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June 24, 2008, 01:21 PM ET
Foundation Supports New Elder-Care Effort
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in Princeton, N.J., is investing $15-million over five years to support Bill Thomas’s vision of “Green Houses,” the 48-year-old physician’s effort to replace large nursing homes with small, homelike facilities for 10 to 12 elderly residents, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Forty-one Green Houses are up and running in 10 states, and foundation officials say they hope the houses will eventually be built in all 50 states.
The foundation’s support of the houses represents the most ambitious challenge to date to the nation’s system of 16,000 nursing homes. To supporters, Green Houses could sweep aside what many see as the degrading life the elderly can experience at large institutions.
But Susan Feeney, a spokeswoman for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of for-profit and nonprofit nursing homes, says many of those institutions are moving toward creating a more homelike feel. “While it may not be scrapping a large building … we are changing,” she says.
The Green Houses also face many impediments, including elder-care regulations and the high costs of building the houses. Experts also say the concept faces resistance from many parts of the existing nursing-home system. However, an independent study found that residents in the Green Houses might be safer and healthier. The study found that Green House residents fell less often and sustained fewer injuries than residents in traditional nursing-home settings, reported The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Foundation officials say they don’t know whether Green Houses would be an economically sound model for providing elder care, but they’ve decided to invest in the effort anyway. The foundation — which holds $10-billion in assets — is directing the cash to NCB Capital Impact, a Washington nonprofit group that has been offering architectural, consulting, education, and other help to any party interested in operating a Green House.
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