St. Luke's Home July Newsletter       Med-Start Students Create Elder Profiles Thanks to the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona!    Forty-five Med-Start students and 35 Elders sat down together to share their life stories as part of Who We Are, a special program funded by a stART grant from the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona. Who We Are brought together individuals who would not typically spend time listening to one another.  Elders and students met weekly for lunch and filled out a simple questionnaire about their parents, grandparents and family tradition. Profiles included words, collage, photos and drawings.  The third-year cohort of the University of Arizona's Med-Start Summer Program wound up July 1 with a special ceremony at St. Luke's. The program runs through the College…

    St. Luke's Home June Newsletter         Stronger, Longer Health Initiative Ramps Up   Spend a few minutes chatting with Melissa Hernandez, Culinary Director and Executive Chef, at St. Luke's (pictured above) and her enthusiasm is infectious about St. Luke's implementation of the Stronger, Longer health initiative. St. Luke's is celebrating the strong role of better nutrition, daily movement and mental stimulation in healthier aging by offering a wider range of choices in each of these areas for Elders. Since January, Melissa and Selina Miramontes, Lead Cook, have attended three conferences on nutrition including one sponsored by the Association of Food Service Professionals and a Nutrition Alliance Conference one-day intensive in Phoenix. “I have loved the challenge of learning how to move the culinary program at St.…

  St. Luke's Home May Newsletter     A Tribute to Mothers from L'Don Sawyer: In honor of Mother's Day on May 13th,  I wanted to take the opportunity to  thank every mother in the St. Luke's family and offer a few of my own memories of how profoundly my mom, June Sawyer, (pictured above left) influenced my life. Our relationships with our mothers are typically fraught, fragile and fierce with feeling. Not one of us arrived on this earth without a mother whose own body grew, fed and gave us life. The beat and pulse of her provided the rhythms of our earliest days, and her touch imbued us with our sense of safety and love. My own mother inspired in me the deep love of Elders that has informed…

St. Luke's Home April Newsletter St. Luke's Represented at ALFA Conference   St. Luke's CEO L'Don Sawyer and Board Member Terri Waldman attended the Annual Spring Conference and Expo sponsored by the Arizona chapter of the Assisted Living Association of America. The Conference and Expo were held April 3-5 at the Wa-Ko-Pa Resort & Conference Center near Scottsdale. "The conference provided great information and discussion on issues facing assisted-living caregivers," Sawyer reported. "There was very good data on the caregiver shortages faced in our state and the changes that are being proposed in terms of training requirements for certified caregivers." The conference, which is held each spring, was attended by assisted-living providers from all over the state. Training sessions were offered on a range of areas including Elder Care, Medication…

  St. Luke's Home March Newsletter      Monthly Town Hall Meetings Invite Elder Input   St. Luke's Elders gather monthly for Town Hall meetings, a key component of St. Luke's Eden Model of assisted-living that invites Elders to fully participate in their community. Town Hall meetings always begin with an opening question that all are invited to answer. This month's query: what is your favorite flower? For the record, there were many roses and daisies with a few lotus and wisteria thrown in for good measure. But the meetings are not just frivolous and fun. St. Luke's CEO, L'Don Sawyer, (pictured above with microphone) presides over the meetings, which feature reports and discussion by Elders on a range of concerns and challenges. These have included how to live respectfully with…

  St. Luke's Home February Newsletter     UA Pharmacy Students Return to St. Luke's for SOAR Program The University of Arizona's 2018 SOAR (Student and Older Adult Relationship) program recently launched its third year at St. Luke's Home. The program brings first-year UA College of Pharmacy students to St. Luke's to work directly with the Elders. The program provides students opportunities in  areas such as practicing communication and interviewing skills, recording health histories, reconciling medication records, screening for inappropriate medication use, and assessing mental health and nutritional needs.  Jenene Spencer, PharmD, College of Pharmacy Instructor and Coordinator of the Tucson SOAR program, praised the innovation of SOAR in the way it combines didactic and experiential opportunities for the students. (Jenene is pictured above left with UA Pharmacy Student Thy Phi.) Students…

    St. Luke's Home January Newsletter         St. Luke's Eager to Build on Gains of 2017!     St. Luke's Home hits the new year eager to build on the many successes of 2017. In these early weeks of 2018, we want to thank all of our donors, volunteers and supporters for making last year such a great one and provide a quick overview, by the numbers, of St. Luke's many achievements: 1,113 opportunities for Elders to actively engage in life. On average, our Elders had 80 opportunities each month including shopping trips, hair cuts, Spanish classes, exercise classes, group games, nightly movies and educational presentations on a wide range of topics.  763 volunteers provided 6,481 hours worth of service in a range of areas assisting St.…