Every Bunny Loves Some Bunny….

Easter arrived early at Juniper Village at Williamstown. Our annual Easter Egg Hunt was a big hit. The kids loved finding the eggs and the adults loved our beautiful continental breakfast. I think the biggest hit was none other than  The Easter Bunny! Our bunny put smiles on everybody’s  face. Wishing you all a beautiful Passover and Easter!

April 2017 Events in Williamstown, NJ: Believe in Yourself

Each April we begin our Healthy Aging Series with a focus on brain health, and encourage you to Believe in Yourself. We know that believing in yourself has a positive effect on your mental health, but did you know that self-confidence influences your physical health as well? Recent studies show people who exhibit self-confidence are generally healthier and tend to live longer. That's because confidence is a positive emotion and positive emotions have countless health benefits for your mind, body and spirit. In nurturing wellbeing by encouraging an active body, an engaged mind and a fulfilled spirit, Juniper is also building self-confidence. The link between health and confidence also may be related to the ability of positive emotions to boost our brain's power to hold attention, be aware and remember things. We are better able to learn, build new skills and relate with others when we are feeling optimistic. Also confident people are better able to handle chaotic situations in a positive manner. This helps to reduce or avoid excessive stress, high blood pressure, anger, confusion – all the negative side effects of feeling powerless, overwhelmed and out of control.

If you need to kick start your confidence, here are a few things to try: smile; count your blessings; surround yourself with confident people; learn how others have found their confidence and follow their lead; challenge negative or inaccurate thinking and replace with accurate, constructive thoughts; and encourage yourself. You can also plan to join us this month for uplifting discussions and a focus on brain health with offerings such as Daily Brain Builders, Wii games, and a Brain Healthy Luncheon.

Our fabulous April 2017 events in Williamstown, NJ at Juniper Village at Williamstown include our:

§  Red Hatter’s Spring Fling as with this month’s focus on Brain Health in mind, we invite you to join in an afternoon filled with fun brain-challenging games, brain-healthy refreshments and lots more, and ladies, don’t forget to wear your traditional red and purple with pride while joining us for this festive occasion on April 5^th at 3:00 pm.

§  Annual Community and Family Easter Celebration as we are calling all family and friends to join us for a morning of fun as we celebrate Easter Juniper Village style, so bring the kids for our annual Easter egg hunt, pictures with The Easter Bunny and most of all good old-fashioned fun with our family and yours on April 8^th at 10:00 am.

§  First Annual Karaoke Idol Night to find out if you are the next Juniper Villager Karaoke Idol, let your brain take over, brush off your vocal chords, unleash your inner Rock Star and show us what you’ve got, as we enjoy a night of fun, friendship, food, networking and what’s sure to be the talk of the town, and of course, bring your business cards to exchange with your fellow rock stars on April 24^th at 6:30 pm.

We look forward to sharing our April 2017 events in Williamstown, NJ at Juniper Village at Williamstown with you as you Believe in Yourself.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?....... To Get To Juniper Village Williamstown!

As we keep with our theme of “Performance” we need to know that there are many types of performers including animals. Today we had a visit from our friend Gwenne and her Half Rhode Island Red and half White Leghorn friend Rosebud. Rosebud is a therapy hen who loves to sit and be held and be loved by people. She wears a diaper as not to mess on anyone and is very polite about it. Everyone enjoyed holding her and learning about her from Gwenne. It truly is amazing to see how animals play such a big part in a person’s life. Rosebud brought smiles to all today!

Connect4Life Leads to Better Outcomes for Residents

Integrated Care in Seniors Housing that Meets the Triple Aim from Cindy Longfellow

Data shows Connect4Life’s high-tech/high-touch integrated services lead to higher quality care and better outcomes for residents

Executive Summary: Integrated Care in Seniors Housing that Meets
the Triple Aim

By Anne Tumlinson, MMHS and Lynne Katzmann, PhD

According to the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, more than 190 million Americans, or about 59 percent of the population, are affected by one or more chronic illnesses. Over the next 15 years (between 2016 and 2030,) 80 percent of the United States population will experience one or more chronic conditions, costing more than $42 trillion in medical care spending and losses in employment productivity.

To address these challenges and enhance the resident experience, Juniper Communities, a Bloomfield, NJ-based national owner-operator of seniors housing, developed the Connect4Life model, which provides on-site comprehensive therapy, primary care, pharmacy and lab services, integrated with other services using a “high-tech/high-touch” communications protocol that transfers information through an Electronic Health Record (EHR) and coordinates care through a human navigator.

Juniper Communities retained Anne Tumlinson Innovations (ATI) to compare Connect4Life outcomes and utilization data with data on the broader Medicare population from the 2012 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS). The findings suggest that the Connect4Life model contributes to lower hospital readmissions and the utilization of inpatient services among a high-need resident population. The results affirm the potential of integrating select clinical care and services in a seniors housing environment that provides supportive services to those who have chronic conditions, functional limitations, and complex social needs.

The results suggest an integrated program of services in seniors housing—like Juniper’s Connect4Life —can contribute to reducing the cost of care and services to Medicare beneficiaries residing in seniors housing. More importantly, the data points to the value of the Connect4Life model for managing population health because of its ability to efficiently target integrated care interventions in the high cost, high-need Medicare population.

Juniper Communities has been a thought leader in senior living care, developing nearly a dozen innovative service and delivery programs to enhance aging, lifestyle and resident health. Recognizing opportunities in to meet the triple aim of recent health policy changes in the United States – improved customer satisfaction, evidence-base quality and lower healthcare utilization, Juniper is pioneering Connect 4 Life – one of senior living’s first truly integrated care models of assisted living care and service.

Read more in the FREE White Paper!

The Beat Goes On!

They say that drumming has many benefits such as decreasing anxiety and depression, improving mobility and posture, improving immunity and motor skills along with having fun and being in the moment. Here at Juniper Village Williamstown we celebrated “Our Treasures Within” with Mark Wood of Rockaway New Jersey. He brought with him a  bunch of his drums and conducted a drum circle in both of our buildings. The outcome was sheer JOY, our residents and staff loved being part of this event. They drummed and danced and after it was over wanted to know when we were doing it again.  As always, we invite you to stop in to see us and join us for one of our fun events!

Williamstown Nor’easter

With a Nor’easter heading towards us and the news outlets advising all to take proper precautions what to do but gather your staff and make it a party.  Our fabulous staff willingly packed their suitcases and spent the night to ensure ALL our residents were safe and taken care of.  Rooms were filled with air mattresses and all the comforts of home.  A Big Shout Out to our Williamstown Team; always ready to help when needed!

March 2017 Events in Williamstown, NJ: Your Treasure is Within

Theatrical readings, colorful costumed dancers and spectacular vocal performances bring to a close our creative expression quarterly theme with a focus on performance and honoring our inner treasure – our self-worth. With so many demands on our time these days, it’s easy to always put others first and forget to care of ourselves. Also as we get older, retire from work and in some cases caretaking, we may forget our sense of value – our self-worth. A large part of nurturing the spirit of life is providing opportunities for purpose.

This month we will put an even greater focus on identifying our continued purpose and self-worth by performing purposeful activities, reminiscing and creating opportunities to treasure ourselves. Motivational speaker Anne Naylor offers these tips to help you treasure yourself: Treasure your thoughts with kindness – nurture your thoughts of gratitude and appreciation. Treasure your feelings and emotions – observe and use them as your guide. Treasure your body – treat it well with exercise, nourishment, rest, joy and laughter. Treasure your spirit – breathe, meditate and enjoy the goodness in your life. We hope you all enjoy the treasure of your wonderful self.

Please join us as we dramatically embrace performance throughout March with our weekly drama club, outings to live theatrical performances and our Oscar-themed party. Celebrate the Irish culture in grand style with our Saint Patrick’s Day event filled with food, fun and, of course, dancing! Honor yourself and recognize Your Treasure is Within this month at Juniper Village!

Our fabulous March 2017 events in Williamstown, NJ at Juniper Village at Williamstown include our:

§  Rhythm of the Soul Drumming Experience as for centuries, this unique art form has been an extremely effective calming mechanism and utilized in many tribal societies as a healing art form, we celebrate performance this month and take time out to listen to the “Rhythm of the Soul” and enjoy the healing art of this Drumming Experience on March 7^th at 3:00 pm.

§  Annual Community Wide Irish Cultural Celebration as we are taking St. Patrick’s Day celebrations to a whole new level, join us for this fun, jubilant, cultural celebration as we enjoy the melodic sounds of Irish music with lots of Irish humor and the traditional Irish Potatoes and Green Beer, so take time out of your busy day and celebrate the heritage of the “Emerald Isle” with us on March 17^th at 2:00 pm.

§  Peak Fitness Performance Presentation by The Genesis Team continuing with our focus on performance, we are happy to host this educational presentation by our Genesis/Theralink team who will demonstrate the health benefits of utilizing every opportunity to attain peak performance in our fitness regime, while enjoying friends at the same time, so join us as we attain “Peak Fitness Performance” together on March 20^th at 1:30 pm.

We look forward to sharing our March 2017 events in Williamstown, NJ at Juniper Village at Williamstown with you as Your Treasure is Within.