Living Well: The Green House Project cherishes elders
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
By Teresa Griswold
Jackson Hole, Wyoming - A conventional greenhouse conjures images of plants, thriving and blossoming in a nurturing environment, and that is how The Green House project, a new and different philosophy about long-term eldercare, got its name. It grows people.
The Green House is a cottage-style facility that offers a new approach to improving the wellbeing of elders, a concept founded by Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. William H. Thomas, an international authority on geriatric medicine and eldercare.
Thomas’ innovative work reminds Dr. Mark Menolascino, Medical Director for the Integrative Medicine Healing Arts Center of Jackson Hole, of his father’s work.
“My father thought the people with intellectual disabilities in our society deserved to live like human beings and not like institutionalized captives; that people should live in habitats for humans not sterile institutions,” he said.
“This has transformed how we care and think about our relationship with our elders – to cherish our elders and improve our relationships at the same time allowing policies that empower staff and decrease care- giving burnout while reducing overuse of medications.
“Elderly in our country can once again direct their own daily lives, supported and cared for by their caregivers,” Menolascino said.
Recently, Jackson Hole Elders, a group of committed eldercare professionals and caring citizens looking to build such a house in Jackson, was awarded a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to do just that. The next step is acquiring the land and location for it and establishing a capital campaign.
Jackson Hole Elders Executive Director Sylvia Vroman sees The Green House as a solution to improving the relationship that aging people have with their future. The Green House is a departure from traditional nursing and assisted-living homes. Rather than housing 100 patients, it houses about 10 residents, each with their own private room and bathroom, and allows residents to cook meals and eat in a community dining room, as well as engage in household activities, from laundry to gardening.
There are more than 60 Green Houses around the U.S., and Thomas said Wyoming’s rural nature lends itself to the cottage-style concept. Rather than elders having to leave communities, families, and churches to live in a far-away large institution, the smaller-scaled, community-based Green House is more responsive to the needs of elders from rural communities, he said.
“In The Green House, the elders rule,” Thomas said. “The institution forces the elder to bend to fit the institution. The Green House bends to fit the needs of the elders.” JHW
Dr. William Thomas will talk about the The Green House, 7:30 p.m., tonight at Snow King. Free. changingaging.org.
Photo: Dr. William Thomas builds a friendship as an essential element to eldercare COURTESY CHANGINGAGING.COMPERMALINK:
Living Well: The Green House Project cherishes elders | Planet JH News Article: Living Well
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