An interesting MSNBC article entitled"End-of-life housing that feels just like home"adresses the radical make-over that some homes for the elderly and Alzheimer patients are undergoing in California. The notion of a nursing home is getting closer to what a home actually is, and letting "people age how they have always lived" by transforming what were previously big and sterile buildings into cozy smaller environments.

"The advantages: cozy living, privacy (individual bedrooms and baths) and time for caregivers to get to know residents, not just their medical needs, but their life stories, too."

There are also advantages on the part of the care-givers as a long-term care expert explains in the article: "Compared with traditional nursing homes", she says, residents are more satisfied and in better physical shape. And in an industry with a massive work-force-retention problem, caregivers feel more empowered and relish the personal contact with residents. The result: they're more likely to stay on the job."

This it seems is a radical and great way of thinking of the end of our lives and makes institutional homes sound just that: institutional, cold and the very last place you'd want to spend your last years.

CATEGORY: AGEING