Green House homes called ‘promising model’ for nursing home reinvention. But are they replicable?

Categories: In The News, National Media Items

To hear John Ponthie tell it, you have to visit a Green House Project nursing home to truly know what they’re like … ‘This doesn’t look like a nursing home. This doesn’t smell like a nursing home. This doesn’t feel like a nursing home,’ he said. ‘This looks like a big home — a 7,500-square-foot home where these 12 elders live this rich life together, as rich as it can be given their functional decline.”

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  • “Healthia is the first care home in Australia to implement the U.S.-founded Green House Project model of care, which is informed by person-directed care principles and supports residents to have increased input into their everyday living.”

  • Facilities could improve their ventilation systems. They could abandon “semiprivate” rooms for private ones. Dividing buildings into smaller units with consistently assigned staff — an approach pioneered by the Green House Project — would both bolster relationships and reduce residents’ exposure to infection from workers coming and going.

  • The Green House concept just makes perfect sense for elder care, McAlilly said. “It’s built around the concept of home,” he said. “It’s their home, and we just happen to work there.”

  • AARP Iowa state director Brad Anderson: “Another approach would be investing in Green House homes, which are small skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities with private rooms, kitchens, and living rooms that look and feel like a home. These homes provide better care with lower staff turnover and are popping up in states across the country. Let’s start trying this model in Iowa.”