Concordia Blog

While the role of a family caregiver is extremely rewarding, it can still take a toll on many people’s mental, physical and emotional health. In fact, according to the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP Public Policy Institute survey, it is said that 40% of caregivers feel emotionally stressed, almost 20% say it caused financial problems and about 20% feel emotionally strained from caregiver burnout. To care for our loved ones, we must also be sure to take care of ourselves ­— that’s why today we’re discussing the signs of caregiver stress and ways you can combat the burnout.

Shorter days, less sunlight, cold weather and the end of the holiday season are often a recipe for the winter blues – a fairly common and non-medical diagnosis that bring on feelings of sadness. The good news is that while you may feel a bit gloomier than usual, the winter blues are temporal and we have some great tips to help keep you smiling through the next couple of months!

When thinking about the types of hospice services or types of hospice care, it’s very common for people to feel a bit overwhelmed and unclear about options, services, benefits and goals.

Hospice care provides a full complement of medically driven comfort and symptom management, but is not curative care, which is care to cure an illness. Hospice care is a type of specialized care that is tailored to patients with terminal illnesses. The goal of this type of care is to provide comfort and to improve the quality of life.

For a year that brought more unprecedented challenges to us all, the Concordia family found ways in 2021 to bring joy into our communities. We saw the return of annual events promoting fellowship, kindness and generosity, we found blessings in tragedy and we were humbled by God’s grace that allowed us to grow our mission and serve even more of His people.

Our annual Top Ten Concordia Blog Posts listicle touches upon the forementioned and also speaks to the fortitude of the Concordia family – a compassionate and selfless team of staff, donors, residents, patients and their families who bring out the best in one another and work together to foster our mission of caring. From short term rehab to skilled nursing and every service line in between, we are truly humbled and thankful to continue to provide quality care for our residents and patients even in the face of adversity. Thanks be to God!

From the entire Concordia family to yours: Merry Christmas! In honor of the true meaning of the holiday season, today’s post comes from Concordia Deaconess Heather Wathall. Concordia has an excellent Chaplaincy Department that actively contributes to our patients’ and residents’ spiritual wellbeing, and once again, our chaplaincy staff has gone above and beyond in their service this year. Enjoy the Christmas devotional below, and have a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas season.

At Concordia Lutheran Ministries, our employees are the heart and hands of our mission – they care for our residents and patients with their hard work, kindness and empathy and keep our organization running with their leadership, vision and dedication.

Watching our amazing staff handle the unprecedented challenges of 2020 that have continued into this year has been truly inspiring, so we chose to highlight just a few in our 2021 Concordia Calendar as a proclamation of gratitude for their many contributions. Though we wish there could be 3,000 pages in the calendar to feature all of our employees, this small sampling is representative of our extraordinary staff as a whole. Each month, we’ll introduce you to the talented, compassionate team members featured in our calendar.

Our Concordia at Cabot campus welcomed community members, friends and families on Sunday to enjoy the eighth annual Concordia Live Nativity! A mild winter day set the perfect backdrop for our attendees to experience the birth of our Savior.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are approximately 6.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s dementia. What this number doesn’t include is the number of loved ones and caregivers who are also affected. Although there is no cure yet, there are some things we can do to help put our loved ones who are living with memory impairments at ease. One of those things is learning how to communicate with them effectively.

In honor of November being National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, we’ve asked Concordia Adult Day Services Director Stefanie Dietrich some questions regarding communication and Alzheimer’s disease.

At Concordia Lutheran Ministries, our employees are at the heart and hands of our mission – they care for our residents and patients with their hard work, kindness and empathy and keep our organization running with their leadership, vision and dedication.

Watching our amazing staff handle the unprecedented challenges of 2020 that continue into this year has been truly inspiring, so we chose to highlight just a few in our 2021 Concordia Calendar as a proclamation of gratitude for their many contributions. Though we wish there could be 3,000 pages in the calendar to feature all of our employees, this small sampling is representative of our extraordinary staff as a whole. Each month, we’ll introduce you to the talented, compassionate team members featured in our calendar.

Today, we take a moment to recognize the 15^th anniversary of the fire that claimed Concordia’s Haven I retirement apartment building. You may be asking, why would we memorialize a tragedy? To answer that, here is a quote from Concordia President and CEO Keith Frndak from the day of the incident, "In terms of property loss, we have a catastrophe. In terms of people, we were very blessed."