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Early
study of Green House Project shows staff, family
and residents favor new
type of long term care
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -
Preliminary findings from a study of a revolutionary new type of
residential long-term show that, in comparison to traditional nursing
homes, residents and family members are highly satisfied, and workers
want to stay and work there.
The findings were announced today at two
Capitol Hill briefings entitled "Re-Inventing Long-Term Care: The Green
House Project(®)."
Green Houses are small group homes that use
a social and habilitative model of care and maximum staff empowerment to
serve elders needing skilled nursing care. The first four Green Houses
in the nation have been housing elders since May 2004 in Tupelo, Miss.
Conceived as part of a movement to change the culture of long-term care
in America, they are designed to feel more like home than today's
typical nursing home and to blend easily into their community or
surroundings.
Rosalie A. Kane, professor at the University
of Minnesota School of Public Health who could not attend the briefings,
but is leading the study comparing existing Green Houses in Tupelo,
Miss., with a control group of two other traditional nursing homes
wrote, "Analyses are still underway, but thus far all outcomes with
statistically significant differences favor Green House over the other
two locations. Open-ended comments that we elicited during each
interview also report many positive reactions to living and working in
the Green House."
More detailed findings were presented at the briefings
and will be available on the project's Web site.
At the briefing, Project Founder Dr. William
Thomas said, "America has a choice. Nursing homes or Green Houses. With
the nation's nursing home stock deteriorating and the baby boom
generation aging rapidly, we have to either rehabilitate or build many
new traditional institutions or replace them with an alternative that
de-institutionalizes the frail elderly and truly celebrates elder-hood."
A two-year grant from The Commonwealth Fund
is sponsoring the Institute for Health Services Research and Policy team
at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health to do the Green
House Project feasibility study. The planning and training for the
current projects is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
For other materials from the briefing,
please visit
http://thegreenhouseproject.com and click on "news." A briefing
transcript will later be made available on the site. |
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