America's first urban Green House®, the revolutionary Leonard Florence Center for Living, will be built on Chelsea's Admiral's Hill. Pictured above at the location are Executive Director Barry Berman (center), Director of Business Development Adam Berman (right) and ALS patient Steve Saling, who is providing key input for a state-of-the-art unit designed especially for those with the degenerative disorder.




Breaking Ground on a Groundbreaking Initiative

Susan Jacobs
Jewish Journal Staff

After a year-and-a-half of unprecedented fundraising, the Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home Foundation is poised to begin construction on what many portend will be the nursing home of the future.

The revolutionary Green House® model (not to be confused with environmentally green-style buildings) is designed to look more like a residence than an institution. Gone are the long corridors, centralized nursing stations, and institutional-style food. Gone are the small, hospital-like rooms shared by two individuals and separated by a flimsy curtain.

In the new model, patients live in residential-style homes with Colonial-style front doors and doorbells. Each has a private room and private bath with a shower. Residents dine together, family-style. The kitchen is staffed by a cook who prepares all the food fresh to order. They socialize in a common living room and outdoor garden with plant beds raised to wheelchair level, and residents have free access to an onsite European-style spa and a kosher deli/café. Skilled nurses provide 24-hour professional care, but patient autonomy is highly emphasized to encourage independence.

The Green House concept was pioneered in Tupelo, Miss., in 2003. Since then, more than two dozen have opened or are in development nationwide. All others are on sprawling campuses in suburban settings. The Chelsea project, which will be perched on Admiral's Hill, will be the first urban Green House model in the country. The 90,000 square foot facility will feature 10 self-contained houses. Each house will be staffed to serve 10 residents. The state-of-the-art building is projected to open in November 2009.

How Were They Able to Raise $21 Million Bucks?

Building a functional Green House® is a lofty, yet very expensive, endeavor. The fact that the Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home Foundation was able to raise more than $20 million to build this state-of-the-art facility is an impressive feat - especially during these depressed economic times.

"The average Joe citizen may be struggling, but individuals who can write multi-million dollar checks don't stop writing them because the price of gas has gone up," said CJNH Executive Director Barry Berman.
Judy Remis of Swampscott, a consultant hired to help with the fundraising process, reports that it has taken a year and a half to secure the necessary monies. She and other CJNH fundraisers, including Gilda Richman, are still working to raise an additional $5 million.
Although the federal government provided $7 million in new market tax credits, the vast majority of the funding has come from private donors. Major contributions include a $5 million leadership gift from Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, and $2.5 million from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.
About three dozen other generous gifts have been received from individuals who either have a connection to Chelsea, know someone affected by ALS or MS, or were touched by Leonard Florence.
Faye Florence, Leonard's daughter, is chair of the capital campaign.
According to Berman, personal connections were an important component in securing funding. "We never made cold calls for philanthropy," he said. Berman also pointed to what might be termed the steamroller effect. "Once you've shown credibility in raising money for a project, others want to get involved and be part of it," he added.
"But the biggest key to fundraising is that you have to ask. People don't usually call you to offer assistance. If you don't ask for money, you'll never get it," Berman said.
- Susan Jacobs

The facility will be named the Leonard Florence Center for Living, in memory of Chelsea-born philanthropist Leonard Florence who died two years ago. It will be located near the CJNH's Cohen Florence Levine Assisted Living Estates, and the Florence & Chafetz Home for Specialized Care. The trilogy of buildings on the Admiral Hill site will be renamed the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson campus.

Barry Berman is executive director of CJNH. Over the years, the compassionate visionary has been a leader in nursing home innovations. "We are very proud of the long-term care that the Chelsea Jewish Nursing Home provides. The Green House will not replace that. But even the very best nursing home is still an institutional model of care," he said.

Eventually, he would like to transform the entire existing complex into a Green House model, and is in the process of conducting a feasibility study on the issue. The problem is the price.

"It costs $150,000 per bed to build a traditional nursing home. It is more than $300,000 per bed to build a Green House. We'd love to see more of them, but it requires a lot of capital," Berman said. (see sidebar)

What makes this project particularly expensive is that several houses will be devoted to seniors with specialized needs or medical conditions.

One house will be for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), one will be for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), and the Elsie Frank house will be a place that elders with alternative lifestyles can live peacefully and be treated with dignity, tolerance and respect. Berman is also considering a specialized house for the blind, and one for those with Parkinson's disease.

While all the houses will boast very advanced technology, the ALS house will be especially high-tech. Architect Steve Saling, who was diagnosed with the progressive neurodegenerative disorder in 2006 and currently lives at CJNH's assisted living facility, is helping design the ALS house.

"In most nursing homes, patients with advanced ALS are bedridden 23 hours per day. Their bodies are paralyzed so they cannot speak or move independently, but their brains are painfully alert," Berman explained.

Advanced eye gaze technology at the Chelsea facility will give ALS patients an unparalleled level of independence. Using specialized wheelchairs and eye movement-controlled computers created by electrical engineering students at U-Mass Lowell, they will be able to automatically open doors and elevators, and send text messages to attendants. Their homes will be equipped with customized lifts and ventilator support systems.

The biggest problem, according to Berman, is how to create a selection process for beds at the Leonard Florence Center for Living when it opens.

"We have had more than 200 inquiries from people as far away as Finland. We need to come up with a fair system," Berman said.
For information, visit http://www.leonardflorencecenter.org/ or call 617-884-6766.
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