After years in the making – the new Assisted Living addition is ready! Assisted Living residents may now enjoy their beautiful new spaces. Click on the video link below to watch CFO/CEO Bill Strader give us a tour of this incredible new building. The design, colors, and overall aesthetic will serve as inspiration for future campus projects in the years to come.

The new resident website!

Updates provided at the recent forums for the soon-to-be-released Panorama resident website were well received. Our team appreciates all of the positive responses and we enjoyed sharing a few laughs with you. We want the site name to have personality of its own, and it shouldn’t be a stale place where information is disseminated without character. The site should be a place of social engagement as well as a place to get information. For these reasons, we have named the site “Kya” (KY-ya), in honor of the welcome pole in McGandy Park. Part of the inscription on the plaque at the base of the welcome pole says, “This Welcome Pole was commissioned for the receiving and guarding of all who arrive at Panorama. She is a timeless symbol of community and kinship.” This sentiment is exactly what we are striving for with our new resident website.

We selected a company called Senior Portal to provide the website for us. Social engagement tools for seniors have not been around very long and Senior Portal came into the market as a late bloomer in 2014. Their focus has always been on customization and listening to their customers, two strengths that shine through in their product. They will be able to deliver all of the necessary functions that we need in a cost effective way.

The initial roll out will start with two of the simplest components: the resident handbook and telephone directory. This allows us to get our feet wet without over taxing staff to keep up with the upcoming changes.

The hardest part of the rollout will be getting everyone signed up. To help us accomplish this, Resident Council will develop a group of resident Kya Ambassadors. These Kya Ambassadors will be selected and trained to serve as guides who can help residents enroll. In addition to helping residents create and access their online account, Kya Ambassadors will undergo training on new features as they come available so they can continue helping neighbors take full advantage of the Kya platform.

Jeff Harley, Director of Information Technology

Written by Marla LeFevre, Health Services Director

During our planning for this year’s drill, questions were asked about the difference between the Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) program and the Storm Support Team (SST). Both groups are under the umbrella of the Resident Council and both are resident organizations responding to disasters, but that’s where their similarities end:

Map Your Neighborhood is a first response protocol which outlines a series of steps everyone should take during a major event (not just earthquakes, but any kind of disaster). MYN directs all residents to first make sure they’re ok, and then go to their designated neighborhood gathering place. Once at the gathering place, residents are divided into teams to perform a series of tasks, which include checking on neighbors who haven’t arrived, communicating with staff about neighborhood needs, and gathering information about the scope of the event. This all takes place in the first hours after an event.

Storm Support Team is activated well beyond the initial stages of a disaster. Even though the name has “storm” in it, the SST may be activated in other kinds of events that exceed Panorama staff resources, such as an earthquake. Assistance from SST members would be requested only if an event is lasting for several days – it will never be activated in the initial stages of a disaster, as this is when MYN protocols are in place. The SST provides support by performing tasks such as hosting at Warming Centers, sharing information with residents about campus resources (by phone or home visit), hosting at Seventeen51 Restaurant & Bistro, and delivering messages if other communications are out (if phones aren’t working, etc.). None of these tasks are part of MYN.

Both organizations are VITAL during a campus-wide emergency of any kind. MYN is needed for initial response and includes ALL residents, while SST consists of trained resident volunteers who provide on-going support over several succeeding days. Resident volunteers (Map Your Neighborhood Captains, Storm Support Team members) can have roles in both organizations without any conflict in their responsibilities.

Staff members are trained in Panorama’s disaster response protocols as well as their roles in supporting Map Your Neighborhood and Storm Support Team activities. This teamwork between staff and independent-living residents enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of our disaster responses.

Thank you to these outstanding Resident Council organizations for their dedication to the welfare of Panorama’s residents during a disaster.