The Gilbert Guide has grown from its inception in 2003 as a groundbreaking guide

Question

The Gilbert Guide has grown from its inception in 2003 as a groundbreaking guidebook setting new standards and criteria for assessing the quality of the many types of long- term care available to become the biggest senior care site on the Web, offering an even wider range of resources to help families and caregivers in their time of senior care need. The Gilbert Guide can be found on the Internet at http:// www. gilbertguide. com. Select one of the resources available and write a 200-400 word paragraph about what the resource is and how it is benefits seniors.

Explanation / Answer

Home and Housing

RWJF believes that older Americans deserve a high quality of life.

In 2011, RWJF released results of a poll conducted by the Harvard. The huge majority – nearly 80 percent of survey respondents – feared that they wouldn’t be able to afford long-term care, whether for themselves.

The Green House Project is a recent addition to RWJF’s work on aging. As people grow olsder, they wonder how they will be able to maintain their autonomy, especially if they can no longer live independently. How does the Green House Project address those concerns?

At some point, many of us will no longer be able to take care of ourselves and will need long-term care of some kind. The Green House model calms those fears and turns those old stereotypes upside down. Green House homes are designed, from the ground up, to replace large, depersonalized institutional facilities with what look and feel like real homes, so that the elders who live there can retain their dignity and independence. The homes are small, with six to twelve elders, who have their own private rooms and bathrooms. There is a family room and hearth and an open kitchen and dining area.

Green House residents have the freedom to set their own daily routines and wake up and eat when they want to. They can choose to help out with cooking and other household tasks if they want to do so. Medical and clinical equipment that typically clutters hallways and rooms in more traditional nursing homes is tucked away from view or built directly into the beds, so that the interior designs better resemble real homes.

Most importantly, Green House residents enjoy all the social and personal benefits of a small-home environment, without sacrificing that same full range of personal care and quality clinical services offered by large, traditional, hospital-style facilities.

Green House homes are staffed by universal caregivers who have caring relationships with the elders and their families. In addition, Green House homes maintain high staff-to-elder ratios, so that elders get more personal contact. In fact, research shows that in Green House homes, elders get four times more personal contact than elders in typical nursing homes.

All these factors explain why Green House elders are happier and healthier than those who live in traditional nursing homes. In addition, research shows that elders get better care and enjoy a higher quality of life for the same or less than a traditional nursing home would cost to operate.

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