Parsons Community Matters July 2016 by Presbyterian Manors of Mid America

Commun ty Matters July 2016

Parsons Presbyterian Manor

Parsons Presbyterian Manor celebrates CNA Week

Certified Nurse’s Assistants, or CNAs, are a critical part of the Parsons Presbyterian Manor team. June 12-18, we celebrated CNA week with a catered dinner, a CNA survival kit, a name plaque with positive adjectives and a wooden wall décor piece. COMING UP IN COMMUNITY MATTERS:

Everyone has a story to tell

We will focus on healthy aging in an upcoming issue of Community Matters. What are your secrets for staying healthy as you age? What advice do you have for others? Have you faced a health crisis and made life-altering changes as a result? If you’ve got a story to share, contact contact Sharla Hopper, marketing director, and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters.

Like Parsons Presbyterian Manor

“CNAs are the backbone of any healthcare campus. They are the eyes and ears for the nurses, and we are extremely lucky with the staff that we have here because we have some of the absolute best I have ever had the privilege of working with,” said Health Services Director Michelle Lever.

Be sure and thank a CNA today!

Front Row: Candace Harris, Gypsie Collins, Dakkin Sexton, Lyndsi Carpenter, Amber Stove, Deeandra Pierce Middle Row: Jamie Carnahan, Hannah Swayze, Torrie Hale, Savanna Garretson, Maria Stover, Mey Barlow, Summer Buskirk, Chad Rogers Back Row: Pam Abney, Adryanna Lao-Rivera, Kayla Glaspie, Shawn Page, Sarah Rightmer, Colbie Sanders, Brenda Heins, Ruth Peak Not pictured: Sheila Glaspie, Kelly Wood, Tricia Sexton, Jasmine Edie, Phyllis Hollins, Carly Parker

A New Life

Wayne Mason, Chaplain, Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice

July 4, 1776 – a document known as the “Declaration of Independence” was agreed upon by a group of leaders who were representing their constituents at the 2nd Continental Congress. With that document, they were declaring the separation of the 13 United States of America from Great Britain. It was a monumental statement. There is another monumental statement that is found within the Bible.

Community Matters is published monthly for residents and friends of Parsons Presbyterian Manor by Presbyterian Manors of

501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org. Maegen Pegues, executive director Sharla Hopper, marketing director To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact shopper@pmma.org. Telephone: 620-421-1450 Fax: 620-421-1897 Address: 3501 Dirr Ave., Parsons, KS 67357-2220 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values. ParsonsPresbyterianManor.org

2 COMMUNITY MATTERS JULY 2016

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:22-24)

This statement declares a separation of all people who have trusted Jesus from a former life of sin to a new life dedicated to God. I often wonder how many of us have truly made that transition. We can declare with the Apostle Paul: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

I can just imagine some of the jubilation that occurred when the Declaration of Independence was read to the new nation of the United

States. Most of those gathered to hear it would have shouted at the top of their lungs, “Freedom!” A few would have held back thinking about the price to be paid to accomplish that freedom.

Our spiritual freedom has been bought with a price – the death of Jesus on the cross. But now, because of that payment and our acceptance of it, we can shout, “Freedom!” We are free from sin. We are free to live for God. We are free to love God and his people. We have a new life and a new, eternal future.

Prayer:“Thank you Jesus for making the ultimate sacrifice to purchase our freedom from sin. You have made us free to live for God. Help us to use that freedom to spread your love to a world of people who desperately need it. Amen.”

Getting rid of possessions: It’s harder than you think If you’re ready to move to a smaller space or think you might want to downsize in the not-too-distant future, take a deep breath and start planning. It’s a much bigger task than you’ll ever imagine, partly because the process entails far more than just deciding which possessions to keep and which to toss.

Most people acquire things over a lifetime — one decade, year, month or day at a time. Through the years, possessions from clothes to decorative arts can accumulate: Flexible Flyer sleds tucked away in the basement crawl space; bridesmaid’s or flower girl dresses stored in closets; Valentines, birthday cards and other personal correspondence stashed in night table drawers. Why we won’t toss

Why have we accumulated so much and refused to toss so little? “People took pleasure in the things they used, cared for and valued,” said Gary W. Small, director of the UCLA Longevity Center and president of the American Society for Geriatric Psychiatry. But keeping all those things can become, frankly, a burden. “It overtakes your life,” Small noted.

Trying to sort and toss possessions is a deeply psychological task as much as a decluttering one. It means, in a way, dismantling a life that once was and no longer is, at least not in the same way. We hang onto things that remind us of a pleasant time. Sorting through old

you may be less healthy, strong and mentally acute, experts say.

“We’re at greater risk for cognitive decline at 85 than at 65,” Small said. Specifically, he noted, at 65, the risk of cognitive decline is 10 percent, while at 85, it’s 50 percent. And according to the Alzheimer’s Association, 11 percent of people 65 and older have Alzheimer’s disease, but 32 percent age 85 and older do; 82 Getty Images percent of people with letters from friends or family members Alzheimer’s are 75 or older. is “pleasure for a moment,” Small said. Some aren’t sentimental “It’s a momentary experience.” Some boomers, of course, aren’t When lightening your load, emotions sentimental about hanging onto family come into play. Some are sweet and possessions. “Baby boomers don’t care others are less so, including the often mostly,” said Deborah Heiser, an hidden feelings within us that rise to applied developmental psychologist the surface, reminding us of the past based in Great Neck, N.Y., and coand of the limits of life itself. Seeing editor of the book, Spiritual items you haven’t thought of or seen in Assessment and Intervention with a while can trigger sweet memories of Older Adults: Current Directions times past or of loved ones no longer and Applications. For many, the alive. attitude is “new home, new me,” Dealing with mortality and Heiser said. “It’s freeing — liberating balance in a way.” The difficulty of dismissing stuff can be The best way to complete the task is rooted in mortality and the realization to do it in a systematic way, maybe that no one lives forever. At a certain over a period of as long as two years, point in life, there is more past than leaving sufficient time to evaluate, future, and that, in itself, can be sort, send to relatives, give away, sell daunting. “We’re all mortal,” Small or hire a professional to help with any said. “The issue is balance.You can’t and all of it. hold onto all things. One of the It’s “one closet at a time, one drawer upsides to downsizing is it allows us to at a time, so as not to be live more in the present.” overwhelmed,” Small said. It’s preferable to start shedding possessions in your 50s or 60s, rather Possessions continued on page 4 than waiting until you are older when PARSONS PRESBYTERIAN MANOR 3

Call 620-421-1450 todaayy to schedule your per sonal appointment ment and tourr. Par sonns Presbyterian Manorrr’s Post-Acute ost Acute To Homee (P PA ATH®) program isn’t juust about getting you home— —it’s about getting you baack to your liffee.

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Possessions continued from page 3

The storage solution

If you’ll no longer have room for certain possessions that are meaningful to you or another family member, you might want to store them until you — or a relative — have the space, said Dana Tydings, owner of Tydings Design in Laytonsville, Md. Figure on paying between $40 to $300 a month for storage, depending on the size and location of the unit. 4 COMMUNITY MATTERS JULY 2016

Going the storage route can also be a good idea for items you feel ambivalent about. Sometimes the best solution is to postpone a final decision until you’ve comfortably settled in your new space. In that case, “put items in storage for a few months and relax and revisit it,” Heiser said.

Just bear in mind, renting a storage locker might mean taking a risk. Even if storage is “climate-controlled and you have insurance, [the items] may not

come out the same way” as they went in, Tydings said.

In the end, people are more comfortable with downsizing when they are in control of how they’ll live the next chapter of their life as opposed to waiting until they’re unable to rid themselves of their possessions. The more control you have over what you’ll keep and what you’ll discard, the greater likelihood you’ll love your new life.