The Green House Project
News, Events & Updates
July 2020

IN THIS ISSUE :

>>COVID-19 & Green House : New data show significantly fewer incidents of COVID-19 in Green House homes compared with national nursing home data .


>>New Webinar on Aug. 6: GHP is hosting a new webinar on senior housing design and how it lessens the impact of COVID-19.


>>Media Coverage: The Green House model continues to attract positive press due to its ability to successfully manage COVID-19.


>> COVID-19 Best Practices for Nursing Homes Launches: The next session in this series takes place on July 29.


>> Announcing: A Green House Podcast is coming soon!

>> >> A Tribute to CNAs: A new video that honors CNA heroes amid the pandemic.
New Data: COVID-19 & Green House Homes
Ninety-five percent of Green House homes are COVID-19 free, according to a new study of coronavirus data gathered for the month of May 2020.

GHP partnered with University of North Carolina researcher Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD, to conduct official data collection on the novel coronavirus after learning of positive anecdotal reports. The study tracks the number of cases and deaths among both staff and elders in Green House homes and compares them with national nursing home data.

The organization will continue to collect data from Green House homes each month until at least December 2020. 

>>>Click HERE for a link to the entire data report.<<<
New Webinar on Senior Housing Design and COVID-19
GHP is convening a new webinar on Aug. 6 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on the topic of senior housing design and the novel coronavirus. 

How Senior Housing Design Can Reduce Transmission of COVID: An Architect Panel includes principals from architectural firms RDG, Perkins Eastman, and SWBR.

The panelists will examine the topics of autonomous function in a decentralized design, outdoor spaces, and future design trends.

>>>Click HERE to register.<<<

Media Coverage Update

Since the onset of the pandemic, The Green House Project has continued to garner positive media attention due to the model's design and its ability to manage COVID-19. Below are highlights of the latest articles in which the Green House model is featured.
Here’s what Michigan nursing homes that escaped coronavirus did right
Quote: "Rest Haven of Holland has stayed clear of coronavirus in all three levels of care it provides for 145 seniors in its skilled nursing home; 61 in independent living; 117 in two assisted living buildings; and 20 in two homes built with the philosophies of the Green House Project. Green House is a national nonprofit that encourages small housing units, separate bedrooms, a family-like dining space (replaced during the pandemic by food service in rooms) and a staff well-familiar with residents."
How to fix the nursing home crisis, now and after the pandemic
Quote:“In designing a more livable long-term care alternative to current large facilities, we can draw on the documented experience with facilities of 10 to 15 beds based on the Green House model ... The number of Green House [homes] is small, with just over 300 [homes] in several states, but we have enough information about their operations and costs to know that they can provide more effective, human-scale environments to help residents flourish than the traditional large nursing home model, while remaining affordable.”
Quote: "Fortunately, the country has a growing network of miniature nursing homes, certified by the Maryland organization the Green House Project. Typically, this is a cross between a graduate student house-share and a suburban development. Ten or 12 residents, each with a private room, share a sprawling ranch house. They take their meals together, at a long communal table, sharing their lives with a handful of staffers. 'The kitchen is open, so you can see the food being prepared and smell it as it’s cooking,' says Green House’s senior director Susan Ryan."
Quote: “ I think a smaller, self-contained, autonomously functioning residence is far better than [one with] long hallways, semi-private rooms or even three- and four-person rooms,” Ryan told SHN. “How much easier is it to contain a virus, and everybody’s got their own room, breathing their own air?”

UnDark Magazine,
June 19:

Amid Deadly Virus, Advocates Push for Nursing Home...

One national organization, the Green House Project, aims to replace large institutions with clusters of small homes, each housing around 10 to 12 residents, with private rooms and bathrooms and a shared, central kitchen and dining area.

Read more
undark.org
Click HERE to go to the GHP National and Local Media Coverage webpage for a comprehensive list of news stories highlighting the Green House model.
COVID-19 Best Practices Initiative Launches
The first COVID-19 Best Practices in Nursing Homes launched on July 15 with more than 300 registrants. Attendees and subject matter experts Al Power, MD, and Eric Riguerra, RN, discussed the topic of reopening considerations, plans, and processes.

Riguerra, who is director of nursing at Jewish Home Family in Rockleigh, N.J., shared a case scenario about the many lessons he and his colleagues have learned since the onset of the pandemic and what his organization has done to begin their reopening process.

Dr. Power offered a didactic presentation in which he highlighted the Green House COVID data and shared his views around the risk associated with reopening versus the importance of residents' receiving visitors and feeling a sense of normalcy again.

This initiative is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is made possible through a partnership with Project ECHO .

You can watch a recording of the first session here: https://youtu.be/5qQrySbhNvc
New GHP Podcast Coming Soon!
GHP is excited to announce the upcoming launch of The Green House Project podcast Elevate Eldercare! Join Susan Ryan, senior director of The Green House Project, each Wednesday for enlightening, provocative, and sometimes uncomfortable conversations with thought leaders who offer diverse perspectives aimed at elevating eldercare. Guests will explore the opportunities and challenges to actualizing a vision for dignified eldercare through the lens of the Green House model of long-term care.

Stay tuned for links and more information as we launch on July 29!
The Art of Being a CNA
GHP partnered with Corey Rotella, a memory care CNA in North Carolina, to create this beautiful and compelling video account of what it is like to be a CNA right now, amid the pandemic.

In this video, Rotella describes the art of knowing the elders and caring for them as they contend with cognitive changes. Her voice is put to images that we have collected since the start of the pandemic---which culminates in a moving portraiture-audio account of what it's like to be a CNA in this challenging environment.
Donate to The Green House Projec t
As we continue to grapple with the devastation of COVID-19 across the world and within the United States, we at The Green House Project are emboldened to fight harder than ever to develop elder care communities that create real homes, meaningful lives, and empowered staff.

As a 501(c)(3) organization, we rely on grant support, consulting funds, and other means to fight for elder care that is radically non-institutional, person-directed, and relationship rich.

With this in mind, we ask that you consider supporting us via the link below, which allows you to either give once or set up a monthly gift that will help us continue offering COVID-19 webinars, sharing stories of heroism, and building nursing homes that are equipped to not only manage COVID-19 and other viruses, but also to ensure the dignified quality of life experiences that Green House offers.
The Green House Project