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Welcome to AmeriCare's
news page. Here, you will be able to find news about our staff, facilities,
projects and programs as well as current events. Please check back often
to get current news and information about us.
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Nursing home care praised (6/15/04)
from The Commercial Review
June 15, 2004
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To the editor:
All too often we don't hesitate to share our gripes and complaints, but we fail to give thanks and credit to those so deserving. We are referring to AmeriCare Living Center of Portland. Because of failing health, we found it necessary to transfer our mother from Parkview Hospital to AmeriCare Living Center in April, where she resided until her recent death.
We were told that visitation was allowed around the clock, as long as we weren't disturbing to other patients. They worked very hard to make sure that mother was clean and comfortable, they were very quick to respond to suggestions that we made, called on updates regarding her condition, and even suggested moving her to another facility if we felt she would get better care. They were so cooperative.
For those who are able, the facility offers so many activities and entertainment. Also therapy and improvement to the point where some have been able to leave AmeriCare and return to their former home. We believe the answer is, "if we will work with them, they will work with us."
Thank you, AmeriCare Living Center of Portland.
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Clifton
Mr. and Mrs. Don McQuarey
(Original article posted here.)
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Follies proclaim hope to seniors
Senior citizens careen into lives of nursing home peers.
The Indianapolis Star
December 25, 2003
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CARMEL -- Bouts with everything from hearing loss and arthritis to more serious ailments like breast cancer or heart disease don't deter them.
That's because the dozen members of the Prime Life Follies have a mission: bringing inspiration into the lives of their peers -- 60, 70, and 80 year olds.
To do so, former math teacher Lori Mansell, 64, tap dances. Grayson Parks, 85, whistles and sings. Carmel Symphony member Barb Jeffries, 75, plays the viola. And all 12 Follies members spend hours creating the variety shows they perform at retirement centers throughout the Carmel area.
"We love each other, we love what we do, and we love the people we do it for," said Jack Mansell, 79, a former fighter pilot who earned four Purple Hearts in World War II and now co-directs the group with his wife, Lori.
The couple got the performers together last spring, after they moved from the San Diego area in 2002 to be closer to children and grandchildren -- and Midwesterners, period.
"It's a caring bunch," said Lori. "It is not all about the weather. It's the people, mainly."
Lori learned to dance on the West Coast in a variety of similar groups with names like the Spotlighters, Ranchettes and even the Hot Flashes.
But the Follies are Jack's first major performing endeavor.
Mary Massa, 76, saw the group's Christmas Show last week at Prime Life Enrichment Center, Carmel's senior citizens center. Massa was impressed by Parks, who crooned "I'll Be Home for Christmas" during the show.
"The one gentleman was way older than me, and the way he sang and whistled gave you courage," Massa said. "He is a big inspiration to me, this man. I was in awe. That's the first time I have seen them."
The group accomplishes its mission wherever it goes, said the retirement community directors who have hosted them.
Entertainers at Carmel's Manor Care at Summer Trace usually are much younger than the senior citizens who make up the Prime Life Follies, said Travis Summers, activities director.
"Normally, (entertainers) are not anyone close to the realm of their age," Summers said. "When they see people their age singing, performing and tap dancing, not only are they ecstatic for that, they talked about it for quite a long time afterwards."
When seniors who live in retirement centers see people their age performing, they start to think they could do the same thing.
"Some of the residents sit back and say, 'I would really love to do that,' " said Daaron Porter, executive director of Crown Pointe of Carmel. "When the staff starts watching them, you know something's up."
The shows are quite a spectacle. This month, the Prime Life Follies are playing the Christmas theme to the hilt.
The men in the group wear debonair tuxedos, and their female counterparts come clad in holiday glitter and Santa hats.
There's a violin/viola duet, plus singalongs and dance numbers of all kinds.
When 113-pound Mansell slips on her Santa suit, she wears a skirt short enough that some might mistake her for one of New York's Radio City Rockettes.
"I went to boarding school. I was always a goodie-two-shoes. I love it," Mansell says of her tiny costumes. "The audience likes it. They think it's show business."
Mansell is gorgeous in her costumes, said Sandy Stewart, executive director of Carmel's Prime Life Enrichment Center. The center houses a not-for-profit organization for senior citizens and it is where the Follies are based.
"She is absolutely beautiful," Stewart said, "and they are having a ball."
The Follies and their members are proof to others that aging isn't really the downward spiral that some think it is.
"I think it's the opposite," said Stewart said. "People are able to concentrate on dreams and sometimes it's something they never had the courage to try, or the time to try."
Stewart guessed that Mansell has been dancing most of her life, but she's wrong.
Mansell actually started about six years ago, after her former husband and a son both died within a two-year span.
"I was totally depressed," she said, "I wanted to give up."
Her low mood took her to a California senior citizen's center for relief. At first, that didn't look promising, either.
"The bridge players were too grim, and I couldn't paint. And the line dancing class was full," she said.
That's when she discovered a tap dancing group, whose members are in their 80s now and still dancing.
She learned from the first group and that led her to West Coast follies groups, the inspiration for Carmel's Prime Life Follies. Just after she started dancing, Lori met Jack, her current husband, at church and things started looking up.
Then, when the two moved to Carmel they started the Follies with just four people. It has since grown to 12.
"When we signed up for this thing over at Prime Life, I thought, 'I don't care how many people we have, we are going to go out to these nursing homes and make the people happy,' " Mansell said.
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Thursday, December 4, 2003
AmeriCare and Lifestream are currently
partnering on a new affordable housing complex in Portland, Indiana to be
known as "Portland Place." Other affordable housing complexes are currently
on AmeriCare's drawing board and will be announced in the months ahead.
To see live webcam images of the Portland Place project in progress, please click here.
AmeriCare buys Church of God properties
Publication date:
Thursday, August 7, 2003
BY JIM BAILEY
Staff Reporter
AmeriCare Communities, a leader in assisted living and senior retirement communities within Indiana, bought nine senior
facilities from the former Church Extension of the Church of God.
The sale includes CrownPointe Senior Living Community in Anderson, seven senior assisted living buildings and one skilled nursing facility.
Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
AmeriCare assumed ownership on Aug. 1, said Larry New, president and CEO of the Muncie-based AmeriCare Communities.
AmeriCare also owns and operates seven assisted living campuses located in Portland, Hartford City, Union City, Yorktown,
Carmel, Monticello and Muncie, and 12 skilled nursing facilities, including AmeriCare Living Center of Anderson. The company
has also developed five senior condominium communities since 1990 and is involved in the construction of various
affordable housing projects for seniors in several Indiana communities.
Properties in the sale include GreenTree in Greenfield; CrownPointe of Lebanon; CrownPointe of Stevensville, Mich.; Willow Knoll
of Middletown, Ohio; and in Florida, CrownPointe of Spring Hill, Genesis Pointe of Lake Wales and CrownPointe of Sebring. All of
the campuses will retain their names except the Greenfield campus, which will be renamed CrownPointe of Greenfield.
The sale helps Church Extension fulfill a court-approved agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to repay
investors. The Extension was accused of defrauding investors out of $85 million by using money solicited to build and buy
property for churches for real estate operations and other financial transactions instead.
Church Extension has been dissolved and replaced by a new corporation, Church Builders Plus.
"It's a good deal for everyone," said Barry Bentley, spokesman for Church Extension. "It's good for Church Extension,
and it's good for the residents. We think AmeriCare is the right group to take over those facilities."
Bentley explained, however, that a lot of the transaction involves deferred cash that Church Extension will receive
down the road. But it provides immediate relief for the agency of the financial burden of operating its assisted living facilities.
"It was a portfolio of assets that was difficult to manage when you are in a situation like ours," he admitted.
"Our communities match up very much with the missions of their communities," New said. There are also strong ties to Anderson
among AmeriCare's administrators. Both New and Jack Fulda, chief operating officer for AmeriCare Communities, attend East Side
Church of God in Anderson. Fulda also taught sociology at Anderson University for 13 years. Rebecca Bartle, a co-owner in
charge of medical staff, is from Anderson.
"We've comtemplating this for about a year," New said. "We're a growing business and see opportunities here. We see possibliities
for growth in Anderson."
The sale brings the number of AmeriCare employees to about 2,000, New said.
"The ministry that the Church of God began with these facilities will continue when they become a part of the AmeriCare
family of assisted living communities," New said. "I am excited about the synergy that this acquisition brings to our
company and the opportunities to continue the work that the Church of God began with the creation of these unique assisted
living communities."
Fulda will oversee operations acquired from the Church of God. Fulda joined the company one year ago. He graduated
from Anderson University in 1968 and later chaired the university's Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminal
Justice and taught criminal justice and sociology courses for 13 years before entering the business world to start
his own company. Fulda holds master's degrees from both the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the State University
of New York at Albany.
Story from an online article at the Herald Bulletin website. |
Gardening on wheels
Nursing home residents get down and dirty with planting project
By PATRICIA SWANSON
Courier & Press staff writer
May 14, 2003
Loretta Marks beamed as she dug in the dirt, putting a little red-and-white
petunia into the damp soil.
A canvas apron protected her dress, and plastic gloves kept her hands and
fingernails clean.
"I was raised on a farm," she said, tamping down the dirt around the plant
and reaching for another one.
It had been a long time sin .he had worked in a g .n, and it brought
back fond memories for the 90-year-old resident of the AmeriCare nursing
home on Washington Avenue in Evansville...
Read the full story at myinky.com |
Blackford Community Hospital joins the CHS family
Blackford Community Hospital has joined the Cardinal Health System family. County commissioners, council members and
the hospital's Board of Trustees voted in May to transfer ownership to CHS.
In exchange for ownership of the hospital, CHS will build a new $8-10 million facility in Hartford City by early 2004.
The new Blackford Community Hospital will serve an expanded customer base and increase access to care for the county's residents...
Read the full story at Cardinal Health System's website |
Construction begins in weeks for new Blackford Community Hospital
Cardinal Health System acquired assets from the former Blackford County Hospital in June 2002. Since then the new organization,
identified as Blackford Community Hospital, announced plans to build a replacement facility on a 15-acre site along S.R. 3
on the north edge of Hartford City. The new hospital will adjoin Heritage Commons, an assisted-living complex and condominiums
for seniors....
Read the full story at Cardinal Health System's website |
State honors AmeriCare
Americare Living Centers of Westfield was recently named as one of 26 Indiana nursing homes that
had no deficiencies in annual surveys conducted from October through December 2002 by state health officials.
A total of 135 nursing homes in Indiana received annual surveys during this period.
"Our inspection process is rigorous, so we want to congratulate the managers and staffs of these 26 facilities
that had zero deficiencies," said Liz Carroll, assistant commissioner for Health Care Regulatory Services at the
Indiana State Department of Health.
For each annual survey of a long-term care facility, detailed inspections last from four days to two weeks.
Team members are registered nurses or social workers.
The surveys cover residents' rights, including admission, transfer and discharge; residents' behavior and facility practices; quality of life; resident assessment; quality of care; nursing services; physician services; dental services; infection control; physical environment; and administration.
Americare Living Centers of Westfield is at 776 N. Union St. It is the only facility in the StarNorth-area to receive the honor, according to state officials.
This article is from the Indianapolis Star's web page |
Residents get courtyard at assisted-living site
Thursday, July 10, 2003
YORKTOWN AmeriCare Communities will conduct a grand opening of a fenced courtyard area at the Jefferson House at noon
Wednesday. The assisted-living apartments are for residents of Heritage Retirement Village in Yorktown who are afflicted
with dementia or Alzheimer's.
The landscaped, 300-square-foot area has bird feeders and overlooks a pond.
Information: 759-4700.
(Story from the StarPress.com) |
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