July 2016

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INS

IDE Coordinator Corner ................................................................. 2

Safer Bathroom Flooring .................................................... 3 Radiosurgery Options .......................................................... 4Upcoming Lunch and Learn Sessions .............................. 5

Cultivating Their Future with ChooseHomeRobert and Joann Yorks can cite hundreds of reasons they want to age in place and why they chose ChooseHome.

In fact, they can show you.

Just walk through their gardens at their Yorktown home and around their 800 azaleas, 600 daylilies, 10 hydrangeas and dozens of little flow-er beds, lovingly cultivated in every bare spot of the property.

Originally from Pennsylvania, the couple moved to the Peninsula in 1979 when Robert, now a retired Air Force colonel, was stationed at Langley Air Force Base. They found and fell in love with a house in the Tabb area.

“We moved into a house that was on a piece of property that really had nothing but a house on it,” Robert said. “We thought the Lord must have put us here to beautify it.”

In those early days, with four children still living at home, being outside in the garden also fostered quality family time, allowing Robert and Joann to be outside with them, Robert said, “doing our

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CHOOSEHOME MEMBER PROFILE

ROBERT AND JOANN YORKS

UPCOMING MEMBER EVENTS

Learning Event: “Introduction to the Neuro-Science of Brain Health”

Wednesday, July 27 at 2 p.m. at Patriots Colony, Williamsburg

This discussion will be presented by Scott Sautter, Ph.D., who has 25 years experience as owner of Hampton Roads Neuropsychology, providing assessment and intervention for known and suspected neurologic disorders. RSVP to 757-585-2654 or choosehome@rivhs.com.

Social Event: “The Filharmonic”

Saturday, Aug. 6 at 6:30 p.m.at Ferguson Center for the Arts, Newport News

Riverside is providing each ChooseHome member with a ticket to enjoy The Filharmonic, a group of Filipino-American youngsters featured in NBC’s hit musical competition the “Sing Off ” and in the movie “Pitch Perfect 2.”

Patriots Colony and Warwick Forest are providing free transportation for ChooseHome members from Williamsburg. Buses will depart the Target parking lot off Monticello Avenue. at 6:30 p.m. and return after the performance. RSVP to 757-585-2654 or email teresa.sweaney@rivhs.com. A limited number of tickets/seats are available.

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2ChooseHome | JULY 2016

Our Coordinator: A Comforting Resource When Living Far From Family When Frank “Fritz” Ober and his wife, Kathleen “Kit,” traded their lifetime home in New England for one in Williamsburg’s Ford’s Colony, their intentions were clear. As golfers and lovers of the outdoors, they fell in love with the mild climate. The fair cost of living made smart sense for the now older adults. As retired professionals, they wanted to live near a college where they could continue learning.

And, quite frankly, they wanted to live farther away from their children. Yes. FARTHER away.

“I remember distinctly my daughter-in-law saying ‘but you are so far away, we can’t take care of you.’ You got that right, was what I told her,” Kit said. “We didn’t want to burden our children with having to take care of us.”

In Virginia, with their children in Vermont and New York, Fritz and Kit were close enough to be available for visits, but far enough away that they were compelled to make their own aging plans. “We are going to need care one day,” Fritz said. “We see that. And that’s what attracted us to ChooseHome.”

More importantly, that’s what attracted them to the core element of the ChooseHome program – the personal services coordinators, who serve as a personal guide, as well as a trusted advocate, on the journey to ac-tive and independent aging at home.

Kit said it is comforting knowing they have somebody here in Wil-liamsburg who “oversees and knows our entire situation. They can also correspond with our children should something happen.”

COORDINATOR CORNER

Meet Charlie Martino Trusted Advocate and Personal Services Coordinator

Advocacy is at the heart of every-thing Charlie Martino does. His career in the health care field began as an architect specializing in health care projects such as hospitals and nursing homes. He then decided to make his work more personal, and began a second career as a geron-tological specialist.

“Planning ahead in our industry, we call that successful aging,” Martino said. “Riverside’s Choose-Home offers the ability for fami-lies to create that plan and creates opportunities for folks to have those conversations.”

Prior to joining Riverside’s ChooseHome team, Martino operated his own firm, helping families caring for an elderly adult at home access resources in the community to reduce stress and improve the quality of life for everyone involved.

“I am driven to help families succeed as they face their care-giving challenges,” Martino said. “My own personal experiences as a long distance caregiver for my dad, mom and aunt in New York have proven the importance to be prepared with a plan to help guide the journey. My professional expe-rience working with older adults and their families further demon-strates that planning ahead pro-vides less stress, improved quality of life and ability to achieve ones goals towards successful aging.”

ChooseHome members Fritz and Kit Ober

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Becoming a ChooseHome MemberA prospective client must be at least 60 and pass a medical assessment. Members receive help covering costs of care through the program as well as personalized care coordination through a designated personal services coordinator. For more information about ChooseHome or to schedule a personalized consultation, please call 757-585-2654 or visit ChooseHome.com.

Seeing the Beauty and Finding Safety in Bathroom FloorsTips from the National Aging in Place Council

So you’ve made the decision to age in place. Congratulations! Chances are you might also be looking around to see what safety improve-ments you may have to make around your home.

Look first to your bathroom and then look down. According to the National Aging in Place Council, “the bathroom is the most important room to remodel for safety when it comes to aging in place. Choosing a flooring that will help prevent slips and falls is a criti-cal part of this process.”

The council provides a safety ranking for various flooring types, including ceramic tile, glass, non-slip vinyl, cork or bamboo, carpet, rubber, natural stone, concrete and hardwood.

Ranking among the most safe floor-ing options were nonslip vinyl, cork or bamboo, rubber and hardwood.

• Rubber flooring was ranked the most safe because of the ease of maintenance and it’s not slick when wet. However, it can be pricey and not as traditionally appealing.

• Nonslip vinyl tied with cork or bamboo for second. Non-slip vinyl pros include that older adults who live alone

and do their own cleaning will find vinyl maintenance easier. However, it does not come with any additional padding, so if someone does slip and fall on vinyl, it can cause injury. Cork or bamboo is softer and warm-er underfoot, but these soft surfaces can absorb water if not sealed properly, making main-tenance harder.

• Carpet is obviously a warm, soft surface, but keeping it clean can be a real challenge, especially in a bathroom.

• Hardwood flooring is aesthet-ically appealing, durable and “tough enough to withstand the pressure of a walker,” the coun-cil wrote. But it’s also “very hard and will provide no cushioning in the event of a fall.”

Thinking about upgrading the flooring in your bathroom? Contact ChooseHome for help deciding what will work best as you age in place and for a referral to a Riverside contractor.

choosehome.com | JULY 20164

Hope. That’s what the Gamma Knife and Synergy S options offer cancer patients considered high risk for conventional surgery or radiation therapy.

Located on the campus of Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, the Chesapeake Regional, River-side and University of Virginia Radiosurgery Center is a cooperative venture between the three entities. It serves people throughout southeastern Virginia and parts of North Carolina and over the last decade has treat-ed more than 3,400 patients.

What is radiosurgery?

Radiosurgery is a high-dose form of externally generated radiation delivered with exceptional accuracy to a specific target in the brain or body. The term includes the word “surgery” because of the scalpel-like precision of the radi-ation. The radiation destroys cancer cells or impedes their ability to grow. At the same time, as a result of this highly focused energy, healthy organs and tissues surrounding the tumor are far less likely to be harmed.

For both brain (inter-cranial) and body tumors, radiosur-gery can effectively treat patients who are not good candi-dates for conventional surgery, conventional radiation or other methods of treatment.

While there are different types of devices capable of pro-viding radiosurgery treatment, the Radiosurgery Center uses the Gamma Knife technology for brain tumors and the Synergy S system for tumors in the body or for brain tumors not accessible to the Gamma Knife.

Gamma Knife

Gamma Knife is a bladeless, non-invasive device that concentrates 201 separate beams of radiation onto a single treatment target in the brain. Because each of the individ-ual beams is relatively weak and the high intensity occurs only when they converge, the chance of any damage to surrounding tissue is minimized.

“Because I have what appears to be a recurrent tumor, I ended up having two radiosurgeries with the Gamma Knife,” said Arthur Johnson about his experience. “In both

RIVERSIDE NEWS

Radiosurgery Center Offers Innovative Cancer TreatmentAn Option When You Seem Out of Options

Synergy S radiosurgery technology

cases, there was no real pain and I was back to my normal activities practically by the time I got home. The other day I cut the grass and washed two cars and was still looking for something to do.”

In addition to treating benign and malignant brain tumors and lesions, Gamma Knife treats other disorders including arteriovascular malformations, certain functional disor-ders like Parkinson’s disease and trigeminal neuralgia, a chronic pain condition.

Synergy S

Synergy S radiosurgery brings together a leading-edge linear accelerator, a device that generates and delivers a highly precise beam of radiation, with a three-dimensional imaging component that lets the radiosurgery team view tumors in real time, right at the moment of treatment.

Synergy S effectively treats cancers of the spine, neck, chest, prostate, pancreas and liver. It can also be used for certain brain tumors that can’t be treated effectively by Gamma Knife, based on type, size or location.

“For the past 12 years, the challenge has been carrying on with my life and being able to get as much out of it as possible,” said Christine Young, a long-time resident of Williamsburg and a Synergy S patient. “My family has been wonderful and for most of the time, I’ve been able to continue working. Throughout all of it, the bottom line is that the care I’m receiving is what has kept me alive.”

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thing while they did their thing.” It grew into a true love for gardening.

“We enjoy it so much and we didn’t want to leave,” Robert said. “We were looking for something that would allow us to stay in the house and do what we love to do. ChooseHome served exactly what we were looking for.” Plus, it came with Riverside’s trusted name.

“We’ve been in the area long enough to know a lot about Riverside,” Robert said. “That played a role, too. There’s a lot of companies around that offer something similar to this, something that allows you to stay in your home, but we trust the name Riverside.”

Robert and Joann, married now for 55 years, will readily admit that they know they are getting older. While they have four children, they don’t want to become a burden on them if their aging requires more care.

“My father came down with cancer and I had to bring him into my home,” Joann said. “I loved taking care of him, but I was actually a prisoner to the house. I couldn’t go out and shop and things like that. I didn’t want that for my children.”

In fact Joann has said, “we have one child located here about 10 minutes from us and we’ve impressed upon him that if we need help we’ll call him way down on the list because we wanted ChooseHome to help us first.”

Thanks to their garden, they stay active, determined to “wear out, instead of rust out,” Robert said.

Quite frankly, Joann said, “we prefer to be outside more than inside and are already talking to people who will come and take care of our garden when we are no longer able to do that. We now have someone to take care of us inside the house and will have someone for outside, too.”

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Robert and Joanna Yorks in their garden

Our free information sessions are a great way to learn more about the ChooseHome program. For a complete list, please visit our website at choosehome.com and select “Events.”

To RSVP for an event or to get more information, please visit our website at choosehome.com, call 757-585-2654, or email ChooseHome@rivhs.com.

Tuesday, July 12, July 19 and Aug. 9 at noonCenter Street Grill 5101 Center St. in Williamsburg

FREE LUNCH AND LEARN SESSIONS

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Tuesday, Aug. 16 at noonRiverwalk Restaurant 323 Water St., Suite A-1 in Yorktown

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120 Kings Way, Suite 3600, Williamsburg, VA 23185

The Riverside Center for Excellence in Aging and Lifelong Health (CEALH), in partnership with the University of Virginia and the Virginia Department for Aging and Reha-bilitative Services, is pleased to offer The New York Univer-sity-Caregiver Intervention program for family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of memory loss. This federally funded research program pro-vides counseling and support for caregivers at no cost over several months. Funding is provided by the Administration for Community Living.

The F.A.M.I.L.I.E.S. program – short for Family Access to Memory Impairment and Loss Information, Engagement and Support – benefits caregivers by helping reduce stress and depression, increasing family support, enhancing

knowledge for managing memory disorders, and providing assistance with finding local services and resources The program also provides access to respite care during counsel-ing sessions.

This is the first time this innovative program has been offered in Virginia and is currently available to residents of James City County, York County, Newport News, Hampton, Poquoson, Williamsburg, Gloucester and Mathews. PBS even recently visited CEALH in Williamsburg to film a por-tion of an upcoming documentary featuring the program and highlighting its impact on families.

“The goal is to help bring entire families together in big and small ways to help the primary caregiver in caring for a family member with dementia,” said Dr. Christine Jensen, CEALH’s Director of Health Services Research.

To determine if you are eligible for this program or to learn more, call Riverside Senior Care Navigation at 757-856-7030 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

F.A.M.I.L.I.E.S. ProgramCalling all families with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s or other memory loss diseases

RIVERSIDE NEWS