Nursing Homes, Family Restoration, and the Household Model

Earlier this year a frightening event occurred in a nursing home when a woman fell into cardiac arrest, and a 911 call recorded the facts that no one at the nursing home was authorized to provide CPR for the resident.  See the full story from Fox News.  

Knowledge and awareness are critical for elderly family members making health care and residential decisions.  Daryl Hayott, Regent Law 2013 Graduate, investigated the major factors in making an informed choice for nursing homes.  His presentation can be viewed here, and his fine article can be read  here.  Nursing home knowledge is key in the residential care decision making process.

A new alternative to a traditional nursing home is a residential facility that follows the household model.  John Dooley, Regent Law Graduate 2013, researched this area of elder law.  He writes, 

With the number of "Baby-Boomers" reaching retirement age, the long-term care industry has never been more relevant in the national consciousness as it is today. Long-term care facilities have come under a good deal of scrutiny in the past few years, not only on the basis of their financial accountability and marketing practices, but also for the care and environment they provide for residents. The term "nursing home" often elicits an almost visceral reaction from the general public, and often the image painted is one of the sterile medical environment, fluorescent lit hallways filled with wheelchairs, and those wheel chairs filled with patients whose medications have left them slumped over, incontinent, and incomprehensible. While this reaction is not entirely unfair, and while sadly it does reflect some of the environments that still exist, particularly for lower income elderly residents, the long-term care industry has been making strides towards a different approach to elder care. This change began to really grow feet in the 1980's, and the concept of retirement communities and long-term care communities truly took shape. Although long-term care homes had been in place since the early years of American history, most of these homes were church-run charitable organizations. The idea of the retirement community was the health care industries' response to a growing need for marketable care and mounting criticism of the lack of dignity preserved for residents of the traditional nursing home. ... The newest model of care is called the "Household Model." This model of care is meant to minimize the institutional aspects of long-term care, and create a closer proximity to a free-standing home environment that more closely mirrors the home environment the resident may have had prior to entering the facility. This model has a lot of positive attributes and has met with tremendous success in certain facilities.

You can read the entire article here.  

This type of knowledge is helpful and directive in making critical care decisions.  Elderly family members deserve support and assistance from their families in making these life-changing residential decisions.