“Let’s abolish the nursing home”–Dr. Bill Thomas
In the US, the ‘Green House Project’ model has made tremendous progress in developing homes for older adults as an alternative to nursing homes. A ‘design for living’ for 10-12 residents, a Green House is a home-like model built from the ground up with private rooms, bathrooms and community living. Currently 260 homes are open or under development across 32 states. From their website, the intent is for “Those who live in, work in, and care about a Green House [home] share the duty to foster the emergence of late-life development within the daily life they create together.” The care ratio is also much higher; care teams are organized on self-managed work teams to care for the mostly high acuity residents (including dementia). Yet costs, according to NPR, are about the same as the median for nursing homes nationally (many residents are on Medicaid) and in quality of life, it respects residents habits, privacy with the outcome that it supports residents longer in a level of independence.
The Green House concept came from the work of Bill Thomas MD, a geriatrician who also developed the Eden Alternative and frequently writes on ChangingAging.org. The news is the backing of the Green House Project by the prestigious and well-funded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and NCB Capital Partners. The Project provides the model and guidance to independent organizations for organization, implementation and certification of these homes. MedCityNews was wowed by it (Wall Street Journal link does not work, however). See the video from RWJF on what they saw as ‘a catalyst for significant social change’. Green House Project website RWJF page on their support of this ‘force multiplier’.
What if you added non-intrusive health tech to these homes? The opportunities could be as varied as the ELSI Smart Floors and alert system for safety (Charles)…fitness bracelets/wearables to monitor basic vitals and ADL/activity (Jawbone, Misfit, AFrame)…biosensor ‘tattoos’ (Toni). Tablet/PC based socialization/brain stimulation (GeriJoy, GrandCare, It’s Never 2 Late). Could this humane environment move to a higher level with a touch of tech?
[This video is no longer available on this site but may be findable via an internet search]
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