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.