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Nominations are due Monday, Sept. 13 for the 2022 Stars Among Us Awards.

Award categories include Caregiver, Volunteer, and Board Trustee of the Year, Outstanding Leadership, Spirit of Aging and the new Rising Star Award. Excellence in Practice organizational awards are for performance improvement and Safe Care for Seniors initiatives.

Care centers have access to an engagement, retention, and leadership building platform for FREE through a grant for Align’s Employee Engagement Solution. A new grant window is opening soon, just as the previous cycle is wrapping up.

Join our LeadingAge, our national affiliate, for a housing call on Monday, Sept. 13 at 11:30 a.m. CT to discuss staffing issues in affordable housing communities.

LeadingAge Minnesota encourages all assisted living providers to complete the background study affiliation process before the Minnesota Department of Health closes home care records. If your home care agency is closing, you must act quickly if you have staff to affiliate from your home care agency record.

Resilience is our ability to bounce back from the stresses of life, and doing Random Acts of Kindness for others is a scientifically proven way to build resilience. Learn more in this 2-minute Self Care for Safe Care video with Dr. Alyson VanAhn from Associated Clinics of Psychology.

As the workforce crisis deepens due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1135 waiver remains in place, grant funding for the Basic Care Aide and Paid Feeding Assistant Training programs has been extended until November. This support comes from the LeadingAge Minnesota Foundation and EduCare. You may continue to register students here, while EduCare users can still access the training in your EduCare library.

Last week, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) clarified their interpretation of COVID-19 prevention and infection control in assisted living licensed facilities. Screening of residents by staff is required for each resident who is receiving assisted living services. Residents who are only receiving housing and supportive services may screen themselves and report results to staff.

Thursday, Sept. 2 marked the final working group meeting for Hero Pay. Since July, lawmakers have been meeting to finalize how the $250 million allocated to reward frontline workers will be distributed. In their final meeting, co-chairs Senator Housley and Majority Leader Winkler indicated that progress is being made. However, they have yet to reach a consensus and will continue the conversation beyond their self-imposed deadline of Sept. 7.

This week, the Long-Term Care Imperative is conducting a survey of workforce conditions faced by care center and assisted living members.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) has announced a plan for moving from emergency background studies back to studies with fingerprints and photographs.

Developing and supporting nursing leaders in aging services has never been more important than it is right now. LeadingAge Minnesota's Nursing Leadership Certificate Program is a proven training ground for the state's most accomplished leaders.

Registration is open for this year’s Quality and Patient Safety Conference on Oct. 14 in Bloomington, and the pre-conference workshop, Foundations of Quality Improvement, on Oct. 13.

The 2021 Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum is being converted to a virtual conference this year. The updated schedule will have half-day virtual programming on the original dates of Sept. 22, 23, 24, and Tuesday, Oct. 5.

The Connect Conference that brings together senior housing, assisted living, and home care returns to Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center this Oct. 27 and 28. The landscape of aging services has changed in the last year, and this conference features several related educational sessions.

Planning is underway for the 2022 Institute & Expo, Feb. 8-11 at the RiverCentre in St. Paul. We are now accepting your proposals to present concurrent educational sessions at the conference, which over 3,000 aging services professionals attend.

Have you posted open positions on the new AgingServicesJobs.Org platform? The new site is now available! Post today and receive an introductory rate of $39 per posting using the coupon code Aging2021 (postings typically $99). This discount will be available to all members for a limited time as we recognize this critical time in building our workforce.

Nominations are being accepted for your amazing staff, residents and volunteers in preparation for the 2022 Stars Among Us Awards. Nominations are due for individual and organizational awards on Sept. 13 in multiple categories, including the Caregiver of the Year, Outstanding Leadership, and the new Rising Star Award.

To streamline and coordinate timing between national and state communications, LeadingAge Minnesota’s weekly newsletter will be sent to you on Thursdays starting on Thursday, Sept. 23.

Audacious Inquiry (Ai), a health information technology firm, is offering to connect with LeadingAge Minnesota nursing home members about a funding opportunity available until Sept. 30 relating to health information exchange.

EduCare’s 5-part Dementia Series is now recognized by the Alzheimer’s Association for successfully completing curriculum review and incorporating its evidenced-based Dementia Care Practice Recommendations in the following topic areas: Alzheimer’s and dementia, person-centered care, assessment and care planning, activities of daily living, and behaviors and communication.

Share your thoughts on vaccine mandates. Show your support for the Infrastructure Bill.

Join your peers from around the country in a national advocacy effort and contact your elected officials today. LeadingAge, our national affiliate, has launched two grassroots campaigns and now is the time to act. Send a message to your U.S. Representatives and Senators.

In late July, a select working group began hosting hearings on allocating the money set aside during the 2021 special session for Hero Pay bonuses for frontline workers. Several different groups are vying for a piece of the $250 million. This week, the working group hosted a hearing to discuss the criteria used to allocate the money.

When Minnesota's Peacetime Emergency ended on July 1, it started a sixty-day countdown to the expiration of most Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) COVID-19 waivers or modifications of state laws or regulations. 

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is actively developing a plan for booster vaccinations in long-term care settings.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aims to launch boosters the week of Sept. 20, and MDH wants to be sure this next phase in the vaccination process rolls out as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith joined a group of 43 senators urging U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to distribute the funds remaining in the Provider Relief Fund (PRF) and other health care relief programs.

Resilience is our ability to bounce back from the stresses of life. In a new Self Care for Safe Care video, Dr. Alyson VanAhn from Associated Clinics of Psychology describes the impact of the strains from COVID-19 on all aspects of our lives and how we can build our resilience and practice Self Care for Safe Care.

The 2021 Connect Conference for Senior Housing, Assisted Living, and Home Care is on Oct. 27-28 at the Earle Brown Heritage Center, Brooklyn Center. Save the dates and watch for conference and registration information coming later this week.

Last week’s announcement of a Virtual Annual Meeting & Leadership Forum will change the event schedule. The conference will be all virtual, half-days on the original dates of Sept. 22-24 and additionally on Oct. 5.

We are pleased to announce the 2021 Quality & Patient Safety Conference on Oct. 14. Additionally, we are holding a pre-conference workshop, Foundations of Quality Improvement, on Oct. 13.

This pair of events helps position your organization to refine its quality improvement programs, use data information to drive decision-making, and develop and implement solutions to address priority issues.

LeadingAge Minnesota’s acclaimed Nursing Leadership Certificate Program returns for 2021-22 and is open for registration. This program has a 30+ year track record of equipping nurses with critical leadership and operational skills to provide high-quality care and services in care centers and assisted living settings.