Kudos to CBC for its recent encouraging report on the Green House – a successful initiative in long-term care homes in the United States.
The top two floors of this building just blocks from the Canadian border in Detroit, Michigan, house another Green House Project home. Advocates say the model is adaptable to larger cities as well as rural areas and smaller communities. (CBC News)
In her news article posted on December 12th, Melissa Mancini, a producer with The National, focuses on how smaller long-term care homes can help address big elder-care issues.
As noted in the previous blog post, the Green House model has been implemented extensively in long-term care homes in the United States with proven positive results both in for-profit and non-profit homes, including experiencing fewer number of cases and less deaths than traditional homes during COVID-19.
“It’s a model of nursing home care that allows people to live life in retirement as close as possible to the way they did in their adult lives. It starts with the building — small homes with just 10 or 12 seniors living in them — and extends throughout all aspects of life there”.
“There are 38,000 people waiting for a spot in long-term care homes in Ontario alone and the government is preparing to build hundreds of facilities to meet demand, but some say we should also be reshaping how elder care is offered.”
“I would really challenge those that are investing in this to look at alternatives that are out of the box,” said Tammy Allison, who runs a small long-term care home in Monclova, Ohio. “You can do long-term care differently and you can do it better. And we feel like we’re doing that.”
To read the full article and see related-videos (including interviews of residents with CBC’s David Common), click here
Before we know it Ontario’s provincial election will be here. You have a voice – make bringing an innovative model such as the Green House or the Butterfly Home to long-term care homes a priority and a ballot box issue!