As Our Parents Age So Do We

The Boston Globe published a terrific article, A ‘Green House’ in Chelsea Provides Skilled or Elder Care on a Family-like Site, about Green Housing for the elderly, describing newly a constructed community in the Chelsea section of Boston. According to the August 30, 2010 article by Kay Lazar, the new housing provides “alternatives to traditional institutional care for people needing long-term skilled nursing services.” The elder care arrangement banishes the medical model, instead setting up homelike communities where about 10 residents live and eat together as a community. They receive needed medical care, but that care is on the periphery — far from the center of daily life.

In his book What Are Old People For: How Elders Will Save the World, Dr. Bill Thomas (read his bio), points out that Green Houses look exactly like any other house in a neighborhood, other than being designed for individuals who may need certain types of assistance. The medical model is banished, as is the unrelenting rotation of staff members, day in and day out. Green Houses are intentional communities that fight ageism and celebrate the wisdom and experiences of “elderhood.”

Dr. Thomas, a Harvard trained physician, is a geriatrician, a member of the Erickson School faculty at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and a highly respected visionary in the geriatric care world (some people even refer to him as a guru). Read his Changing Aging blog. I’ve mentioned Bill Thomas in several other posts on this blog:

• Going to the Emergency Room
• Caring for Aging Parents…Balancing Life

This post is the first of what I hope will be three posts on the Green Housing Initiative. Early next week I will share my conversations with staff members at the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC), the amazing continuing care community where my parents live. VMRC is raising money to build new green houses that will replace their existing nursing facility.

To learn more please read these posts about Woodland Park Green House Homes, a new community at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community.

• Woodland Park Green Houses Have Roofs, June 3, 2012
• Woodland Park Green House Walls are Rising – April 28, 2012
• Green House Homes at Woodland Park (VMRC) Construction Update, April 8, 2012
• VMRC Construction Update: On Foundations Firmly Laid – April 3, 2012
• All About the VMRC Woodland Park Groundbreaking – January 5, 2012
• Green Houses for Older Elders
• Replacing a Nursing Community with Green House® Homes
• Nuts and Bolts of Green House Planning
• Building a Green House Home – The Inside
• To learn even more about Green House® Homes go to the web site and request the DVD and/or guide-book.
• To locate a community that features the Green House Project model, check out  this handy map.