Although they may be a small crew, the SEMAAA finance team plays such a large role in SEMAAA’s success. A huge thanks goes out to them for working with the COVID-19 relief dollars along with all of their daily duties. We took the time to ask 10 random questions with this most excellent group. Cheers to an outstanding team!
How Many years of experience do you have in the nonprofit and/or finance world? 17, 34, 38 for a collective total of 89.
What is your preferred way to make an egg? Hard boiled & Scrambled X 2
What do you like most about working with SEMAAA grantees? Seeing the difference they make in the lives of seniors; Providing technical assistance; All of the interesting personalities.
If you were to purchase a classic car, what would it be? Ford Mustang, Corvette and don’t know – not a car person.
Describe the SEMAAA Finance team in 5 words or less: Helpful, supportive, fun, dedicated & smart! The department with little free time; Hard working & quick thinking.
What is your favorite way to spend your free time? Outside doing anything; Reading; Feet in the pool, dog in lap.
What makes you happy about working with services that benefit older adults? We are making a difference; so gratifying; knowing what I can look forward to when I get “older.”
What is your favorite movie or Book? It’s a wonderful life; Shrek; Grease
Do you prefer to watch an animated movie or a documentary? Animated flick x 2 and documentary for sure x1
What is your dream job? Playing in the pit orchestra at Chanhassen; Run a Doggie Daycare; Grant Manager at SEMAAA (of course)!
Finance Team from left: Patti Schad, Kim Voth, Laurie Marreel
Medicare Part B covers many preventive services. These are the services that you receive to prevent illness and keep you healthy. With Original Medicare, you pay nothing when you see a provider who accepts Medicare. With a Medicare Advantage plan, you must see an in-network provider for the services that are covered with zero cost sharing. In most cases, plans are required to cover your care without charging deductibles, co-payments, or coinsurance.
The Welcome to Medicare preventive visit is a one-time appointment you can choose to receive during the first 12 months of your Part B enrollment. This is not a head to toe physical, but an attempt to create a personalized prevention plan.
The Annual Wellness Visit is a yearly appointment with your primary care provider to create or update a personalized prevention plan, which may help prevent illness based on your current health and risk factors.
Other Preventative Services include vaccinations and immunizations such as flu shots, pneumonia, hepatitis B and COVID-19 vaccinations. The tetanus shot is covered if you have an incident and need the added protection, and the booster shot is generally covered by Part D.
Screening tests and labs for many services are also covered by Medicare Part B. These conditions include Hepatitis C, Diabetes, Glaucoma, Depression, Cardiovascular Disease and more.
Under certain circumstances, you may be charged for services you receive related to your preventive services. For example, during the preventive care visit, your provider discovers and needs to investigate or treat a new or existing problem. This type of care becomes diagnostic, meaning you are being treated for certain symptoms or risk factors. You could also be charged for an office visit if you meet with your provider before or after receiving your preventive care.
For more information, please contact the Senior LinkAge Line® at 1-800-333-2433. The Health Care Choices for Minnesotans on Medicare booklet also has excellent information on these services. That booklet can be viewed online at www.mnhealthcarechoices.com
Mayo Clinic is seeking healthy women volunteers, ages 70 and older, to participate in a research study. The purpose of this study is to learn if new study medications can help reduce aging cell abundance and to study their effects in people. Additionally, we are testing whether intermittent treatment with these medications reduces markers of biological age and improves bone health and potentially the risk of osteoporosis.
YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IF:
• You are at least 70 years old, a female, and healthy.
Study participation will last for about 5 months and includes 8 visits. We will ask you to complete blood draws, bone density testing, questionnaires, and other tests to determine eligibility. Remuneration will be offered.
PEARLS Coaches are available to work with you one-on-one to help you address your depressive symptoms and create a plan to become more engaged with family, friends and activities you enjoy. Sessions can be held over the phone, on a computer or in person. Contact any of these agencies to get connected and learn more about this evidence-based program.
SE MN has many communities, organizations and partnerships working on creating or renewing programming that supports individuals with dementia and their caregivers. While the pandemic has slowed some of these efforts they are gaining momentum once again and communities are re-energized and ready to launch many of these great programs. Here are a few highlights and opportunities for this year.
Highlights from SE MN
Resounding Voices Choir — Recruitment has begun for the summer practice sessions. Here’s what choir member Joe Lobl had to say about his experience. “I have enjoyed singing in Resounding Voices as a volunteer for the past three years. It is a joy singing together and getting to know each other better during our social time and weekly sharing. We have also had a lot of fun performing concerts at the end of each session, which always include singalongs with the audience. I am glad to have made new friends and also given back to the community with our concerts by participating in Resounding Voices!” If you’d like to get involved email Karen Rorie to learn more: karen@resoundingvoices.org. Check out their virtual Spring concert.
Mayo Clinic Conference on Brain Health & Dementia – A Brighter Path Forward Formerly called “Meeting of the Minds”, this conference will be held at the Mayo Civic Center on October 29th. Event is free thanks to support from the Alzheimer’s Association and AARP and will be in-person with a live stream option for those unable to attend. Registration link.
The Remember Project Dementia Awareness Tour — hosted in Pine Island by SEMAAA was a great success! Over 320 people joined our local team, or joined a statewide professional development event. Participants viewed at least one of the three theatrical videos via Zoom and provided feedback that they increased their understanding of dementia and joined in conversation about how we can locally help families living with dementia live their best lives. About 100 of the individuals attending an event live in the Pine Island or surrounding area; over 250 people were from the 11 county service are in Southeastern Minnesota served by SEMAAA. We ARE a more dementia-friendly community because of this opportunity.
Watch for more details regarding what we learned from The Remember Project and how you can join your friends and neighbors to support all community care partners in the Pine Island area. A big thank you to Olmsted Medical Center and the Pine Island Fire Department Relief Association as well as the Zone 5 Lions, Rod Steele-Edina Realty, Pat and Jerry Johnson, and several local individuals who financially supported this effort! Also thank you to the MN State Arts Board and Trellis for helping fund this initiative.
Jen Mclaughlin has been a vibrant part of SEMAAA since 2012 with most of that time being with the Return to Community Team. Her laughter, positivity, unique catch phrases and powerful fun-loving spirit have shined and left their mark on our SEMAAA family.
We are so excited that Jen will continue to collaborate with the RTC team and others in her new role of supporting older adults and their families in Fillmore, Mower, Dodge and parts of Olmsted county. Jen will continue to use her exceptional advocacy skills and maintain a strong connection to SEMAAA and the rest of the aging network in our area. We wish you all the best!
Karen Toussel joined the SEMAAA team as our Administrative Assistant in 1997 and almost 24 years later she is ready to retire & travel the world by RV.
We asked Karen what she will miss most about SEMAAA?
Her response: “Definitely the people – all the enjoyable moments with coworkers and the friendships I have developed over the years.”
What are you looking forward to most in retirement?
“Traveling with my husband Michael and my dog Bella.”
Karen will be retiring August 6th and has trips planned to Florida and South Dakota.
SEMAAA board and staff are grateful for your decades of support and dedication to aging services. We will sure miss your great sense of humor, wonderful vacation pictures and all of the fun stories that went with them!
Send Karen a note, give her a call or stop by to wish her well in her retirement. karen@semaaa.org
SLL team member Tambi Lokken“A SEMAAA team member had a caregiver (Greg) call about his mother who has cognitive impairment, as he had recently become her emergency guardian. Greg was totally confused as to how her insurance worked, what Medicare covered, what part D was, and what she had for active coverage.
With proof of guardianship, the staff person contacted SHIP to find out the plan details, and they helped educate Greg on the parts of Medicare. They also talked about how the coverage works, his intention of moving her to memory care and they took care of the verification code process. They also helped him search MNHelp.info for potential placement options, and they talked about senior moving assistance programs to help with downsizing. Greg’s mother has a large home with a lot to get rid of and he was totally overwhelmed with how to manage that process.
Greg was so relieved to learn about the Senior LinkAge Line and all the available resources. He was very thankful for the assistance SLL gave him.”
I strongly believe new home construction/rehabilitation projects should have inclusive features built in so individuals have the option to stay in their home as they age. Not many homes are designed with accessible or Universal Design features in mind.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) conducted a Home and Community Preferences survey in 2018 and discovered that 3 out of 4 people ages 50 and older nationwide hope to remain in their current home as they grow older, but only 46 % believe they will be able to do so.
It is critical a portion of new senior housing initiatives incorporate eligibility considerations for lower income older adults. This would include individuals who are served through Minnesota Medicaid’s Elderly Waiver (EW) program to ensure housing options are accessible and inclusive of them.
The Rochester Area Foundation is committed to affordable housing efforts and has created a Coalition for Rochester Area Housing. The Coalition is working on a co-design process around senior housing – partnering with Destination Medical Center and University of Minnesota School of Design. A part of this work will be to identify 7-10 participants to help with this project. I applaud their efforts to ensure that people with physical limitations, homeowners who want to stay in their current living situation, care staff, individuals moving to senior housing, those interested in multigenerational housing, and others have a voice at the table.
AARP has also embraced age-friendly housing initiatives as one part of their Livable Communities framework. The goal is to help communities become better places to age well in. The Livable Communities initiative is focused around eight domains of livability centered around aspects of daily and community life. The domains are inter-woven and have an impact on each other: Transportation, Housing, Social participation, Respect and social inclusion, Civic participation and employment, Communication/information, Community support/health services, and Outdoor spaces/buildings.
The Age-Friendly Olmsted County (AFOC) Community Assessment Committee is led by community partners which include County Government, In the City for Good and key community organizations. Housing initiatives are just one of the areas that this cross-sector group is dedicated to working on to ensure that Olmsted County residents have what they need to age well in the community of their choice. A part of this work will be to develop a five-year process that includes an Age-friendly Community Assessment Report and 3-year action plan.
My husband and I built our accessible home using universal design features in the early 1990’s. One of the best features is the main floor laundry among others!
Finding Ways to Engage at Every Age, Laurie
Executive Director
PEARLS Coaches are available to work with you one-on-one to help you address your depressive symptoms and create a plan to become more engaged with family, friends and activities you enjoy. Sessions can be held over the phone, on a computer or in person. Contact any of these agencies to get connected and learn more about this evidence-based program.
Age Friendly efforts continue across the state and in SE MN. Read the newly released 
Jen Mclaughlin has been a vibrant part of SEMAAA since 2012 with most of that time being with the Return to Community Team. Her laughter, positivity, unique catch phrases and powerful fun-loving spirit have shined and left their mark on our SEMAAA family.
