Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I couldn't put down "Old Age in a New Age" until I finished! Beth Baker has written the best book I have read yet (for the ordinary reader who is not part of the medical, nursing institution). This difficult and challenging subject we call "long term care" is hard to understand with its many complexities. I have been reading many books over a period of time and I am amazed at the clarity with which Baker shows the problems even while weaving together the human stories. She keeps the reader engaged and gives us hope. An exceptional writer and journalist, she has provided a book that is easy to read about a difficult and complex subject. But a subject that cannot be ignored even if we want to. The probability is increasing that a nursing home will be the last home for us or our loved ones. We ignore the statistics, hoping, praying we never will reside in a nursing home. In the best sense of the word Baker's book will challenge, it can't help but do that--and hopefully get us to be part of the change we want and need--and for the sake of all future "nursing home residents" we should be grateful to Baker for providing such a signficant book. I think Baker's book can be a tool for change in the nursing home near you. Buy it, read it and pass it on to others so we don't find ourselves one day in a dreadful nursing home. I am going to buy this book in bulk and give it to as many people as I can get to read it...That's how significant a read I think it is!
(Rev. Dr.) Judith O'Neill

Movements occur when people push government and institutions out of the way of progress. "Old Age in a New Age" documents a movement that is currently gathering steam across the nation without marches, protests or boycotts.
It gives me a incredible amount of hope that the bleak future of long term care I envisioned is no longer certain after all.
This book is the product of a few dreamers who act, and make real change happen dispite crusty skepticism and entrenched misunderstanding of what "care" means. Heros walk among us, changing the whole world for thousands of nursing home residents.
It will take a long time for me to digest the implications of this important book.

Eighty-five percent of Americans think they'll never need long-term care, yet 50-70 percent of us will. Those are statistics from Beth Baker's new book. It's a wake-up call to Boomers, who are aging fast.
I gave a copy to the administrator of the nursing home in which my Mother lives. He'd just attended a conference on transforming nursing homes. I was encouraged. The word is getting out about changing the way we treat our elders. You can help. Buy 10 copies and give them to nursing home administrators in your community.
Baker's research is impressive. Best of all, she's a writer who can create pictures that will stay in your mind and can recount stories that will haunt you -- and make you laugh.

Thank you to Ms. Baker who took the time to collect and write up some of the exciting, new developments in the nursing home industry. Her vision for the future gives all of us hope that the nursing home industry will continue to grow and better meet the needs of their customers -- some of the most disenfranchised people in America. Thank you!

Anyone who works with our elders and is looking to begin (or continue) their journey towards person directed care needs to read this book! I found it very easy to read, yet full of good, useful and inspiring information. I am sure I will be rabbit ear-ing this book to death!!

I've been doing research on nursing home models that are nurturing and affordable, and - as a real estate developer - also financially feasible for the owner/operator. This book is an excellent summary of many of the current ideas in a very readable format. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in nursing homes - for people you care about and from a business perspective.