Jerry once told me that we should close all our nursing homes. I didn’t agree. Although there are alternative housing services available now, there still are people who need nursing home care. What Jerry needs to understand is that the nursing homes provide a medical, social, and economic engine that fuels our towns and communities.

For example, while rehabilitating after a hospital stay, Mr. Jones was admitted into a nursing home so that he could receive intensive physical and speech therapy before he went home where his wife could care for him.

Mrs. Brown was a widow when she moved into a nursing home after she was no longer able to care for her medical needs at home. Not only was she frail, but she was also lonely and afraid to live alone. The nursing home offered her the opportunity to make new friends, some who helped care for her and others who were her fellow residents.

Ms. Jackson worked at the nursing home. She liked the work and the residents, and her paycheck helped her raise her small family in the community.

All three of these individuals had good reasons to need a nursing home. One needed short-term medical care, one needed long-term care and social stimulation, and the last needed a good job.

What Jerry should have said was that we need to make sure that our nursing homes treat residents like we would our friends, getting to know and value them as individuals who helped build our towns and communities, and giving them choices in their care.

Modern thinking has led many nursing homes to change their idea of what a nursing home should look like and be like. Lately, nursing homes have been driven by the desire to make their facilities more homelike. They are also providing care to residents based on the resident’s personal choices about how their needs should be met.

Front line staff in nursing homes have been introduced to care which treats residents as individuals by giving them their care based on client choice. Also, the residents and their families are given the opportunity to participate in developing their individual care plans, and in stating what would make the nursing home more like a home.

Not all nursing homes are fully participating in this new way of providing care, often called “Pioneering” or “Culture Change.” The obstacles are many and the benefits often seem far off. But, many nursing homes are changing their culture of care.

I think that Jerry would like the concept of pioneering a change in the culture of care in nursing homes.

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Southern Illinois Pioneer Coalition

Caregiving Index