‘Green Houses’ for the elderly?

Looking ahead for Mom, Dad, yourself.

One doctor thinks the elder-care system should be changed.

That’s what Bill Thomas told the country’s fourth largest philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in 2001. He received a modest grant for further study.   

More recently, the foundation is supporting the 48-year-old physician’s vision of “Green Houses,” a movement to construct homelike facilities for 10 to 12 residents.

Green Houses will soon be erected in all 50 states, up from the 41 Green Houses now in 10 states. But it could be years before new ones are ready.

To its proponents, Green Houses will be a revolution that could replace the  impersonal life the elderly experience at large institutions.

Susan Feeney, spokesperson for the American Health Care Association that represents nursing homes, says, “The criticisms by Dr. Thomas are overly harsh. Many nursing homes are embracing cultural changes and working to create a more homelike feel.”

Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Jane Lowe, who oversees their Vulnerable Populations Portfolio, says the foundation wants to transform the system. She backs it in part because she “doesn’t want to be in a wheelchair in a hallway when I am 85.”

The construction of Green Houses faces many hurtles, such as a host of elder-care regulations and the enormous cost of construction.

One other hurdle includes those facilities which already provide a warm and nurturing environment, such as Canterbury Park, or Canterbury Inn/Gardens.

Although there are wonderful facilities, such as the ones mentioned above, there are also smaller institutions or state-run nursing homes that are unfortunately understaffed and under-funded.