What's HOME?

When you think of “home”, what does it smell like? Maybe dinner cooking on the stove, cookies in the oven, or perhaps fresh flowers in a vase on the mantel, or coffee brewing in the morning? What feels good about home? Could it be your cozy recliner in front of a TV or fireplace? Is it being surrounded by people who care about you? What does it sound like? Children playing...birds singing...dogs barking...neighbors lawnmowing...door bells sounding...wind chimes chiming?

Home is more than a place; it’s a state of being. Think of a time when you’ve rushed all day long to accomplish the tasks of the day, you fight traffic returning to your house, you park the car, gather in both hands the groceries from the trunk, you stumble through the door kicking it shut behind you, make it to the kitchen, set everything down on the counter and say “Ahhhhh”. It’s the “Ahhhhh” that defines home. A feeling of being where you are protected, where you can be yourself, where you have autonomy, control, and privacy. Home offers us more than physical space; it provides emotional, mental, and spiritual refuge.

We want to add the “Ahhhhh” of home to the care of elders who need skilled nursing. Though we use the term “Nursing Home” today, not many people living there would describe it as “home”. I am convinced good care can be given to residents in today’s nursing homes, but I am equally convinced that a higher quality of life can be achieved in a setting that is truly home to the elders living there. Smaller environments where elders maintain more privacy, control, autonomy and decision making.

Our effort to put the “Ahhhhh” into nursing home care is THE GREEN HOUSE® model of care, a 10-bedroom house for elders in need of skilled nursing. We are working now with regulatory officials to obtain the needed approvals to begin construction. Our Green House project is named “The Cottages at St. Martin’s” and will be built on undeveloped land on our current campus. The hope is to begin construction on our first houses for 60 elders as early as this summer. We could move-in by Summer 2008.

These are exciting times at St. Martin’s. The staff, board members, and residents are working hard to create better environments. The work is not easy but it is good; it’s our opportunity to contribute to make a difference in how we as a nation care for elders. We take that responsibility seriously. Someone once said, “If we are afraid to be different... how can we make a difference in the world? Good question!