Sierra Healthcare Community - May 2008
Happy 105th Birthday, Chesta! On March 3, 2008, Chesta Karry celebrated her 105th birthday surrounded by family and friends at Sierra Healthcare. Chesta’s 98–year–old sister Dorothy was among the many family members who came to celebrate with Chesta. Chesta has been at Sierra Healthcare for the past 5 years and Sierra Healthcare presented her with 105 yellow roses in honor of her birthday. Yellow roses are Chesta’s favorite flower. Chesta Karry was born March 2, 1903 in Missouri and moved to the Sterling, Colorado area when she was two. Chesta had 4 sisters and 1 brother. Above, Chesta is pictured with her great, great, great niece!
New Experiences are the Spice of Life. On Friday, February 22nd, representatives from the Taoist Tai Chi Society were here to discuss the implementation of a Tai Chi class for community members and staff. The classes will be held here at Sierra one time per week on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. and will be conducted on the prasAda community. The cost is $35.00 per person for a six–week course for staff members. The cost for community members will be paid by the facility. Tai Chi or Tai Chi chuan is an internal Chinese martial art and is practiced by individuals of all ages for multiple reasons. Its soft martial arts techniques primarily involve three subjects: health, meditation and martial arts performance. Traditional schools cover all these aspects simultaneously while new schools focus on single subjects dependent on the goals of the individuals. An example might be an individual who is physically unhealthy might find it difficult to meditate to a state of calmness or use tai chi as a martial art, therefore the concentration of the training would focus on relieving the physical effects of stress on the body and mind. Tai Chi is practiced worldwide today and is promoted as a method for the elderly or infirm to reclaim the natural vigor of youth. This sounds like something all of would like to accomplish. If you are interested please contact Sue Martin or Hollie Hoyle at Sierra Healthcare Community to find out about availability. 303–238–1375.
On the Way to Eden. We are proud to announce we are currently working on becoming a part of the Eden Alternative. Our Culture Change journey continues to grow each day as our staff has embraced the concept and found it to be an adventure in innovation. Our Certified Nurses Aides are having quite a time facilitating evening activities and the competition for new and exciting ideas has not abated. The staff seems to be more cheerful and have embraced additional responsibilities including budgeting and completing spend–down sheets to account for their program expenditures. Our Aides are given a $50.00 gift card each month to use for their programs and are held accountable for the way they spend it. Our Community Members are enjoying the permanent assignments and our Aides are feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Increasing our feeling of Community and Home, encouraging friendships and relationships and empowering not only our staff but the Community Members has long been a part of our Community. Expanding this is our latest endeavor. We are currently combining our culture change movement, Piñon's rhythms (which we presented at the Pioneer Network last year) and the Eden Alternative into a cohesive and complementary system of principles to guide us in our daily care of our Community Members’ physical needs but especially their spritual and psychosocial needs. We will be sure to let you know when we have our Eden Open House.
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