I am excited to introduce ACC Senior Services’ new President and CEO, Connie L. Rusynyk, to the ACC community. The ACC Board of Directors hired Connie to take over the reins of ACC, and I can return to retirement life.
Connie is a distinguished and forward-thinking business leader with more than twenty years of strategic planning, servant leadership, and business development experience, helping healthcare organizations elevate their enterprises to another level. She was the President and CEO of Halcyon Rehabilitation, where she built the rehabilitation and therapy organization from the ground up to a $120 million revenue company, including developing and leading operations, clinical education, recruitment, human resources, and financial management. Kindly welcome Connie to our community.
As I reflect on this past year as the Acting ACC President and CEO for ACC Senior Services and Meals on Wheels (MoW) by ACC, I want to thank all the managers and staff for their unwavering support. Change is constant, and I embraced the opportunity to learn the day-to-day operations and to work with the ACC and MoW management teams. We hired new people, made process improvements, collaborated, and, most importantly, worked together. Every day I spent at ACC was special because of everyone whom I worked with, met with, ran into in the hallway, or who would just drop by to say hi.
I saw ACC and MoW from a different lens and embraced how important the staff, volunteers, community, and donors are to ACC and MoW’s mission, vision, and core values. At MoW, the dedication of the staff and all the volunteers who serve and deliver meals to seniors is inspiring. Many of the MoW volunteer drivers go the extra mile to ensure the people on their route get their meals and that they are okay. The dedication of the MoW staff is evident by how they deliver or serve meals, form lasting friendships with participants, provide extra resources when needed, and recognize volunteers.
This year, ACC raised more than $400,000 for the Big Day of Giving, ACC Rides increased their ridership, and ACC fully opened its doors with a full slate of classes and activities, welcoming back people to the campus. It is so gratifying to walk around and see all the class and club participants exercising, laughing, celebrating birthdays, having potlucks, playing pickleball, and chit-chatting about everything and anything. I truly understand what it takes for our communities of Greenhaven Terrace, Maple Tree Village, and the Care Center to serve and take care of our seniors. I’ve heard from our partners, funders, and regulators how impressed they are with ACC and MoW. We all can be proud of this.
I am happy to share that the Care Center’s Azalea Lane, which had been closed for renovation, re-opened in August and is now being occupied by residents needing care. The Care Center is increasing staffing for the full occupancy of Azalea Lane. Maple Tree Village continues to increase its occupancy with the Memory Care unit fully occupied and now with a waitlist. Assisted Living at Maple Tree Village continues to accept residents based on individual care needs. Greenhaven Terrace’s Assisted Living continues to do well, and the independent living apartments have vacancies, so send over referrals!
The ACC Ohana Walk held on September 16th was an overwhelming success, registering 1,068 registrants and 50 walking teams. We had approximately 800 people attending the picnic with 21 centenarians being recognized along with their families. The Ohana Walk truly reflects what ACC is all about and that is, everyone is family. The Ohana Walk also kicked off the sale of the ACC community cook, The Foods We Share, The Stories We Tell. It’s a rich compendium of family recipes and stories from people in our community. If you haven’t already bought your cookbook, we just ordered more! So come by and buy a cookbook or two. They are great gifts, especially for Christmas.
In the last ACC Newsletter, we had a feature article on the “social determinants of health” (SDOH) and how our health and well-being are determined by factors that have very little to do with healthcare. While ACC does provide healthcare, so much of what we do is focused on non-medical interventions that affect health outcomes. This includes transportation, social services, employment training, lifelong learning, care coordination, food security, and social activities. ACC’s Home and Community Based Program overseen by Jeri Shikuma offers all this to the ACC community.
ACC’s newest programs have a similar underlying logic and value system that targets SDOH. Over this next year, we will be providing mental health assessments and coaching for seniors, expanded opportunities for social engagement and care coordination to reduce isolation, and direct care worker training, career coaching, and incentive programs to develop a workforce that helps older adults and their families through the aging process. All these services are designed to help people lead healthy, active, and rewarding lives utilizing non-medical interventions. As we continue this important work and grow our services, we hope to join forces with health plans and providers to marshal our resources in providing value-based care for older adults and their families.
Fostering health and a better quality of life by looking at the whole person, not just their medical diagnoses, but their socio-economic, environmental, and cultural make up, has been a part of ACC’s mission since our earliest days. ACC will continue this for the next 50 years!
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