Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes [Paperback]

Beth Baker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0826515630 | ISBN-13: 978-0826515636 | Publication Date: May 28, 2007 | Edition: 1

On investigative visits to nursing homes across the nation, Beth Baker has witnessed profound changes. Culture change leaders are tearing up everything -- the floor plans, the flow charts, the schedules, the lousy menus, the attitudes, the rules -- and starting from scratch. They are creating extraordinary places where people live in dignity and greet the day with contentment, assisted by employees who feel valued and appreciated. Perhaps most surprising, these homes prove that a high quality of life does not have to cost more. Some of the best homes in the nation serve primarily low-income people who are on Medicaid. In this new book, Baker tell the story of a better way to live in old age. Although each home is different, they share common values: respecting individual choices; empowering staff; fostering a strong community of elders, staff, family members, and volunteers; redesigning buildings from a hospital model to a home (where pets and children are part of everyday life); and honoring people when they die. Her visits to more than two dozen facilities include those associatd with the Eden Alternative, Green House, Kendal, and the Pioneer Network. Whether these transformational homes become the norm or the domain of a lucky few is the question that faces the next generation of elders, the baby boomers.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is the best book I have read to date about the promise that transformative nursing homes will produce better lives for elders,caregivers, and families, and that this change is spreading far beyond the small group of initiators.
--Care Management Journals

Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes [is] an engaging, compassionate and well-researched book that anyone who plans to live beyond the age of 80 would benefit from reading.
--Workforce Management

Old Age in a New Age is a proactive wake up call written in an easy-to-read style.
--Julie Ann Buss, RN, Inside GCM

Baker's book on the promise of transformative nursing homes is a step forward in understanding a process that has started and should be continued.
--Choice

My 100-year-old mother is one of the many older people whose negative image of nursing homes made her plead with me never to put her in one. In Old Age in a New Age Beth Baker describes the ënew communities that look and feel much more like a home than a hospital both in their physical design and in the relationships that they nurture. After my mother reads Beth Baker's well written, thoughtful and authoritative account of this revolution in older residences, it should persuade her that she will be much happier in one of these than with a caretaker and the social isolation of a center city condominium.
--Leonard Hayflick, Past President, The Gerontological Society of America

About the Author

A former hospital worker herself, BETH BAKER is a freelance journalist, a regular contributor to the Washington Post Health Section and the AARP Bulletin_ Baker is the winner of two Gold National Mature Media Awards for her reporting on aging.

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press; 1 edition (May 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826515630
• ISBN-13: 978-0826515636
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #408,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #70 in Books > Medical Books > Nursing > Nursing Home Care

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Read" for those with elders, May 28, 2007

By 

Lynne Waymon "Lynne Waymon, author and speaker" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes (Paperback)

If you've ever had reason to visit someone in a nursing home, you know two things right away: 1. I wouldn't want to live here and, 2. It's not right to treat people this way. Beth Baker's new book describes what can be created for elders and the people who care for them. In easy to read prose, with a journalist's eye for detail, and including some well-researched statistics, Beth describes the worst and the best in nursing homes today. Best of all, she made me, the reader, want to tell the world what's being done in the best of homes and made me want to do all I can to help make this transformation. Get this book and see that better care doesn't have to cost more, staff turnover can be reduced dramatically, and residents can have much more control over their daily lives even though they are elderly. When I go to a nursing home I see myself petting my cat,listening to jazz, and lobbying for social justice - all things I enjoy now.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hope in Old Age, May 21, 2007

By 

K. Pugliese (Greenbelt, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes (Paperback)

This is an inspiring and hopeful book about a topic that most of us would rather not think about: Old Age. As Ms. Baker informs us about the history and current state of eldercare, she weaves in heartwarming stories from those living (and thriving!) in the new-style Nursing Homes that she promotes. We also hear the proud stories of those caring for our elders in these Nursing Homes.

The tender stories in this book will make you cry tears of relief and hope. Until reading this book, I thought old age was something to fear. Ms. Baker has demonstrated that affordable and compassionate care is possible even in Nursing Homes. In these new-style homes, the elders aren't waiting to die; they're living meaningful lives.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks to this book, I find myself feeling hopeful, August 16, 2007

By 

Anne Mayer (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Old Age in a New Age: The Promise of Transformative Nursing Homes (Paperback)

Notwithstanding my low tolerance for any movement that uses the word "transformative" I still found the book an amazing read.

The book is a readable mix of anecdotal and hard data, knowledgeably presented with compassion and humor. Baker is respectful of the residents and the professionals who care for them, without becoming sentimental or preachy. None of which would persuade me this movement has any real chance of actually transforming the hospital model of nursing homes, especially given my experience with how large systems manage to subvert even the best intended and most well-conceived attempts at reform.

What saves the whole thing, for me anyway, is the realization that Baker is addressing my self-involved generation with a message keyed to our own enlightened self-interest. Unless I want to end up as a drooling urine-soaked "slumper" parked in a wheelchair in some dim hallway near the nurse's station, I better get cracking. Perhaps I'm reading too much beneath her overt cheerfulness about the many successfully transformed homes she discovered. But she managed to scare and encourage me at the same time.

I put the book down with a profound respect for those professionals, residents, and families who are inventing something to replace the broken model. Thanks to this book, I find myself feeling hopeful that our generation will not only insist that we do better, but also that there is a model out there of what that better picture can be.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone who has ever visited a friend or family member in a nursing home, everyone who has ever had to help make such decisions for loved ones, and everyone determined to make their own final years self-reliant, stimulating, and worth living.