It’s a wonderfully thrilling time to work in the field of aging. Each day brings exciting news of approaches to care and life in nursing homes and retirement centers that put HOME back into “nursing home.” This cultural transformation from the institutional, medical model of “living-every-day-by-a-schedule-that-someone-else-decides-for-me” to a model where the nursing home resident is truly the CENTER of all decisions, programs and activities goes by several names: Culture Change; Cultural Transformation; Person-Directed Care; Green House Project and similar terms. The common theme is that the resident is at the center of the program.
The graphic above is taken from the Internet at
http://www.pioneernetwork.net/news-and-events/Accord2.php The article from the newsletter of the Pioneer Network summarized focal points of its June 8 - 9 meeting in St. Louis.
"Marguerite McLaughlin of Quality Partners in Rhode Island (the QIO that supports all QIOs nationally) presented a framework for person-directed care to illustrate the need for elders to be at the center of
● transformative care practices (e.g., bathing frequency, time and method),
● transformative workplace practices (e.g., a culture of valuing and respecting caregivers and their needs), and
● transformative environmental practices (e.g., the creation of sanctuary, shelter and peace that provides a sense of community and safety, free of unwanted intrusions)."
Recently I was fortunate enough to visit a nursing home that pioneered this cultural transformation: Teresian House, a 300-bed nursing home in Albany, NY, owned and administered by the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm. Sister Pauline Brecanier has been the administrator there since the late ‘80s. Sister Pauline believed even then that the nursing home “should look and function as any family home would" (from CULTURE CHANGE, Haworth Press).
Among the positive impacts resulting from transforming a “nursing home” into “HOME are these: obviously happier elders, happier, more content, longer retained employees, a full house since word of mouth about good customer care spreads quickly, and a neutral financial impact. In other words, this innovative, humane approach to life in a nursing home doesn’t cost any more than the way ‘traditional’ nursing homes operate.
My hunch is that medical costs, number of hospitalizations and visits to the Emergency Room are much lower than in a traditional nursing home. But I don’t know of any study that has looked at those factors.
My reason for visiting Teresian House was to visit with a Sisters’ Congregation, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, who has recently begun to depend on Teresian House to care for their frail elders who need nursing home care. The Sisters have done an outstanding, remarkable attentive, and thought-full job in planning for and implementing this transition, and are to be highly commended for that. (More on that in a later blog, I hope.)
The living proof that Teresian House is really HOME, and that the elders who live there feel at home, is evidenced by the following which is shared with you with Sister Mary’s permission.
Sister Mary Ranney is a 95-year-old Religious of the Sacred Heart. She moved from the convent retirement center, Kenwood, to Teresian House (located on Washington Ave), some months ago. She wrote the following which was included in the Sisters’ community-wide newsletter. (‘Bunny’ is the name of one of the Sisters who visit there weekly. There are, incidentally, Sisters there every day VISITING, HELPING, ADVOCATING, as a part of their job description.)
Teresian House: a Kenwood on Washington Ave!
“So much has been said of our new home, and so well expressed, that it is difficult to add to the picture. For me, one thing is different! Here, we walk in circles, no straight lines. Surprisingly, we get there! A circle to the chapel, He is in it; a circle to the dining room, friends await us; a circle to the front door, guests on hand; a circle to Bunny’s class and we get lost! I notice too, there is more light in circles, more love in circling hugs, more joy in enlarging our circle, more peace to have come full circle”
It seems to me that the Sisters and all the elders at Teresian House are experiencing ‘the hundredfold’ promised in Mark 10: 29 – 30. It is my hope and prayer that we will all be that lucky!
Blessings on you, Sister Pauline, and on all advocates and practitioners who are working to make nursing homes HOME!
