Caring For Our Community Since 1976.
We hope everyone is enjoying Colorado’s often too-short Fall with its colors, cooler weather, and – yes – TRU’s Fall Newsletter. Take a peak inside to see what we’ve been up to. Read about our recent acquisition of Landmark Memory Care, The Conversation Project Updates, high tech (and low tech) ways of coping with grief during the pandemic, and more.
Read TRU’s Fall 2020 Newsletter here.
Today, TRU is announcing its acquisition of Landmark Memory Care Located on South Public Road in Lafayette, Landmark Memory Care has distinguished itself as a quality provider of care for those in our community living with Alzheimer’s and dementia diagnoses. TRU has a number of its PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) participants residing at this small, high quality, family-owned, memory care facility. Landmark, which opened in 2016, employs 20 staff and currently houses 18 residents, approximately half of whom are TRU PACE participants.
“The presence of TRU PACE residents at Landmark and the ongoing relationship between our organizations has been significant in the decision to pursue this acquisition. We have a responsibility to ensure safe and adequate housing for these participants,” said TRU Board of Directors Co-Chair Jim Williams. The relationship also provides for future PACE growth and the concurrent opportunity for Landmark’s offerings to expand.
“This is an incredible opportunity, not just for Landmark and TRU, but for our community,” said Deborah Hanson, Landmark Founder and Administrator. “Our greatest concern has always been the welfare of our residents, and we know that TRU shares that priority and will continue to provide an excellent living environment and quality care for them.”
The acquisition of Landmark was guided by TRU’s mission and its commitment to the community to expand programs and services to meet emerging needs. As the population ages, the needs of people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related illnesses are increasing, and TRU is positioned to expand programs and services in response.
“Meeting the needs of the growing PACE program and the potential to expand Alzheimer’s and dementia care services for the community were primary drivers in this move,” said TRU Board of Directors Co-Chair Martha Coffin Evans. “But we’re also excited by opportunities that a small campus will provide for the continued growth of TRU’s hospice, palliative care, grief services, and the recently opened Tele-Care Center that supports all of our programs.”
Heather Bowie, TRU’s Director of Quality and Compliance, will move into an on-site role as Landmark’s Director of Senior Housing, reporting to TRU PACE Executive Director Samantha Black.
Though last year seems but a distant memory, we would like to share our 2019 Annual Report with you. This publication captures TRU’s 2019 accomplishments and milestones, and it highlights how our staff and volunteers support our community members throughout their journeys with illness and loss. We hope that you enjoy the information and stories we have compiled.
Please view the Annual Report at your convenience, and thank you for the role you play in helping us fulfill our mission. Please continue to support TRU’s important work by making a donation today.
Left to right: Representative Sonya Jaquez Lewis, TRU PACE Executive Director Sam Black, Governor Polis, and Colorado State House candidate Tracey Bernett.
TRU was honored to receive a visit from Governor Jared Polis, Representative Sonya Jaquez Lewis, and Tracey Bernett this morning. In May, TRU received funds from the Colorado COVID Relief Fund grant initiated by Governor Polis to support communities impacted by COVID-19. TRU’s grant funding was used to help provide adequate PPE for our front line staff.
Governor Polis, speaks with TRU COO Jim Woodard and Director of Access and Palliative Care Chad Hartmann.
While visiting, the Governor and his team toured the TRU Tele-Care Center and TRU PACE and thanked us for the important work we are doing. His team was intrigued by the future of telehealth, and we anticipate further conversations with them about the path forward.
Thank you all for participating in TRU’s second annual “Take Flight” Butterfly Release and Memorial. Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic and the shift to safe, independent butterfly releases, we had 140 participants (not including family and friends), and 367 butterflies were released! Whether you made a donation, joined the virtual program, picked up and released a butterfly for a loved one, or all three, we hope you had a meaningful experience. Please enjoy this compilation of your photos and videos:
A silver lining to the challenges presented this year was the opportunity for each family to choose where, how, and with whom to release their butterflies. Some did so at the cemetery; others in their own back yards. One participant shared, “Such a well organized event, and for our family with no funeral options at this time, it was extremely meaningful and helpful.” Another told us, “I looked so forward to this humbling day; my butterfly was so beautiful and so ready to fly away to live its life just like (my loved one) was ready to live his new life. Thank you so much for giving me this moment.”
Again, thank you. Our hearts are with you all.
TRU Community Care President and CEO Michael McHale joins KGNU News Director Maeve Conran and co-host and end-of-life educator Kim Mooney to discuss the evolution of end-of-life care, advance care planning, and the landscape of hospice and palliative care in the age of COVID-19. Topics include the use of telehealth in the care of hospice patients, the business and ethics of end-of-life care, and the tools available to navigate the relief of suffering, the dying process, and grief support for the family afterwards.
It may not feel that way today, but spring is here and so is TRU’s 2020 Spring Newsletter. To learn more about how TRU is caring for the community during the pandemic, our upcoming events, expanded grief services and other news, view the pdf here.
TRU is using telehealth technology (TRU Tele-Care) to safely and effectively deliver uninterrupted care to individuals living with advanced illness and loss, some of the community’s most vulnerable populations.
TRU has deployed dozens of telehealth tablets to palliative care and hospice patients to enable real-time data exchange, proactively manage a patient’s disease progression over time, and make it easier for patients and families living with complex and chronic illness to remotely communicate with health care providers, TRU, and one another. Patients answer daily questions in one of 22 disease-specific clinical pathways, customizable to each patient so that questions, alerts, and educational materials are uniquely targeted to each individual.
The platform facilitates daily virtual monitoring and interaction between the patient and a TRU nurse and/or provider and allows clinical staff to respond immediately to any concerning data points with a video call. This virtual care approach is in keeping with today’s social distancing recommendations and is aligned with TRU’s philosophy of enabling patients to remain comfortably in their homes or the facilities where they reside while receiving the care they require. The platform also facilitates visits between TRU’s Tele-Care patients, specialists, and remote family members.
TRU has also deployed tablets to multiple hospital and facility partners to enable tele-admissions, host virtual patient/family visits, and even conduct virtual rounds and consultations. Many hospitals, assisted living, and long-term care facilities have had to limit, if not eliminate, visitors. TRU Tele-Care allows for seamless and uninterrupted care and communication while adhering to restrictions put in place to protect against the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“It’s incredible to see the difference this service has made for both patients and providers,” said Jim Woodard, TRU’s Chief Operating Officer. “I’ve been in health care for decades and have never seen an organization mobilize so quickly to offer what is needed most in the given moment. Improving quality of care and decreasing hospitalizations is always top of mind, and TRU Tele-Care is doing both while allowing us to provide uninterrupted service during this critical time. Patients and families are thanking us daily, and providers take comfort in knowing their patients are in good hands.”
The foundational technology for the TRU Tele-Care program is developed by Vivify Health, provider of the nation’s leading connected care platform for holistic patient care and engagement. TRU Tele-Care also serves TRU PACE (Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly) participants at a time when the PACE Day Center is closed due to the pandemic. TRU PACE continues to enroll new participants into TRU’s fully integrated care model that provides all preventative, primary, acute, and long-term care services for elderly participants.
TRU is also responding to the increase in isolation by providing virtual grief services. Grief support groups have moved to Zoom, a cloud meeting platform, and individual grief counseling sessions have also gone virtual.
With the health of our entire community threatened, thoughtful consideration and discussion of end-of-life values and very particular treatment preferences is prudent. If you were to contract coronavirus infection in your current condition, would you want to be hospitalized? Would you want to be on a ventilator?
Read “The coronavirus highlights the need for advance directives,” an op-ed piece in Saturday’s Daily Camera by Dr. Jean Abbott and The Conversation Project’s Amanda Meier to learn more about starting these important conversations.
One of TRUs patients in an assisted living has been unable to see her son due to lock down so he has been visiting and holding a sign up to their window from the outside which has been “good interaction” for the patient, according to family.
Another resident of an assisted living has her daughter visiting each week. The daughter sets up a lawn chair in the parking lot and the resident opens the window. They talk and visit for an hour each week, from the parking lot to the window, and haven’t missed any regular visits.
TRU received an email from a TRU Palliative Care patient’s daughter expressing gratitude for our ability to serve their family with TRU Tele-Care:
We are so glad you were and are there for Mom. Thank you for all of your work to get her set up with the Tele-Care meetings. She can call us on her own now, thank goodness. It was so important for us to be able to see her and communicate all together about her care. Thank you.
TRU received a nice note from a hospice patient’s wife in response to a recent email to patients and families:
Thank you so much for the update. My husband and I appreciate the kindness, care, and support we have received from the staff members at TRU. You have truly been a ‘God Send’ for us. Just to know we have people we can call on any time we need assistance is comforting as we wade through the murky waters of his illness. God Bless each and every one of you!
A TRU PACE social worker received these messages from a participant:
Take care and thanx for your human and caring approach to what’s going on with us at PACE. You ROCK!!!!
PACE is amazing and so are you. I’m fine and this is getting old for all of us.
Truthfully these more frequent contacts with our more vulnerable folks are truly a blessing in disguise and show how much our folks care about us too!
