National Continuing Care Residents Assoc. Affiliates with LeadingAge

For several years, the National Continuing Care Residents’ Association (NaCCRA) has hosted annual meetings in conjunction with the LeadingAge meeting, combining its own business with the opportunity for members to participate in a broad array of educational and general sessions offered under the umbrella of LeadingAge, thus providing residents with direct insights into provider-side views of the industry. 

This year, the NaCCRA meetings on  October 31-November 1, 2015 in Boston, offered a packed agenda of topics that attracted strong attendance by officers, board members, and representatives of more than a dozen state resident chapters (photo), as well as interested individual residents.  And anyone who thinks older adults aren’t tech savvy can think again, as several members were participating remotely and the sessions are recorded for later viewing through the NaCCRA website.

High on the agenda this year was finalization of a formal affiliation agreement between NaCCRA and LeadingAge.  

The prospects for affiliation troubled some within NaCCRA, especially those who became active in NaCCRA precisely because of concern about the direction taken by certain owners or management of CCRCs in recent years.  They saw LeadingAge as the voice of “providers” only, and perhaps even as representing “the enemy.”  They were worried residents might be silenced by the affiliation. Others in NaCCRA have witnessed the ever-broadening membership of LeadingAge and noted the organization’s strong interest in state and federal regulation, laws and tax policies affecting senior living operations. They felt that NaCCRA needed to be inside the tent to have an effective voice in future changes that can affect residents.  

Within NaCCRA, the vote in favor of affiliation lead to a change at the leadership level, with President Dan Seeger (Pennsylvania) and at least one other board member stepping down from their positions in late summer 2015. 

Past President Ruth Walsh (Connecticut, center in photo below) had several weeks as Interim President.  During the October 31 meeting, new officers were elected, including Rev. Bob Nicholson (Washington, below left) as incoming President, Walt Boyer (North Carolina) as President Elect, and Jack Cumming (California) as Treasurer, joining William Ratcliff as Secretary.  

At the meeting the results of a recent survey of the more than 2,000 paid members of NaCCRA (including those representing affiliated state NaCCRA chapters or resident councils, thus giving NaCCRA an interest group of at least 38,000 residents) was announced.  The survey provides a prioritized action list for upcoming projects. Advocating for clearer written statements of “resident rights” (matched with better understanding of resident responsibilities) came out on top of the list of objectives for the coming year