New assisted-living hub to offer unique model of care
LOS ANGELES: A nationwide Christian nonprofit has created what it says is a new care model for patients in nursing homes and other paid facilities, and it will achieve a longtime goal later this year by opening its first assisted-living center.
“We realized the way we take care of residents in care facilities really needs to change,” said Bill Kittle chief operating officer for Crossroads Ministries USA. “While their physical needs are generally attended to, there is very little spiritual or emotional resilience incorporated as part of their day-to-day program.”
The HOPE Home will prioritize the spiritual and emotional care of residents as well as their families and staff, he said.
The approach is backed by research from Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health show the importance of attending to spiritual needs to help build resilience and improve health outcomes.
And according to the National Institutes of Health, spiritual well-being is linked to positive physical and psychological health outcomes, including greater tolerance of illness, reduced pain and stress, and lower risk of depression and suicide.
“We’re hoping it will become a new model that will inspire people nationwide to take better care of mom and dad, and grandma and grandpa,” Kittle said. “The current industry model is that management is driven to reach a certain profit goal from investors.”
When for-profit facilities have trouble reaching revenue goals, they typically cut staff, he said, which results in remaining staff being overworked, high employee turnover and residents not getting their needs met.
HOPE Home is garnering financial support from the local Christian community and compatible organizations for residents who need assistance paying for their care, Kittle noted.
Going to a care facility is traumatic for patients, he said, an aspect the new Hope HOME hopes to alleviate by providing choices, individualized attention and private bedrooms, along with health and wellness programs, crafts and other diversions.
“They lose a lot of things — control of when they get up and go to bed, of what they eat, some need help dressing, bathing, using the bathroom. It’s a big change and a tremendous shock,” he said.
HOPE Home’s strategy is to be flexible and personal.
The home is in the midst of a suburban neighborhood and had operated as a residential care center in the past, making the transition easier, Kittle said.
The new center is expected to open in late summer or early fall. A second open house is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 10.
The organization has decades of experience with developing the method, which founder Kay Owen-Larson created after the experiences she and her brothers had with their mother and father, who went to care facilities to live out the end of their lives. She saw the loneliness, isolation and lack of spiritual nourishment and said God challenged her to affect change on the industry.
Since its founding 22 years ago, Crossroads Ministries has been training volunteers to provide spiritual and emotional sustenance to residents of long-term, assisted-living and memory care facilities. Volunteers are active in 40 centers along Colorado’s Front Range and in states including Florida, Hawaii, California and Michigan.
Volunteers meet one-on-one with patients in facilities, get to know them, talk about life, pray with them, offer spiritual guidance and become friends.
“Relationships have been an important part of this process,” Kittle said.
One day he was chatting with a woman who told him she didn’t have any stories to share.
“I said tell me where did you grow up, and she talked nonstop for 30 minutes — she’d grown up as a neighbor of (the late actor) Burl Ives, worked in a factory during World War II, graduated from college — she had all kinds of stories, and what I realized she was really saying was, ‘I don’t think anyone wants to listen to my stories.’”
Crossroads Ministries also has set a goal of raising $250,000 by June 1 to pay for the down payment on purchasing the property for the assisted-living facility, initial operating costs and a contingency fund.