Risk Attitude: Removing the Bubble Wrap

Shaping Dementia Environments

In part 1 of a 2-part series on risk attitude in dementia environments, Max and Jennifer talk to 4 great guests – Kim O’Brien, Amy McDonough, Len Fishman, and Bill Browning – about this difficult but timely topic for senior housing and care. We all experience certain amounts of risk in our daily lives, and allowing for that in dementia environments becomes a complex calculation.

We kick off the conversation with Kim O’Brien and Amy McDonough of United Active Living in Calgary, Alberta. Kim serves as president and CEO at United Active Living. Their communities provide independent living, assisted living, and memory care in an innovative integrated community. Prior to joining United Active Living, Kim served as the CEO of Horizon Housing Society, a non-profit charitable organization specializing in the development and operations of affordable housing in Calgary. While in this role, she was a strong voice locally and nationally for the lasting positive impacts from people having access to a safe, quality home and the opportunity to be a part of the community.

Amy leads the United Minds program at United Active Living. In this role, Amy implements and leads the company’s integrated living and relationship-centered philosophy, educating and empowering front-line staff, managers, families, and residents to support those living with dementia. Before joining the team at United Active Living, Amy served as volunteer coordinator and memory care support at Convent Care Canada and as recreation therapist and co-lead of the Dementia Butterfly Model of Care Project at Intercare Southwood Care Center.

Next up, we speak with Len Fishman. Len is a nationally recognized leader in the field of aging policy. He directs the Gerontology Institute at UMass Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. For 12 years he served as CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife, New England’s largest nonprofit provider of senior housing and health care. Prior to joining Hebrew SeniorLife, Fishman was president and CEO of LeadingAge, a coalition of 6,000 non-profit aging services organizations, in Washington, D.C. He served as commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services under Governor Christine Todd Whitman. Before that, he was a health care lawyer in NJ and PA.

Finally, we speak with Bill Browning, one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of business, government, and civil society. In 2006, Bill founded Terrapin Bright Green to craft high-performance environmental strategies for corporations, governments, and large-scale real estate developments. Previously, in 1991, he founded Green Development Services at the Rocky Mountain Institute, an entrepreneurial, non-profit “think and do tank.” Past roles include Director of Design and Environment for Haymount, VA, co-founder of Browning+Bannon LLC, founding member of the USGBC Board of Directors, and Chair of USGBC’s Governance Committee. He is a co-author of several books and publications including most recently Nature Inside: A Biophilic Design Guide.

Continue the conversation in our LinkedIn group Shaping Dementia Environments:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9044567/

Learn more about Perkins Eastman insights:

https://www.perkinseastman.com/white-papers/