News

District Meetings start next week. Register now to attend your local meeting. Experience interactive and engaging conversations with your peers while you:

Beginning June 5, onsite surveys and investigations will include an electronic provider feedback form to help provide information for the Minnesota Department of Health’s (MDH) continuous improvement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will discontinue the nursing home staff vaccination mandate in early August.

LeadingAge Minnesota has added a COVID-19 facility assessment policy template to the resource library as a companion document to the facility assessment workbook provided last week.

Minnesota State provides the required training to work as a Medication Aide in a skilled nursing facility. They have new classes set up for June and will have July classes posted by the end of this week. Students will develop an understanding of drug administration with this comprehensive training program.

Grants are available through the State Civil Monetary Penalties (CMP) Initiative to participate in the LifeBio program. The program uses resident interviews and journals to create a resident life story.  The stories can be shared with family, staff, and other residents to enhance resident care and quality of life. 

As part of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Multifamily Housing Programs announced a forthcoming initiative to support housing providers with energy and water use benchmarking. The initiative will offer free contractor support to assist with energy and water benchmarking services to HUD multifamily assisted housing properties.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) recently clarified with LeadingAge Minnesota when families and visitors can share a meal with a resident in the dining room or attend activities. According to MDH, organizations should continue infection prevention and control practices and complete a facility risk assessment to determine visitor attendance in congregate dining settings and activities.

Last week, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the final rule to establish its new approach to defining and assessing housing quality, the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE). The final rule describes the development of NSPIRE and the next steps from HUD before NSPIRE is implemented on Oct. 1 for multifamily and voucher programs and July 1 for public housing.

As Mental Health Awareness Month ends, don’t forget the mental health resources and tools you and your teams can revisit throughout the year.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This is the second in a series of articles from contributor Dr. Alyson VanAhn, Associated Clinic of Psychology, featuring tools to improve staff mental health.

In an overview article, I introduced three major factors that can improve staff retention when attended to deliberately by you and the leaders in your buildings—staff feeling valued, supported, and effective.  This article focuses on feeling supported.

This last week of Mental Health Awareness Week revisit the Self-Care activities related to social connections and chasing happiness. Stop saying, “I will be happy when…” and start saying, “I am happy now because….”

Eric Meittunen has joined the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs as Deputy Commissioner - Veterans Healthcare. Eric will lead the Healthcare Division with responsibility for our five current and three new Veterans Homes, Adult Day Center, and Veteran Suicide Prevention initiative.

American Baptist Homes of the Midwest (ABHM), an Eden Prairie, Minnesota, based not-for-profit provider of senior living and health care, is pleased to announce the appointment of Annette Greely as the new President and Chief Executive Officer.

The tenth annual LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation Golf Tournament will be held on the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 1, at the Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury. We invite you to play an essential role in this exciting event.