"We get a lot of referrals. ... We get people from other counties and other states. They come here and they're like, 'When I retire, when I have to go into a home, this is where I want to be because it's so homelike, it's so personal.'"
Go inside a Green House community outside of Toledo, Ohio with a reporter and crew from Canada looking to find alternatives to institutional long-term care.
“We must fundamentally change the way we provide elder care because we absolutely cannot have a repeat of the illness and death that COVID-19 caused in nursing homes and other institutions,” says Ryan.
"The Green House model costs no more to the consumer than traditional facilities and offers a philosophy of care that emphasizes quality of life, emotional well-being, and elder choice. That has led to everything from better clinical outcomes to higher levels of family and elder satisfaction and lower depression rates among elders."
Those that build Green Houses or provide private rooms, for example, could get paid a higher rate from Medicaid, John Ponthie adds. The government could also offer more low-interest construction financing.
By Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Steve McAlilly, and Susan Ryan The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the problems baked into America’s nursing home infrastructure. These issues – low pay for frontline staff, woefully outdated buildings, “semi-private” rooms [...]
This not-for-profit organization committed to redefining traditional nursing homes has garnered extensive media exposure for defying the odds.
LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, MD., November 12, 2021 – The Green House Project (GHP) today announces the hire of Ann McLaughlin in the role of Project Coach. McLaughlin comes to GHP with a deep and unique perspective [...]
The word “facility” was outlawed when talking about the Green House Project. The word “home” evolved to mean “facility” in the past, but we’re taking it back and embracing the real meaning. It’s never going to be exactly like a person’s very own home, but the concept of care revolves around each individual and their preferences and their needs, their lifestyle, their skills and abilities, their memories.
“What we’re building is a Green House Project model; it’s a small-hearth home model, so for example if there’s a resident whose family wants to come and bake cookies, they can do that in the common kitchen. The whole effort is to make it feel like home and not a facility."