Sunday, April 24, 2005
Alternative housing for the elderly
Given that our population is aging, the question of how the elderly will be dealt with is issue that is coming towards us. Here is a story on that topic.
Jax
At the Cedars Health Center, a traditional 140-bed nursing home [in Tupelo MS], meals are delivered on trays, hospital style. Hallways floored with linoleum extend in every direction. The smell is sterile and sour. Cynthia Dunn, 82, lived there until she moved into a Green House, two streets away. Ms. Dunn's new home, a carpeted ranch-style house that she shares with nine others, has a communal dining table and an open kitchen. Emergency call lights are disguised by decorative stencils. The two staff members who care for the residents answer beepers, not bells, to reduce the institutional cacophony. On a recent visit, the smell at the door was of corn bread baking. . .
The Green House Project, comprising 10 new suburban houses here, is an experiment in reinventing the nursing home. Its creators hope it will herald a new age for old age, although its advantages to residents are yet unproved in health care studies.
Green Houses are part of a broadening movement to humanize care for elderly people with smaller, more domestic settings and a closer sense of community among residents and staff members. And they are an effort to address the fears of being institutionalized, among them anxieties about the loss of independence and the potential for abuse. . .
As the nation ages, nursing homes are aging, too. Some 16,080 nursing homes house 1.6 million people, and many of the homes are outdated, built in the 1960's, when Medicaid was introduced. Proponents for change say that "deinstitutionalized" models like the Green Houses might help the industry compete with popular alternatives like assisted living, which offers a limited amount of nursing, and home health care. But critics say potentially higher costs of operation could keep them from being widely available and impede their ability to win support from state and federal government. (Link)
Jax
At the Cedars Health Center, a traditional 140-bed nursing home [in Tupelo MS], meals are delivered on trays, hospital style. Hallways floored with linoleum extend in every direction. The smell is sterile and sour. Cynthia Dunn, 82, lived there until she moved into a Green House, two streets away. Ms. Dunn's new home, a carpeted ranch-style house that she shares with nine others, has a communal dining table and an open kitchen. Emergency call lights are disguised by decorative stencils. The two staff members who care for the residents answer beepers, not bells, to reduce the institutional cacophony. On a recent visit, the smell at the door was of corn bread baking. . .
The Green House Project, comprising 10 new suburban houses here, is an experiment in reinventing the nursing home. Its creators hope it will herald a new age for old age, although its advantages to residents are yet unproved in health care studies.
Green Houses are part of a broadening movement to humanize care for elderly people with smaller, more domestic settings and a closer sense of community among residents and staff members. And they are an effort to address the fears of being institutionalized, among them anxieties about the loss of independence and the potential for abuse. . .
As the nation ages, nursing homes are aging, too. Some 16,080 nursing homes house 1.6 million people, and many of the homes are outdated, built in the 1960's, when Medicaid was introduced. Proponents for change say that "deinstitutionalized" models like the Green Houses might help the industry compete with popular alternatives like assisted living, which offers a limited amount of nursing, and home health care. But critics say potentially higher costs of operation could keep them from being widely available and impede their ability to win support from state and federal government. (Link)
