Jaimie - Elderly Services Program Business Manager
Jaimie, MSW, LISW-S, is a self-professed "old soul" who has enjoyed being around older adults for as long as she can remember. So she's feeling right at home here at Council on Aging after joining our team in 2018 as manager of the Elderly Services Program.
Find out more about Jaimie in our Q&A:
Where did the path that brought you to COA begin?
In high school, one of my first jobs was working at The Lodge Retirement Community, in Loveland, as a server. I really clicked working with older adults. But that wasn't too surprising, because I had a really close relationship with my grandparents. The other side of the story was my interest in social services at a young age… doing a lot of volunteer work, and working with underserved populations.
Besides at COA, have you worked on behalf of older adults before?
At the Alzheimer's Association national office, I developed an online support group with peer volunteers. I also started developing educational materials for Alzheimer's Disease, the programs that they do now, like "The Ten Warning Signs," and trained chapters on how to deliver them. At Northwestern University I studied atypical dementias and developed behavioral track interventions based on where the first sign of cognitive deficit showed up, for example in the frontal lobe. Two doors down from my office was a cooler of brains used for research!
What is one of the important lessons you've learned while working with older adults?
During my graduate program, I was able to work with older adults in different settings: in the community, in hospice, in a doctor's office. One assignment was working in geriatric care management, at a for-profit with a very wealthy population, where I realized that aging impacts anyone of any income, that social work and care management help was necessary for everybody, not just people with lower incomes.
What is one thing that you particularly enjoy doing as a professional?
Before coming to COA, I worked as an oncology social worker at Christ Hospital. I loved training new staff. I had grad students with me a lot. I used to be a piano teacher, where I learned that being a teacher helps you get better at your own skills, because you have to explain what you're doing, and that in itself makes you stronger at what you're doing. I felt like that with grad students.
Soon after you started at COA, we defined a new set of values. Is there one in particular that speaks to you?
I would say innovation speaks to me the most, because I like to come up with ideas and test them and trial them. I like to be on the creation side of things.
What do you hope to acheive in your position at COA?
I would really like to make an impact on the seniors we serve with whatever programmatic opportunities there would be. Before coming to COA, when I was a social worker at Christ Hospital, I identified an issue that was an unmet need for the people we were serving (a support program for patients post-treatment). I would hope to be able to do something similar here. So, is there something that we aren't doing that we could do, or make something we are doing have a bigger impact?
A little more about Jaimie...
