Healthcare Health care changes
By Justin McClelland
Staff Writer
TURTLECREEK TWP. — For exactly 100 years, Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Choices has been at the forefront in the health and livelihood of the senior population.
“It’s a remarkable story,” said Charles Dilgard.
Dilgard was the president and CEO of Otterbein from 1966 until 1994.
“I’m honored to have just been a part of it.”
Otterbein was started in 1912 as a home for the elderly and infirmed and a children’s orphanage.
Missionaries purchased 4,000 acres from the dwindling Shaker religious community who lived there for the thrifty price of $325,000.
The Shakers had used the land as a commune and farm since 1805.
The land was purchased on behalf of the United Brethren in Christ Church, a forerunner of the Methodist church and the community was named after Phillip William Otterbein, the founder of the United Brethren.
The Otterbein community struggled financially for the first 50 years of its existence.
Philippi Hall was begun in the 1930s, but sat unfinished for years as funds were scraped together to finish construction.
“The majority of funding came from church donations,” said Arline Peckham, a program organizer and historian of Otterbein. “In the mid-’60s there were 103 people living here, and 100 of them could not pay to stay.”
Dilgard, who grew up in Ashville, Ohio, recalls taking part in church drives for Otterbein from the time he was a small boy.
“I think I knew the word Otterbein before I knew my mother’s name,” Dilgard joked.
Dilgard and Charles and Arline Peckham came to the community in the mid-1960s and ushered in a change in philosophy of how the community would operate.
The orphanage closed in 1963.
The advent of Medicare and more services for seniors in 1966, along with more productive capital campaigns, shored up the community’s financial stability for the first time in its history. At the same time, the senior population nationwide began to grow significantly. Seniors demanded more from the care they received, Dilgard said. Otterbein stood on the forefront of the changing theories of senior care.
“No one wants to come to a nursing home — or any home — and say ‘This is the last place I’ll ever live.’ It’s just depressing,” Dilgard said. “But the model then was you came to a nursing home and that was it. Now, we operate a nursing home as a place to recuperate and get back to an active lifestyle.”
The Peckhams, although shy to admit their achievements, wrote multiple books on caring for seniors and keeping them engaged in an active lifestyle.
“There really wasn’t much in the way of geriatrics,” Charles Peckham said. “A lot of it we made up as we went.”
Dilgard oversaw the addition of the small residential communities that surround Marble Hall and Otterbein’s main campus in the early 1970s. The community also began branching out by starting retirement communities in other areas.
Today, Otterbein operates 10 separate communities, including five, full-service retirement communities in Lebanon, Cridersville, St. Marys, Pemberville and Lakeside and an additional five skilled nursing and rehabilitation neighborhoods. The Otterbein campus houses 628 residents, and 1,470 residents live in all the Otterbein communities.
In November of last year, officials broke ground on a new life enrichment center for seniors, that will include a swimming pool and jogging track. Dilgard said he sometimes worries that Otterbein will lose sight of the charitable ideals that led to its creation.
“It’s a conflict between people who want a Taj Majal model of housing versus something a little more modest,” Dilgard said.
“Otterbein has grown and changed significantly over the years, fueled by our passion to find new and better ways to serve,” said Jill Hreben, Otterbein’s CEO. “These new ways are grounded in our understanding that as children of God, every individual has the right to be in control of a lifestyle of their choosing, no matter what type of care and support is needed. We call this ‘liberation’ and Otterbein expects to be at the forefront of this movement, as we engage our next 100 years.”
Otterbein hosted a dance on March 5 to begin its yearlong 100th anniversary celebration. A special cake cutting ceremony with Arline Peckham and Lynn “Popcorn” Weber using the same table that was used to sign the title over from the Shakers on March 5 will highlight the event. A celebration gala is also planned for April 28 at the Manor House in Mason.