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Nursing Home Revolution
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Just the thought of being “put” into a nursing home, makes most people shudder. But a new concept in Mississippi is revolutionizing the business. Dr. William Thomas created a unique design which gives elders more choices, in everything from their room décor to their daily meals. The Green House hopes to make “home” the most important element in elder care. Lindsay Ferrier takes a tour. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Tupelo, Miss.)
When you walk into this nursing home, you don’t smell disinfectant; you smell Renee Reed’s cooking.
Renee Reed/Nurse: “I’ve got some smothered pork chops on this plate.”
Welcome to the Mississippi Methodist Green House… 10 elderly residents in a home that actually resembles a home.
Resident points to pictures: “They’re all me, quite a bit younger.”
The residents decorate their own rooms. They get up when they want to. Eat what they want to. And even design their own menu.
Lottie West/Green House Resident : “I sum it up in three words: tender loving care.”
This isn’t a new type of nursing home. This is a reinvention of the nursing home.
Greg Warnick/Executive Director, Green House Project: “As we see more and more senior adults, they don’t want the existing nursing home which is institutional, it’s generally sterile. They want home.”
Resident: “That looks really good.”
The elders understand the difference. 95-year-old Lottie West is frail, but here she doesn’t feel like a patient. She feels like family.
Lottie West/Green House Resident: “You just live in an atmosphere of people doing things for you and smiling all the time. You don't feel sick.”
This nursing home concept in Tupelo has become the buzz of the nursing home world. 26 states and 3 countries are working on Green House projects. Even regulatory agencies have been inquiring about how the Green House works.
Nursing homes have traditionally been about death, but the Green House may be the death of the traditional nursing home.
Greg Warnick/Executive Director, Green House Project: “We’ve started something revolutionary, and we look forward to seeing it grow, not only on our campus, but to see the institutional nursing home that we’ve known for fifty years basically go out of business.”
Resident to nurse: “Lord, bless you!”
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The Green House style of nursing home is also affordable. Patients are able to stay at the regular Medicaid stipend of $140 a day.
The founders hope to have enough money to place all 1,600 of the seniors using Methodist facilities into a Green House of their own within five years. Georgia, Florida and Kansas have opened Green Houses too.
For more information contact: http://www.thegreenhouseproject.com/concept.html or call 212-685-3144.