How to Become the Healthiest Community in America

For best results, allow a few seconds of buffering before playing the movie.

Bill Witte visits Monument of A. T. Still

Long before Bill Witte put his research and ideas together to form the Vital Life Community Concept, and long before Vital Life was introduced to A. T. Still University, there was A. T. Still, himself.  Known as the father of Osteopathic Medicine, A. T. Still was someone who was dissatisfied with the general use of drug prescriptions in medical care, as well as the ineffectiveness of many of the treatments. It was his notion that the body heals itself; drugs don’t heal us. Bill Witte has studied the principals taught by A. T. Still and other revolutionary thinkers, and many of those teachings compose the skeleton of the Vital Life Community principals. The Vital Life  Community Concept centers around what Bill believes are the 8 components of the “well” person. Here is a photo of Bill recently taken at the grave of A. T. Still.

 

 

 

 

New Evolution of Ameriprise Financial Advertising Emphasizes that ``Dreams Don't Retire''

Video

September 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Dreams don't retire. That's what Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (NYSE:AMP) is telling over 78 million baby boomers in a new advertising campaign that launches this Sunday, Sept. 10, during the first regular season broadcast of NBC Sunday Night Football at 8 p.m. eastern. The broadcast ads will feature a celebrity familiar to the boomer generation, actor Dennis Hopper.

Vital Life Measurement

OVERVIEW

The Vital Life Community Wellness Program is all about individual and community well-being. If we as human beings are well, which means without morbidity in mind, body and spirit - then we have reached the apex of the human potential and state of being. We then have the opportunity of living: “fully human, and fully alive.”

An imposed challenge for us is to determine “how” to measure significant performance outcome and thus accord the title of “The Healthiest Community in America.” This title would be given to a high performance community seeking to provide the most enriching and vital environment in which to live.

I have been seeking that elusive “Rosetta Stone” for almost six years now. Reading literally hundreds of books, scouring the internet (almost a thousand papers and articles) and I have yet to find any menu of measurement that satisfies this goal. Therefore, I have come to the conclusion WE will measure WHAT ever is important to our goals of Wellness and in following pages we will discuss HOW. But first…….

THE NATURE OF A CCRC

Consider the demonstration community type we are using as the first application for the focus of the Vital Life Community Wellness Program– the CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community). In a CCRC, (arguably the finest model of a retirement community now available to aging seniors), there are many different programs and therefore, specialties being employed at any given time.

The three major categories of living accommodations are uniquely different from each other. They are: Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Skilled Nursing Care. Each of these continuums has at the basis, a uniquely targeted program calibrated to meet the needs of their constituents.

The clinician with stewardship over a population of the “elderly / feeble” has an understandably strong need to be constantly aware of the resident/patient’s vital signs. However, the wellness director creating programs for the active seniors in the independent living program of the community has more of a need to take measure of the “vitality” signs or as we would say, the “Vitalife” signs.

These two continuums serve different people at four different levels of capability, as indicated in our graph. The categories are: 1) Fun, 2) Function 3) Frail, and 4) Failure.

THE NATURE OF MEASUREMENT OR TESTING

Measuring is not useful unless it benefits an individual and a process. Measurement used for health screening has approximately three levels:

1. Common Health Profile Screening employs a denominator measure of Respiratory, Cardiac, Nervous and Circulatory systems as well our growth measures of weight and height. These basic health screening tests and diagnostics can be performed relatively quickly, are general in nature, and are the lowest cost of the diagnostic family of screening and testing. These are used to provide baseline data for a patient, so that they can be benchmarked in the future relative to them and the population-at-large.

2. Follow-up Testing. This testing is more targeted, depending upon the Primary Screening Results. It is more specified than a common health profile screening, often more expensive. Both of these first two testing programs are basically seeking morbidity indicators, and are employed when maintaining a body that is more often than not in declining health.

3. Performance Testing, such as that utilized by competing athletes, is seeking to obtain higher levels of vitality and thus capability. Their goal is to seek and accomplish “Personal Best” or “Category Best” in whatever endeavor they have chosen to become accomplished.

TWO ENDS OF THE CONTINUUM

In a CCRC, a 68 year old man, may choose to work out in a gym to improve his upper body strength, which helps to compensate for the natural loss of strength occurring with the natural aging process. A 72 year old woman may be taking piano lessons as a mental exercise to help her maintain her memory functions and also to defer the threat of one of the many stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s.

A man or woman of any age, suffering from loss and loneliness, after having suffered a significant personal loss such as a death of a family member, could experience significant depression. Additionally, he or she may experience mental stress disorders which require intervention of another kind of treatment and therefore measure. In this scenario, just what do you measure to ascertain the welfare of the patient? To begin, patient could be asked in a questionnaire the answer to a question requiring self-reflection and subjectivity such as, “are You Happy or Sad, and Why?”

NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL

Obviously, there is no “one size that fits all.” When examining the measure of communities or small towns designated annually by the AARP, Rand McNally, or others that serve the aging senior demography, we find they are open in sharing their measurement categories. They each differ due to the understandable lack of empirical measure to enable one to be proven “right” and another “wrong.” They share their logic with the reader and offer some measure but a largess of subjective and anecdotal data to make their case. This prompts the reader to take the responsibility of either agreeing or not with the study and /or its author.

THE VITAL LIFE COMMUNITIES SHALL MEASURE ANY NEEDED ACTIVITY

This is any data that is needed and has been accepted as a common standard of measure for those specialties of concern as required by our constituents. There will be different standards for instance of the quality, and nutritional food content served, relative to the diabetic, versus the sufferer of arthritis.

There will be a “personal best” for an 88 year old woman using a walker and working her way back to independent ambulation after hip fracture surgery, as there will be for a 68 year old man who is trying to increase the fractional additives of the weights he will be trying to bench press.

INDIVIDUALLY WE WILL MEASURE . . .

In all cases, the goals are the same. As you look at the chart above, the basic tenants of the Vitalife Program are to ensure maximum vitality or wellness by extending each of the successive aspects that define our LIVING capabilities; Fun, Function, Frailty, and Failure. In each stage of LIFE CAPABILITY we will have to redefine life’s meaning to each individually and therefore its measure.

AS A GROUP WE WILL MEASURE…

Each community will employ their own measurements to define resident satisfaction and maximum benefit of symbiotic interfacing. For those who have no measure or find the academic and statistical scientific methodology too daunting, we offer the VCWP formula for measure social transaction as:

CxDxQ= S < 3

Wherein: C = CONTACT: Numbers of persons in group connected

D = DURATION: Duration of time (in minutes) group stays involved

Q = QUALITY: Subjective satisfaction rating by participants in activity being measured (see chart below)

S = Social Transaction

A RESIDENT WILL MEASURE

In the end, the outcome that matters most is resident participation. You can have a powerhouse of talent within your staff and resident community, but without providing the venues that will allow them to engage and focus on initiatives that matter, then the potential for both resident and community is wasted.

It becomes imperative that we ensure the engagement of the residents; their satisfaction is paramount to both the vitality of the community and to them. They are unusually above the common mold or they would not have chosen your community or have had the resources to afford your offering.

So in the end, it is the responsibility of the community to offer vital activities that will enhance the vital life of the resident and therefore the vitality of the community. There is no shortage of evidence describing the nature and the material content of programs designed to provide almost any outcome desired.

MEASURING THE HEALTH AND VITALITY OF THE COMMUNITY

As stated earlier, measuring the vitality and well being of residents from a biophysical sense is relatively well developed within our culture in terms of diagnostics and corresponding relevance. In the triad of “mind, body, and spirit,” we have as a society developed fairly sophisticated bodies of knowledge such that any known malady has an intercessory or preventative program to mitigate its threat to the health of the body.

Regarding physical fitness, there is no shortage of aerobics classes, balance, fitness, strength training or other bio-physical programs, in most any community. It is in the realm of “mind and spirit” wherein the deficit often occurs. Often times “lifestyle” in a community sometimes seems institutional with a mild sense of benign incarceration, rather than life being meaningful, serendipitous and liberating.

What we are short on is motivational techniques and the balancing of application of programs relating to mind and spirit. The chart below shows how one can monitor the “balance” of the program offerings within a community not just quantitatively, but “qualitatively.” This is the measure that truly establishes the currency of value that separates one community from another.

The ACTIVITY MATRIX shown on the previous page represents a log of just some the activities for one month within a fictitious Vital Life Community that is employing the Vital Life program. This “mock” chart was created to demonstrate how to compile data so that it is useful, while providing direction and guidance.

In the matrix, one can readily see the utilization of the types of programs, the patronage, the continuum sectors participating, and the resident satisfaction. You will note that in this community, they could use more programs that have to do with the human ecology spectrum subjects of the “environmental”, “spiritual” and “occupational” genres.

They have very good participation in the “physical” fitness realm of walking and general fitness classes. This could be because the perception of the residents is that if they participate in these classes, it will provide the best investment return for their most precious and finite asset, their time.

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE; ENGAGEMENT IS THE “BEEF!”

Just as in our favorite cities that we like to visit, our favorite communities are ones that have a wide variety of activities that can provide people with varied taste “options.” The key, however, is ENGAGEMENT. Individuals and couples will only be satisfied with being observers initially, until the “newness” wears off. Then they will be anxious to participate and become a part of the “buzz of the hive!”

To successfully accomplish the “ENGAGEMENT” portion of the community, the activities program is the first element that must be mastered. Both Motivation and Engagement can be programmed by an astute Wellness Coordinator or Program Director.

This is where the “art” of being a successful motivator comes in, and this is where the survey response that highlights the “SATISFACTION QUOTIENT” shown on page 4 comes in. In almost all occasions, a score of 1.25 to 1.75 will be realized only if there is an embedded or hosted “mixer” component. By this we mean making people feel comfortable enough to engage with strangers in hopes of them getting to know them and make new friends. Many new residents have lost all or most of their former friends and colleagues; therefore, they are weaker because of a thinning support group.

This “mixer” motivational technique is the social secret of any good hostess. She knows her guests, knows what they are interested in, and introduces them “to” others with enough information that they have common ground for both respect, and conversational exchange opportunities.

HELPFUL HINT:

Techniques on “breaking the ice” and “motivating residents” will be found in both the VITAL NATION net programs: the BBS, and the BLOGS. Go to http://www.vitalifecommunity.com/ and then click “forums” to be taken to the BBS.

BREAKING THE MOLD IN MEASURING OUTCOMES

Would you say that getting a resident in Assisted Living or Skilled Care to participate in a “Walk to San Diego” would be an example of success in motivational skills and participatory outcomes?

I encourage you to read one Vital Life Community member’s report on her successful motivational techniques. She was able to motivate a marginally ambulatory resident to participate with the more mobile residents on a “Cross Country [walking] Conquest” program. Go to: http://vitalactivities.blogspot.com/

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Each resident will have differing needs depending upon their health and ability. A resident who is non-ambulatory and suffers from chronic arthritis will have different primary goals than another resident that is actively mobile. A well resident might seek a broader dimension of experiences depending upon their make-up and interests.

Each community will have at any given time a “Dynamic Need” status. Depending upon the resident population, certain initiatives will be received more readily than others.

If residents feel that the community will genuinely take their feelings into account when considering CCRC program implementation, they will give honest feedback that will benefit the effectiveness of the programming. This way existing programs can be tweaked such that they will become continuously more relevant to the resident population, simply by asking them and responding in kind through interviews and surveys.

It is important to not only survey the residents but critically important to “respond” to the survey results with appropriate changes or mid-course corrections to aspects or nuances of your existing programs. Having a program alone, will not result in resident satisfaction, indeed it could engender criticism. However, in the residents’ minds, squandering their precious time by operating a program that is not what it should be or one not satisfying to them is not acceptable.

HOW DO WE CONTINUALLY MONITOR AND MODIFY OUR PROGRAMS?

The Vitalife “Resident Satisfaction Survey” is quite useful, to accomplish this end and quite easy to understand. It takes each resident only minutes to fill out, is simple to process and over a period of time will offer a clear diagnostic of your program suite.

Thelma Rider (above) did not give a good score to the walking program. She expected a program to have an organization that would facilitate “partnering” or facilitation. Her survey results do not indicate that directly. She complains (and gives a low score) because when entering the lobby where the walking program around the grounds was to begin, it was not evident among the varying clusters of people just who were walking and who were not. She wanted to walk “with” somebody, and when the group just started walking out the door, she followed but did not feel a “part of it.”

A follow up phone call would have added “the rest of the story.” Thelma was hard of hearing and could not hear the walk leader’s (a petite woman not readily visible in a crowd) instructions to the crowd. She would have responded better to a “visible” cue such as an easel indicating that this was the starting point and each person should sign in and contact the “walk leader” wearing the red hat.

A follow-up phone call would accomplish two things; 1) Advise Thelma how to better facilitate immersion into the program, and 2) indicate to the “walk leader” that a visual cue was needed to help orient new residents as to the protocol.

The next walk session, the “walk leader” actively seeks Thelma out and pairs her up with another person who “knows the ropes” and who is known for talking loudly at all times. Thelma then upon completion of her walk fills out another Survey and her score reflects greater satisfaction, and both Thelma and the Community have gained because now the program is better and more resident based.

The Resident Surveys should be an important part of the continuing methodology of listening to the “buzz of the hive.” Some residents will not want to fill out a survey each time they finish a walk, it will become tedious. That’s O.K.; this means they are relatively satisfied. But the population should be made aware that the Resident Survey forms (RS Forms) are ALWAYS available at the location of the event, and at the end of each event the leader should remind “those who want to, don’t forget to fill out your forms!”

Upon completion of even three months of using RS Form system, dramatically useful information will start to materialize. Quarterly, the Vitalife Scorecard should be available to the residents to show how they have graded various programs and activities. More importantly this will show them how their satisfaction has increased due to an alert, caring and responsive program or wellness director’s efforts.

RESIDENT SATISFACTION Forms

From these RS Forms combined with a “sign-in” sheet at every function a mosaic of the activities of the community begin to reveal several things:

1. The diversity of the program (diversity is crucial to wellness)

2. The quality of the programs from the resident’s view point

3. The favorites of the community

WHY ARE THESE THREE COMPONENTS IMPORTANT?

DIVERSITY

Diversity is the key to a “balanced” program, ensuring that all residents with all proclivities have something that allows them to participate “socially” within their own community. This allows them grow, engage, learn, and to be exposed to new stimuli that may change their lives. Meeting one new person, who is passionate about one aspect of life may change the life of a new friend, and a person who never held a paint brush in his life could discover the hidden painter talent within himself.

QUALITY

Quality is a subjective aspect in that it takes on a new meaning with each individual. Resident satisfaction is allowing you to precisely “tune” programs that have otherwise no precise “tuning controls.” The residents TELL YOU where and what the controls are.

FAVORITES

Favorites are important because using the 80/20 rule. Every effort must be employed, especially when the assets of facilities, time, and money are finite, to maintain and improve key programs that pull the residents out of their place of abode and into the social mix of the community. Socialization will keep our residents vital and looking forward to living – living in your community, and this will in turn enhance their outlook on life!

Plan, implement, measure, modify (PIMM): the PIMM method must be the continuing cycle of vitalizing your community. Data delivered to you via the RS Forms, and information extracted by you, via Survey Follow-up (SF) should be charted, selectively shared, and employed to create a Vital Community.

The PIMM process is the MEASURE of a successful community and the measuring process, with the appropriate response and feedback is the KEY to a more Vital life. Fully Human and Fully Alive – That is the measure of vitality.

Standards and Measuring Outcomes

Standards and Measuring Outcomes

Click the link below to view the show:

To observe the slides at your own pace click the slide and in the bottom right hand corner you will see the standard previous, stop, play and next buttons…

Press the center, "stop" button- then click the far right "next" button to scroll at your own convenience…

THW VITALIFE - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

What is Confluence Management?

What is Confluence Management?

Click the link below to view the show:

To observe the slides at your own pace click the slide and in the bottom right hand corner you will see the standard previous, stop, play and next buttons…

Press the center, "stop" button- then click the far right "next" button to scroll at your own convenience…

THW VITALIFE - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

How VLC Criteria Affect Design

How VLC criteria affect design:

Click the link below to view the show:

To observe the slides at your own pace click the slide and in the bottom right hand corner you will see the standard previous, stop, play and next buttons…

Press the center, "stop" button- then click the far right "next" button to scroll at your own convenience…

THW VITALIFE - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Why Another Wellness Program

Why another Wellness Program?

Click the link below to view:

To observe the slides at your own pace click the slide and in the bottom right hand corner you will see the standard previous, play and next buttons…

Press the center, "stop" button- then click the far right "next" button to scroll at your convenience.

THW VITALIFE - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

STRESS; THE THREAT TO WELLNESS

As I go around the country talking about wellness and the threats to maximum wellness, invariably the bias or understanding many people have regarding the health of mind, body and spirit is related to exercize, nutrition and disease. While each of these issues are subsets of a much broader understanding of the vital human being we must remember one key fundamental precept:

When it comes to healing, only our own body, with its magnificently designed auto-immune system can heal us of our maladies. Therefor our goal is to care for it and protect the most vital system we've been blessed with.

Building on that thesis, one of the greatest threats to the well-being of our auto-immune system is STRESS. Therefor any prevention program should make stress reduction and stress education a fundamental tool in our wellness programming.

I have included below, an excerpt from a web article entitled:

"STRESS AFFECTS IMMUNITY IN WAYS RELATED TO STRESS TYPE AND DURATION, AS SHOWN BY NEARLY 300 STUDIES".

Here is an exerpt:

"CLEAR PATTERNS EMERGE OUTLINING GREATER DAMAGE FROM CHRONIC STRESS -

WASHINGTON — Psychologists have long known that stress affects our ability to fight infection, but a major new “meta-analysis” – a study of studies – has elucidated intriguing patterns of how stress affects human immunity, strengthening it in the short term but wearing it down over time. The report appears in the July issue of Psychological Bulletin, which is published by the American Psychological Association.

Major findings are three-fold.

1. First, the overlapping findings of 293 independent studies reported in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1960 and 2001 – with some 18,941 individuals taking part in all -- powerfully confirm the core fact that stress alters immunity.
2. Second, the authors of the meta-analysis observed a distinctive pattern: Short-term stress actually “revs up” the immune system, an adaptive response preparing for injury or infection, but long-term or chronic stress causes too much wear and tear, and the system breaks down.
3. Third, the immune systems of people who are older or already sick are more prone to stress-related change."
   
   "The most chronic stressors – which change people’s identities or social roles, are more beyond their control and seem endless -- were associated with the most global suppression of immunity; almost all measures of immune function dropped across the board. Duration of stress came into play: The longer the stress, the more the immune system shifted from potentially adaptive changes (such as those in the acute “fight or flight” response) to potentially detrimental changes, at first in cellular immunity and then in broader immune function. Thus, stressors that turn a person’s world upside down and appear to offer no “light at the end of the tunnel” could have the greatest psychological and physiological impact."
   
   Finally, Segerstrom and Miller found that age and disease status affected a person’s vulnerability to stress-related decreases in immune function. They attribute this to how illness and age make it harder for the body to regulate itself."
   
   http://www.apa.org/releases/stress_immune.html
   
   The implications of this dimension of the study of prevention and wellness are huge. I encourage everyone to read this article, related links, and see our other links regarding stress and wellness as well.
   
   This underscores even more why the Vital Life Community Wellness Program which promotes nurturing, socialization-based programs as a priority, have such tremendous potential influencing human wellness and vitality.
   
   Share with us any programs your are employing on this subject in your community.
   

strong>

UPDATE ON THE VITAL LIFE COMMUNITY PROGRAM

Great News!

We have another new member of the (VLWC) Vital Life Wellness Corps! He is Reverand James McGee and he is the President of Methodist Oaks CCRC in Orangeburg, S.C.

I spoke to Rev. McGee several times answering his questions and sending him literature on the Vitalife Community. In answering his last call, I told him I would send him some of our latest literature. His response, "I don't want any more literature, I want to join!"

Well, join he has. And not only that, Reverand McGee is going to moderate a blog on the wellness program he is running at Methodist Oaks in Orangeburg, SC., and hopes to use it and the BBS to compare notes with other VLWC Members.

He is especially interested in the wellness measuring denominator we are working towards and that is the common metrics we are using to compare notes community to community. I told him that Libby Bush is leading that charge out of Westminster Canterbury of Richmond, in Richmond. VA. James knows of Libby and excited to share, compare notes and hear about her reccomendations. More about Libby's efforts tomorrow, but for now everyone in the VITAL NATION, please welcome Reverand James McGee to the corps and the cause.

We are excited to have him aboard. He will be an energetic advocate for creating the "healthiest communities in America" for our aging adult friends.

Stay tuned for another annoucement later this week, another exciting Vitalife blog and an announcement regarding another new corp member, acutally two; you will want to follow this good news.

THE VITAL LIFE COMMUNITY

What is it, and why do we need it? Why do YOU need it?


A Vital Life Community has participants that are gathered together because they share core values, ideals and life goals that the community is geared to support. The primary goal is to achieve maximum personal wellness and living an active life!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beyond the basic obvious needs of safety, shelter, services and socialization what is it that makes one community better than another? What is it that allows people to live in safety, comfort and joy? Is it possible for people to enjoy vitality in their lives, while living a quality life that is affordable?

Following Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs, it is assumed that all humans desire physiological care, safety, nutrition and self-esteem, with the later only being realized in a social construct that we call “Community.” But while all communities share similarities, they are each different. Each has a brand identity specific to relevant climate, geographic position, and relationship to transportation confluence.

Often, existing communities “reinvent” themselves to attract new migrants. They will focus on life quality; the specific components that they think will attract the type of people they would like to have as neighbors.

And for those people who are easily mobile, they WILL move, if necessary, to find that place that will give them affordable safety and a quality lifestyle. If they move to a specific community because they share similar values and specific goals, then the community is identified as an “Affinity Community.” A Del Webb retirement community is an “Affinity Community” –as the residents all have retirement needs in common.

In today’s mobile society, the nuclear family has been under siege, and often times has been split up as each generational group moves to places that they feel will give them the greatest opportunity for successful jobs. This may be in one instance a positive thing, but jobs are perishable for the most part and the family social support when all else fails is another factor that is all too often undervalued. The less support structure we have, the less options are available.

The Vital Life Community can become the extended family unit that replaces the genetic family that has often moved away. Participating individuals are afforded the hope of a better life and the potential of reversing the trend towards abject poverty and severe chronic health problems. To know more about these potential threats, read on.
The experiment of the Great Society has come and gone, leaving some recipients of the political and social largess quite satisfied. However, too many others have to pay debts they did not incur for services they never received, and are left quite bewildered.

In the land of plenty, it was deemed, there is more than enough to go around. However, program after program has been touted and abandoned by the Federal Government. Our political leaders want to be known as a “safety net of first and last resort,” but in actuality, often times their sole purpose is doing what it takes to get our votes. But all the while – Republican and Democrat alike – pile up excessive national debt and the poor still remain so, though in larger numbers than before.

And now in 2006, we find that the “poor” take on a new meaning. Those who thought they were middle-class, are increasingly becoming the “latent poor” – they just are not aware of it yet.

THE NEW EMERGING CLASS OF THE POOR – ONCE MIDDLE CLASS

Are we approaching the era of the disappearance of the American middle class? Will we be left with only the super rich and super poor?

In the Frontline PBS presentation “Can You Afford To Retire?”1 an epiphany was delivered to the viewing nation; the boomer generation is predicted to have a long life span, but be short on retirement funds. Stunned viewers watched a financial CATscan of their future and discovered a latent morbidity that will dramatically change their lives forever.

The specter of living without income in the years between the date of retirement and the ultimate life expectancy destination is now sending shivers of anxiety throughout America. The vision of twenty to twenty-five years of unfunded life bodes ill for our anticipated retirement lifestyle, let alone the critical components of survival – healthcare.

The well-being of the middle class of America is now threatened as the promises and entitlements promulgated during the good times are silently being restructured by both governmental agencies and corporate America as they brace for the bad times.

Those who sold the nation a bill of goods to get votes or recruit employees, whether sincere or sinister, are now long gone, and their progeny are left holding the collective bag.

“I would say, unless you're fortunate to be in the upper-income quartiles, that you're probably going to be in for a very rough ride," says Jack VanDerhei of the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). "You're not going to have sufficient monies to pay the predictable expenses -- your housing, your utilities, your food -- plus the potential catastrophic medical care costs." 1

The fact is that overreaching demands were made by society and unrealistic promises were proffered throughout the entirety of our national and societal entitlement construct. This reveals the inadequacy of a “big brother” safety net guarantee system versus that of self-reliance.

Without the benefit of accountability no contracts can be mutually assured. How do you hold a congress who promised an entitlement, accountable, when the congress that has to pay for the entitlement two decades later has inherited a legacy of campaign promises that have no safe bonds?

How do you hold a corporation accountable for retirement programs when the corporation is no one in particular? Corporations change in context and org chart from month to month, and year to year. The word “corporation” stems from the Latin “not of one mind” – and we see thousands of workers holding accountable in the end… – just who?

Who will pay when Enron folds, and United Airlines restructures? Where will the money come from?

When you are walking the high wire and someone takes away your safety net, then balance becomes critical. This paper is about balance, keeping our balance when all those around us are losing theirs. But make no mistake, even if we get our act together, we WILL PAY for those who have not or won’t.

But we can only do the best we can do. And the best we can do now is to make an investment into the most critical mutual fund that we can find, and I suggest to you that this would be The Vital Life Community Preventative Wellness Program!

JUST WHAT IS A VITAL LIFE COMMUNITY?

To communicate simply, The Vitalife Community is any entity of individuals with shared affinity values who have gathered together for their common good – in this case to advance the potential for their highest and best health forevermore – employing a program designated as The Vital Life Community Preventative Wellness Program.

These communities can be individual or a collective of:

• Schools or colleges
• Small towns
• Community Homeowner Associations
• Small businesses
• Corporations
• Retirement Communities
• Resort Communities

• Or any other affinity organization that is dedicated to advanced pursuits of long-term wellness with an emphasis on prevention. An additional emphasis would be the eight bands of the spectrum of whole and vital health – those being:

• Social
• Spiritual
• Physical
• Intellectual
• Vocational
• Emotional
• Environmental
• Nutritional
  

The existing communities can either be 24/7 communities, those in which we would have permanent domicile and/or secondary communities, where you spend a preponderant portion of your daylight activities (often 8:00 am to 5:00 pm) such as a workplace or and educational center.

THE FUNDAMENTAL FOCUS
The fundamental focus of the Vitalife Community Preventative Wellness Program (VCPWP) is the marshalling of the discretionary resources of time, talent and treasure, towards the activities and programs that will garner the greatest benefit for the least resource expenditure. This is in terms of promoting good health and realizing a reduction of the incidence of morbidity within a closed social organization.

This would be no different than simple decisions a couple might make about promoting their own good health within two dimensions:
· Prevention: they may take daily walks, and plan carefully what they eat
· Intercession: upon one partner finding out they have been diagnosed with the high bad cholesterol, they increase their amount of exercise and modify their diet. He or she will target the foods that will have an intercessory impact on the malady discovered with hopes of reversing a negative trend.

The partner diagnosed with the high cholesterol could either ratchet up the focus on what they eat, as they are the one with the diagnosed problem, or the other partner could see the wisdom in joining the modification of their diet as a precautionary measure.

To ensure that they are accomplishing results, they might start with a whole body health analysis, and periodically measure results against personal and national benchmarks. Special emphasis could be placed on the cholesterol issue. Quarterly testing would determine if their program is working and having the desired effect.

They may also measure blood pressure, heart rate/pulse, weight, body fat, and clothing size every month as near-term feedback indicators. This would enable them to modify their health/fitness regimen, to ensure the desired results.

Extrapolate what an intelligent forward thinking couple may do in their own personal domestic program and then add community support and involvement; you will have something very vibrant and positive.

The key is sustainability. Sustainability requires a program with:

• A focused need: how about good health and reduction of healthcare costs to avoid poverty?
• Benchmarking to a norm of determinants that will help define target goals and indicate the degree of progress that is being achieved against parallel cohorts.
• An easily communicated targeted (wellness) program with goals, rules, language, and defined targeted outcomes .
• Accountability via the sharing of outcomes and mutual celebration of success.
• Proclamation of benefits via measuring reduced costs of expenses and other resources that are devoted to health maintenance and intercession
  

WHY NOW?

One might ask, “why now?” Americans have known all along the importance of good health and yet our national health profile is a national disgrace. Why now would we as a nation decide to change our ways?

The answer is, unfortunately, the most valued assets of lifestyle we Americans seem to worship are our time and treasure. If you want to know what is valuable to a person look at their calendar (where they choose to spend their time and doing what) and their check book (what they spend their money on).

Time and Money – this is the national currency and both are diminishing rapidly and for many both will disappear.

"The nightmare I have," says pension expert Brooks Hamilton, "is the vision of people … outliving their retirement income and being down to Social Security." The shock waves may reverberate through the entire economy. Hamilton continues, "what holds up our economy is consumer spending. When retirees are 20 percent of the population and out of money, then 'poof,' there goes the economy."1

The tragedy that is envisioned is that of a life with only Social Security funding.

What, do you imagine, what will life be without Social Security?

A NATIONAL CRISIS THAT MAY BE INEVITABLE!

The tea leaves are already in place to read, and they read for the “reactive” segment of our society, the crisis of unbridled impact is heading our way like the perfect storm. Only those that leave town now (abandon our current lifestyle) and move from harms way (a new approach to living) have a chance.

If you are wealthy and money cannot buy the goods and services you need (healthcare) then what is the benefit of being wealthy? If you have saved money and there are not enough care givers to go around (two day wait at an emergency room if you could afford it) what difference does it make?

The only sane policy is prevention.

Lacking that ability, the required policy is intercession.

The time line is now.

WHAT SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS?

If the single largest struggle we have to face in only just a few years is the astronomical cost of living led by skyrocketing healthcare and energy costs, then doesn’t it make sense to symbiotically align ourselves with others for protection? By creating lifestyle curriculums where we can leverage mutuality, and implement support programs through a social format; this is the way to not only survive but to thrive!

Energy costs- When was the last time you saw in a newspaper an article about a solar house? Why aren’t the bulk of Americans driving cars that average over 30 miles per gallon? As an architect, I have not had a client ask me to design a energy efficient building since 1975.
d
Healthcare costs: When was the last time you ate in a restaurant that served reasonably sized portions? How many people do you know that center their lifestyle around and healthy living?

The bulk of Americans will not exercise; will not even take a walk – and if they do, it will certainly not be alone. But they might be coerced into changing habits and lifestyles if nudged by supportive friends, family and neighbors that they care about.


In our mobile society there are too many isolated people who cannot join with their family to take advantage of the social leverage that the group can offer. They, often in silo’s of desperation, have slimmer margins and resources with which to survive.

Only a regeneration of the power of family, via an extended family in the ACT of Community will prevail and provide sanctuary in the near term.

For many communities there is an “ideal” size. Too large and it becomes too impersonal. Too small and it becomes too limited. But for any affinity social group from 50 to 3,000 the Vitalife Community construct can be applied readily.

THE ACT OF COMMUNITY – A DECLARATOIN OF INTERDEPENDENCE
Americans have prized “Independence” over the years, and yet that very independence was achieved by great acts of “Interdependence.” In our major wars, specifically the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and WWII, millions gave their lives “inter-dependently” so others could live free and independently.

Many of us utilize interdependence in our own lives. Interestingly, studies have shown that those who are married, even unhappily married have better health indicators than those who live alone. As we retire we will see a new paradigm – different from that of our parents. New conditions will require new constructs.

The constructs that pertain to the Vitalife Community Concept is especially relevant to women. In today’s age, we now have more divorces, and in addition, statistically women live longer than men. These two factors suggest the possibility that many women in their later years will retire living alone. Wait – did I say retire?
"What is the meaning of retirement if the only way you can live is to work?" asks Notre Dame professor Teresa Ghilarducci. "The answer is there is no meaning to retirement anymore. We are now shifting from lifetime pensions to lifetime work. It's the end of retirement."1

If professor Ghilarducci is correct, and we will not ever be able to stop working because we cannot afford not to – then doesn’t that make another paradigm shift a necessity?

If we can’t afford to stop working because we are without adequate resources, then doesn’t it stand to reason that our personal health is prioritzed so we can continue to work, so we can afford to live? Shouldn’t our whole focus of our work place and the community in which we live be centered around optimum health and wellness?

Shouldn’t recess, athletics and nutritional education be mandatory in programs of grade schools? These key components of life skills also needs to be taught in high schools and wellness programs. They should be not only taught, but nurtured, measured, rewarded and celebrated be the norm in colleges and the workplaces.

Shouldn’t the nation be obsessed with good health and wellness that only a vital community can provide?

We can’t afford not to do otherwise! So the question is how?

Ladies and Gentlemen – I offer you the Vitalife Community Preventative Wellness Program.

It is important to answer the question, “Why focus on this program – why not another?”

The answer will be evident if you will invest one half hour of your time to conduct research that might modify your thinking and change your mindset.

Go to “Google”. Type in any one of the following search or key words:

• Health
• Wellness
• Vitality
• Prevention

How often can you find ANY program, which will provide you with the following benefits or constructs:

1. A simple easy to understand personal and community wellness construct
2. Simple language, logical categories, and an easy system with which to build your own program. This can be as simple or complex as you deem appropriate. You would be able to COMPARE IT and SHARE IT with others.
3. Straight forward targeted goals backed up with extensive benefits research
4. A non-technical means of measuring success in both: Objective Means ( Using already established national standards ) Subjective Means ( Using simple user feedback surveys )
5. Full Spectrum application in the INCLUSIVE critical life dimensions.
6. A program that can begin immediately with no expenditure of funds for facilities, or equipment (other than a pedometer)
7. A program that tells you how and what to do to change a normal community into a Vital Life Community with a powerful Preventative Wellness Program
8. A program that is free to all Americans or anyone in the world
9. A program that has “open architecture” which will allow any and all to add to the program, share results, and strengthen each other through a national data base and web-based sharing system
10. Or a program that will tell you how to plan your communities and the supporting architecture to enhance the opportunity for better health and intimacy.
11. No fees, no membership requirements other than SHARING
12. SHARING AND CARING – LIVING WITH DIGNITY
    

If you are convinced that there is too much static, too many offerings that sell equipment, supplements, or complicated programs in the marketplace today, then consider joining a movement in which the word SELL is replaced by the word SHARE and FREE!

Become a member of the Vitalife Wellness Corps and help SAVE AMERICA.

Footnotes:
“Can you afford to retire”, by FRONTLINE as seen on PBS – review the entire show by linking to:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/retirement/view/

or go to http://www.pbs.org/ and link to FRONTLINE to find the above named show. It is a show you cannot afford to miss, whether or not you are interested in the Vital Life Community.

Bill Witte
CEO, THW Design