Culture Change Now! is Action Pact's twice-yearly periodical for long term care professionals interested in Culture Change. It is filled with how-to information and articles of inspiration. All levels of staff and families will will enjoy the only publication solely dedicated to culture change!

Dear Leader:

The times they are a-changin'! Hungry for a new way of caring for elders, people everywhere - in every state, at every conference - are talking about culture change.

It takes years to change a nursing home's culture. The second generation of culture change leaders have been at it for two, three and four years by now. In this issue you will read about a third generation that is building on the experiences of earlier innovators.

It used to be you had to fly across country to visit a culture-change home. Now there are examples everywhere. Let's take just one example - Minnesota. Lyngblomsten Care Center in St. Paul adopted the Swedish Service House model after staff exchanges with a facility in Sweden. Later, Northern Pines in Bigfork, under the leadership of Linda Bump, visited Lyngblomsten as well as Wisconsin homes operated by early change agents David Green and Tom Zwicker. They learned from Providence Mt. St. Vincent in Seattle and attended Pioneer conferences. Since then, people from all over the US and the world have trekked to Bigfork, MN - a town self-described as the 'edge of the wilderness'. The ripple effect is dramatic!

Some facilities sent their leadership to Bigfork, and later realize they should send others. Some, in the spirit of "high involvement," sent every single staff person!

A CNA once told me she refused to go on one of these "tours" because she wanted to know the real truth, not some "official" position. So, she and a couple of friends drove to Bigfork on their day off. After listening to caregivers and residents, they came home excited and determined to change their own nursing home's culture. "Seeing is believing", and it is in believing we find the energy to press on!

Many facilities in Minnesota involve families, residents and all staff in shaping a new way. They include for-profits and not-for-profits, small and large organizations, retirement communities, stand-alone and hospital-attached nursing homes. Everyone "gets it!"

Those who haven't yet changed their cultures are watching and learning. State Associations in Minnesota invite pioneers to speak at their conferences while universities research and teach culture change. There are 400 Eden Associates in Minnesota from CNAs to CEOs. New homes are built in the household model and old buildings are renovated. And that's in just one state! Nationwide staff members, families and residents are learning they can study, influence and lead - and together change the world of long term care!

In this issue we're sharing stories from second and third-generation innovators about Study: the first phase of the culture change journey. The topic of our next volume is Design: the second phase of the journey, and we want to hear and share your stories.

Remember, "a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step," so "you'd better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone, for the times they are a-changin'!"^*

Sincerely,

LaVrene Norton, msw

President, Action Pact, Inc.
Publisher, Culture Change Now!

^* excerpts from Lao-tzu, Tao-Te Ching (604 BC - 531 BC) and Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin' (1963)