Ohio Nursing Home Designed to Look Like 1940s Neighborhood
By Barry Zimmer on November 22nd, 2016 in Elder Law
Ohio nursing home planning is important because seniors need to find a good place to live where they are in a comfortable environment and where they have a good quality of life. Some nursing homes are significantly better than others in terms of quality and in terms of the level of care offered to residents.
You want to make certain that you find one of those good facilities for yourself or your family, and you also want to ensure that you can pay for it. An attorney can help with research into a nursing home’s reputation and with Medicaid planning to make certain you can afford the costs of care.
Just recently, an article on Metro News showed how much different one nursing home can be from another. This article described a cozy nursing home which has been set up to look as though it is a neighborhood from the 1940’s.
Nursing Home Designed to Look Like an Old Neighborhood
According to Metro News, the nursing home that is designed to look like a neighborhood from the 1940’s is called The Lantern and it is based in Ohio. The nursing home includes a grass-like carpet in the hallway and each of the doors of the residents room have a little miniature front porch in front of the door. Nursing home residents are able to sit on their little porch in the hallway that is designed to look like a neighborhood, and they can chat with and socialize with others who live in the “neighborhood.”
To keep the theme going, there is also a fiber optic ceiling which aims to mimic the look of both daytime skies and nighttime skies, and there are realistic looking street lamps which provide a homey and realistic feel. The sound system also plays the sound of chirping birds to enhance the feeling that residents get of sitting outside when they step out of their rooms and step onto their simulated front porches.
The goal of creating the front porches and of making the entrances to the rooms look as if they are 1940’s homes is to help bring back seniors to the memories of the homes that they may have lived in during their younger years. For residents who have dementia and who have Alzheimer’s, being able to recapture these old memories is especially important and the environment can help to put these patients with memory-issues at ease instead of forcing them to cope with the shock of suddenly being thrust into an unfamiliar nursing home environment.
The nursing home has also taken other steps to provide a calming living environment and to set itself apart from other nursing home facilities. For example, there is a mechanism in place for nursing home staff members to pump aromatherapy scents into the nursing home facility throughout the day. The scents can be chosen to match up with the structure of the day and with the mood of the residents within the nursing home facility. For example, when meal time arrives, aromatherapy scents are chosen that are designed to stimulate the appetite of the residents and to remind them that they need to eat.
Many activities are also provided throughout the day for seniors in order to keep them busy and happy. There is a cooking club, there are family night visits, there are massages offered to residents, and weekly shopping trips are scheduled so seniors will have plenty to do and can get out into the world.
The goal of The Lantern is to change the type of care that seniors receive in a nursing facility. It claims to want to be more than just a nursing home, but to provide a real home environment for residents.
Getting Help with Ohio Nursing Home Planning
Finding the right nursing home is a major challenge for any senior, as you want a facility that can provide a high quality of life, a safe and attractive living environment, and the necessary level of support services.
The cost of nursing home care is also a major concern for seniors, as the bills for a nursing home are usually thousands of dollars per month. To ensure you are able to get high quality care in a nursing home that really cares about residents, you should work with an Ohio nursing home planning lawyer. Zimmer Law Firm can help.
To find out more about making your nursing home plans, download our estate planning checklist. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 to speak with a member of our legal team about the planning process.