said John Richards, Chief Executive Officer for PioneerCare.

More than 100,000 Minnesotans are currently living with some form of dementia, and that number is increasing. The Dementia Care Certificate Program is believed to be the first in the nation to pair direct care providers with the Alzheimer’s Association and leading researchers and practitioners in the field of dementia care.

As a result of this specialized approach to training, caregivers will be better able to read and interpret complex behavior signals, more effectively manage living spaces and environments and expand their ability to engage in quality, meaningful interaction with individuals along the full spectrum of dementia diagnoses.

The first year of the Dementia Care Certificate program was an incredible success – approximately 225 individual caregivers from all over the state participated in the training. They include professionals in a wide variety of roles, including direct caregivers, dementia program directors, directors of nursing, social workers, activities coordinators, housing managers and administrators. Participants also represent a wide variety of aging services settings – including home care, adult day care, assisted living/housing-with-services and care centers.

Topics addressed by the Dementia Care Certificate Program include:

• Dementia Basics and Practical Approaches to Disease Symptoms (managing challenging behaviors)
• The Art of Engagement: Practical Approaches to Activities for all Stages of Dementia
• Exploring the Correlation Between Depression and Dementia
• Organizational Philosophy of Caring and Its Impact on Dementia Care
• The Appropriate Use of Medication in Dementia Care
• Partners in Dementia Care: Supporting Caregivers and Partners (or others)
• The Role of the Environment in Promoting Quality Dementia Care
• The Legal Aspects of Decision-Making for Persons with Dementia
• End-of-Life Care for Persons with Dementia
• Practical Approaches to Activities for all Stages of Dementia

The Dementia Care Certificate Program is one example of how Minnesota providers and caregivers are proactively leading the charge to build new skills and greater capacity to deal with this growing public health challenge. 

Service Simplifies Managing Meds

Doctors and pharmacists agree that taking medications at the right time is as important as what meds are taken, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 50 percent of individuals do not take their medications as prescribed. The reasons given include difficulty organizing multiple medications and doses, hard-to-read labels, and can be as simple as just remembering each dose.

Making medication management easier is the goal of MedSmart®, the newest service introduced by PioneerLink® this month. MedSmart is an electronic reminder and dispensing system designed to help individuals take medications properly and on time.  The system rents for $39 a month on a month-to-month basis through PioneerLink.

Programmable from one to six doses a day, MedSmart’s audio and visual alarms make it effortless to incorporate medication management into everyday activities at home. The system features a large display and programming buttons to set date, next alarm and dose information. An easy-access keypad makes programming quick and simple. A med tray inside the system is easily loaded and automatically rotates, beeps and flashes to signal the time for each dose. The user flips the unit over to remove the correct pills. All other doses remain safe and secure.

Through a personalized notification system connected to a regular phone line, the MedSmart can report events like missed doses, refill reminders or machine error notices to a care giver or family member by phone, email or text message.

MedSmart now joins PioneerLink’s Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) and Home Monitor System (HMS) to help empower people throughout west central Minnesota to live independently, at home, through innovative technology and personalized services. When a person subscribes to a PioneerLink system, a professional installer will connect and test the system, show the subscriber how it works, and help set up a response plan that works for the individual.

PioneerLink is locally owned and operated by PioneerCare in Fergus Falls and is supported in part by a CS/SD grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS). More details are available by calling Brenda Daniels, PioneerLink Director of Clinical Services, at 218-998-2628.

New Dimensions Home Health Care and PioneerCare are forming a partnership to provide people with seamless navigation between home and community based services and other forms of care.

The two organizations will share resources to expand and introduce new services. Adding home care to its spectrum of services has been part of PioneerCare’s strategic plan for several years, according to John Richards, Chief Executive Officer for Pioneer.

“Our plans are based on the expectation that there will be more demand for home and community-based services in the region we serve. Expansion of these services helps address changes taking place in clinical practice as a result of health care payment reforms. For many, care at home can be a cost effective and preferred choice,” Richards said. “We are as committed to keeping seniors in their homes as we are to caring for them when they live under a PioneerCare roof.”

New Dimensions and PioneerCare will work together to serve tenants in the new PioneerCare Suites, set to open by January 1 at the care center’s original location on Sheridan Street in Fergus Falls.  The space is being remodeled to accommodate the partnership’s new services. New Dimensions leadership will oversee specialized care services while PioneerCare will handle general operations, social programming, dietary needs and other amenities for tenants. The two organizations will also bring adult day services back to the community in early 2012. The adult day services will be located at the Sheridan Street location.

“Our goal is to provide best-in-class services to residents in our region,” said Wendy Erlandson, Administrator for New Dimensions Home Health Care. “This partnership will bring added resources and services to clients so they can live the highest quality of life possible.”

Together, the partner organizations have built a workforce of more than 720 employees and that workforce continues to grow.

Founded in 1993, New Dimensions has a strong clinical presence in the community, providing a full range of home health care services.  They serve 490 clients in homes spread throughout 19 counties in Minnesota. Founded in 1928, PioneerCare provides housing and services for about 420 individuals through PioneerCare Center, Pioneer Cottages, PioneerLink, Pioneer Pointe, Pioneer Therapies and Pioneer Wellness.

“At the start, we are planning to support about 22 people in our care suites and about 20 people using our adult day services. Then, as partners, we will be providing close to 1,000 people with needed services,” Richards said.

PioneerCare Suites has started a waiting list for new tenants. More details are available by calling 218-739-6399.