Senior Caucus report to membership - June 2022

Introduction.

Hi everyone,

We have been sending you information on our educational programs and updates on legislative issues since March 2020. These have been interesting times and we’d like to provide you with an update on a number of Senior Caucus (SC) issues and initiatives over the past 26 months.

Educational programs.

As many of you know, the Senior Caucus (SC) for years offered monthly Friday morning educational programs on the Central Campus from September through June. These were in-person programs with the option for folks who could not attend in-person to link in via conference call. The last such in-person program was February 2020. Given the uncertainty of what turned out to be the coronavirus pandemic, we cancelled the March 2020 program and in April 2020 pivoted to offering on-line educational programs. The first on-line program was an extensive briefing by Dr. Chris Fordyce on the pandemic situation. In May 2020, we began offering a general educational program combined with a pandemic update. Our current model includes a content-specific educational program followed by a brief pandemic update. As of June 2022, we had offered 25 updates to the pandemic. This included updates in July and August 2020 and in August 2021; the SC traditionally did not offer July and August educational programs.

This has been a learning process for the SC, both in terms of how to plan and implement on-line programs (heartfelt thanks all the presenters, and to the SC programs team of Evan, Jane, Jay and Chris), as well as what technology to use. We tried several different technologies, including Microsoft Teams and various Zoom options. We settled on using the Zoom webinar model as it has both Q&A and Chat functions and allows us to record the programs so that folks can watch them at their convenience if they are unable to link in on Fridays.

The on-line programs have been well received. The early ones in April, May and June of 2020 had as many as 100 in Friday attendance and almost that many who viewed the programs after the Friday session. Prior to moving to the on-line programs, attendance ranged from approximately 40 to 60 members. Currently, on-line attendance ranges from 50 to 100, with another 40 to 200 post-Friday views.

The SC will be offering on-line educational programs through calendar year 2022. Thanks to all of you who have linked in to the educational programs and special thanks to those of you who have submitted a program evaluation. Your feedback is very important, as it helps us improve our programs, as well as providing us with suggestions for future programs.

Advocacy/Legislative.

The SC has traditionally sent a representative to the Washington State Senior Citizens’ Lobby -- Washington State Senior Citizens' Lobby. Throughout the pandemic that group has been meeting via ZOOM. The SC also offers an annual State Legislative update as one of the monthly educational programs; the most recent was December 2021 with Cynthia Stewart, Tacoma League of Women’s Voters. On April 11, 2022 Cynthia’s Washington State Legislative Update was sent out to you.

Seniors historically have the best voting turnout of any age group and the SC can help seniors become more active and informed voters. Gigi Meinig has the lead on Advocacy. Please let Jane McNamee know if you would be interested in working on advocacy issues.

KPWA Committees.

One of the SC goals is to advocate for services, facilities, and processes within Kaiser Permanente that enhance healthy aging for all members. KP Washington (KPWA) includes consumers on KPWA committees, as appropriate. This includes standing committees, as well as ad hoc committees and projects. Currently SC members serve as patient partners on the KPWA Regional Quality Committee and the Central Hospital Quality Committee.

SC members also serve on the: Advance Care at Home project; Medicare Advantage End-to-End Design project; and Integrated Pain Management Team [affiliated with The Center for Accelerating Care Transformation (ACT - part of the KPWA Health Research Institute)]. There are also several patient advisory committees and SC members serve on the Everett Patient Advisory Council, the Spokane Patient Advisory Committee, and the Consumer Advisory Committee.

In addition, Pharmacy and the KPWA Research Institute staff met with two hypertension focus groups that included Senior Caucus members.

Thanks to all of you who bring the patient perspective to these committees and projects.

Caregiving.

The SC has a new 2022 initiative: Comprehensive Integrated Support for Caregivers. 

Imagine your senior loved one (spouse, parent…) having a major medical crisis (heart, lung, stroke, diabetes, cancer, dementia, major fall….) and being released to home from a hospital and rehabilitation. You are now the primary caregiver. How do you do this?

This initiative will identify issues, tips, resources, etc. to help navigate this role. Bob Jarmick has the Caregiving lead. Please let Jane McNamee know if you would be interested in working with Bob on caregiving issues.

Summary.

This has been a challenging time for all of us and we appreciate your support as we figure out the most effective way to continue volunteer activities. Thanks for your continued interest in SC issues.

Senior Caucus Board members.

Dr. Chris Fordyce, Chair

Evan Prenovitz, Vice Chair and Programs Lead

Gigi Meinig, Secretary and Advocacy Lead

Bob Jarmick, Caregiving Lead

Jay Sundahl, Technology Lead

Carlye Teel, past chair of the Senior Caucus

Pegge Till, Immediate Past Chair

Jane McNamee, KPWA