Innovative,Holistic,Sustainable Approach to Long Term Elder Care
Living Well (LW) is a 15 bed, Vermont licensed, Level III, Medicaid-qualified, Elder Residential Care Home in Bristol, Vermont. We offer award winning programs and protocols, sustainable practices, holistic integrative medical model, innovative dynamic self governance (first non-profit in the USA) organizational system, and community based approach to aging.
About You
Section 1: About You
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Living Well
Organization Website
Organization Phone
802-453-3946
Organization Address
71 Maple St. Bristol, Vt. 05443
Organization Country
United States, VT
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
Innovative,Holistic,Sustainable Approach to Long Term Elder Care
Describe your Social Enterprise
Living Well (LW) is a 15 bed, Vermont licensed, Level III, Medicaid-qualified, Elder Residential Care Home in Bristol, Vermont. We offer award winning programs and protocols, sustainable practices, holistic integrative medical model, innovative dynamic self governance (first non-profit in the USA) organizational system, and community based approach to aging.
Country your work focuses on
United States, VT
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
Our country’s system of long term care for vulnerable adults and elders is failing and not sustainable. The founders of LW recognized this fact and 5 years ago began manifesting a new paradigm innovative approach to providing sustainable long term care for our precious elder population.
The long term care industry is founded on ‘The disease economy”, a pill for every ill approach, that is illness based- seeing aging as a problem.
LW maintains that aging is a beautiful and normal part of life and that our elders have value no matter their state of physical or mental health. Our approach is a holistic coherent approach that supports health and focuses on the value of each person.
LW engages our community in an interactive relationship with our elders; spirituality, youth, the arts, organic food and green economically-sound programs centered on community gardens, art shows, band performances, laughter, and a very inclusive, 30 year old, highly effective Dutch-originated decision-making and governance process are key components to our elder care. We integrate mind, body, earth and spirit daily.
Perhaps our most stunning accomplishment has been doing what our industry has said is impossible. Per the National Health Care Association there is a well known expectation for financial viability that says you need at least 2/3 of your residents to be private pay or private insurance and not more than 1/3 low income/Medicaid residents. We have operated sustainably since day one with the opposite percentage, serving 2/3 low-income people.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
Our holistic approach allows our residents, staff and families to be more vital and sustainable as individuals and contributing members to our larger community. Measures of our success and impact range from the health records kept by every shift to prescribed condition assessments, to anecdotes, to comments by family members, staff and community, to simply happy looks on our residents faces. The following list shows typical qualitative measures of the sort we have observed and documented:
Elders thriving and more engaged in their lives and their community.
Reduced medications.
More vitality and reduced stress.
Music and art abilities increasing.
Financial operational success.
Involvement in community events
Community comments and observations.
Organic gardens created.
LW’s positive impacts extend to our community volunteers. When volunteers are considered, there are at least 70 people immediately involved in our LW family. E.g., the local schools will sometimes send students to Living Well who must do community service as a consequence of discipline infractions. Several such students have returned to Living Well to work as volunteers, " long after they have completed their mandatory service", possibly because of the atmosphere of acceptance and respect that is Living Well's hallmark. Their experience ripples into the larger community as cherished values. One measure of this ripple effect is the several awards and recognitions and numerous articles that have been written about LW.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
The most important issue/challenge we are addressing is how to create vital aging in community and transform our cultures approach to long term care. We see aging as a normal part of life - not an illness. The conventional approach to long term care derives from the "Disease Economy" approach to treating chronic illness. The "pill for every ill" approach to aging is not working because it addresses only physical symptoms and not the whole person. It is not sustainable because it is too expensive. Happy people need fewer pills.
Our focus and belief continues to be that aging is a normal and beautiful progression of life and that our elders have value no matter their state of being. It is through sharing the wisdom and gifts of a long life that our elders can be vital, healthy and happy. Further, elder sharing supports thriving communities.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
Our innovative programs attract strong, multi-talented people, which in turn accelerates continuous improvement of our operations.
We maximize community resources, from attracting volunteer master gardeners to developing an excellent relationship with the local bank's foundation.
We leverage State resources and educate and utilize local, state and national political representatives.
We establish relationships with higher learning institutions.
We supplement income through building community stakeholders, grants, fundraising, and developing tools and protocols that can be shared and sold throughout Vermont and beyond.
We care for body, mind, and spirit and are developing holistic protocols that can be shared throughout Vermont and beyond.
An area that could negatively effect our success is resistance to change and lack of financial support ; however, with the reality of our cultures current unsustainable approach we believe that there is enough interest in a diversity of new innovative approaches that these obstacles will be overcome.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
Perhaps our most stunning accomplishment has been doing what our industry has said is impossible. Per the National Health Care Association there is a well known expectation for financial viability that says you need at least 2/3 of your residents to be private pay or private insurance and not more than 1/3 low income/Medicaid residents. We have operated sustainably since day one with the opposite percentage, serving 2/3 low-income people.
Results of positive impacts with our residents staff and community:
Reduced medications.
More vitality & reduced stress.
Music and art abilities increasing.
Involvement in community events
Organic gardens created.
Staff turnover is well below average for our type of facility.
Many staff say they feel more appreciated, heard, and respected at Living Well than at home, church, or other parts of their social environment.
When volunteers are considered, there are at least 70 people immediately engaged with our LW family.
During the next three years:
Year one:
We expect a furthering of positive indicators as detailed above.
We hope to establish our communtiy healing garden project
We hope to develop further the documentation of our model- tools and protocols.
We hope to attract more interns and engage other NGO's, and University collaborations.
Year two:
Reconstruct our barn into classroom space
Further develop our tools and protocols to be shared with our communities throughout Vermont and beyond.
Expand grant possibilities and our outreach through our website development and social networking.
Attract an endowement.
Year three:
Expand our model to a second location.
Provide consulting and community outreach to expand the model.
Add space within our existing facility and totally upgrade to off the grid green renewable energy.
How many people will your project serve annually?
Fewer than 100
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
$100 ‐ 1000
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
By modeling this successful new sustainable approach to long term care we have received Sate wide recognition and that has prompted interest from a local and national level from political leaders who are grappling with the current unsustainable disease economy approach to health care- we expect that this model will assist in developing new policies and systems that can be shared throughout Vermont and the country.
Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operating for more than 5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
No
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
We believe we need to engage with partnerships as it is the basis of our coherent approach to the social system of our countries approach to aging.
By engaging with other businesses in the long-term care industry and with Governmental authorities who have an interest in cost containment and care for vulnerable adults we can shift the tide of illness, control, money dominated focused, unsustainable system of health care that is failing. Change happens within and we must share what we have learned and educate to assist in that change broadening beyond Bristol to other communities. Just as the financial systems are collapsing because it is based on separation, greed and scarcity, anything in life that does not take into account the universal truth that everything is connected is bound to collapse. Our innovation to be successful must be shared. The Dead Sea is dead because there is no outflow. Connecting with other communities, NGOs and private and nonprofit organizations is crucial for us now.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
Living Well's current organizational budget is based on detailed records since 2004. As the Vermont Community Loan Fund knows from working with our projections in connection with the purchase of Living Well's real estate, we are conservative with our projected sales and more aggressive with projected expenses. Currently our primary source of revenue is room and board receipts from residents at Living Well. The budget reflects two empty beds. Because we are new owners of the building, we do not know yet how much depreciation we should reflect. However, we are confident that we have enough income to more than cover any year-end adjustments. Our high end-of-year cash position reflects recent addition of a private pay resident. Our receivables are four times our payables, making our cash flow position strong. As longer term goals for becoming less dependent on revenue from room and board we are pursuing:Additional revenue stream development: internet-focused fund raising, endowment, consulting, education, publication of manuals and materials and grants.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
A privately run residential care home, that had operated for 20 yerars in Bristol Vermont was closing, and one of Living Well's co-founders heard they were selling the realestate and were in the process of trying to find homes for all the residents who would have to leave. A small group of community members saw this as an opportunity to do both social service and to manifest a totally new approiach to long term care for elders. Within a few weeks they had raised enough money to purchase the realestate and business.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
This was a community based initiative that began by a request from one of the co-founders, Dee Deluca, for exploring whether there were community members who might come together to create a new business model for long term care for vulnerable adults. In addition to Dee were 5 other cofounders: a doctor, architect, health practioner, environmental scientist and a musician, massage practioner who was experienced in private care for elders. Dee was a successful business woman, with a nursing background and an artist who brought tremendous creative energy to the project. The other key person/co-founder was Paul Kervick, a social systems innovator,business consultant, minister,educator and counselor who had cocreated the first alternative birthing center on the East Coast back in the 1970's and had a 501c3 organization that was developing new innovative social systems and had extensive entrepenurial experience in holistic health.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Through another organization or company
If through another source, please provide the information
members of Vermont Common Good
 | 113 weeks agopaul kervick updated this Competition Entry. |
| 113 weeks agopaul kervick submitted this idea. |
