Hello, World!

"Hello, World!" I thought this simple declaration of being would be a good way to start my new blog. So, what are these Elder Care Chronicles? Well, I recently started a new website: CareMinds.com. We're all about being a resource for senior care. The first thing we're doing on the site is listing elder care providers across the US, including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

In the course of my day, I come across a lot of interesting people, ideas and initiatives related to elder care. This blog gives me the opportunity to jot down and share my experiences and opinions.

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a senior care symposium organized by Born To Age, a publisher of senior resource directories in the Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Marin-Sonoma and Solano counties. The event was held at the Christian Brothers Mt. LaSalle Retreat in Napa. What a great place to get away for a day.

Yvonne Baginski, the president of Born To Age, kicked off the proceedings by emphasizing the opportunity and the need for us in the industry to connect, cooperate and collaborate. After an hour and half of introductions and suggestions, Greg Weinerth of Enterprising Solutions provided an overview of what is going on in our country,

our economy and how that’s going to affect our industry.

My takeaways from Greg’s presentation is that given the collapse in housing prices, seniors will be hard-pressed to sell their homes to move into assisted living or continuing care communities. This bodes well for home care and home health care operators. Greg also emphasized that we need to do a better job utilizing the internet for marketing and networking. He

suggested we all get on LinkedIn and that we consider blogging. I offered to be the “IT guy” for the group. As a parting message, Greg encouraged us all to be environmentally responsible.

The next speaker was Julie Brown. Founder of Illumina Productions, Julie is an accomplished film/TV/theatre actor, singer, author, speaker and entrepreneur. She’s an amazing motivational speaker. Aside from her statuesque beauty, she has incredible positive energy and is a

wonderful storyteller. The core of her message is that before all else and especially in these troubled times, you have to accept and love yourself. Positive energy will flow from that. I couldn’t agree more.