MEDCottage or Granny Pod–Part 1

 

MEDCottage

One of the things that the elderly hate the most and find really upsetting is to be moved from their familiar surroundings to a hospital or nursing home. The clinical, coldblooded ambience of a medical treatment center possibly makes the older lot a bit nervous and also tentative about their future.

Priests attending to older people have commented on this feeling and also opined that it appears that closeness to family members and access to their loved ones are most important issues. There was one lady in particular about whom Rev. Kenneth Dupin had talked about when discussing this aspect of caring for senior citizens. Katie was a happy old lady living in her own home, filled with mementos and artifacts from her past and she loved to talk of the days gone by. Rev. Dupin enjoyed listening to her anecdotes when he visited her, but the entire scenario changed when Katie was shifted to a nursing home some time afterwards.

Katie’s entire demeanor and happy attitude had just disappeared, which was noticed by Rev. Dupin when he went to see her at the nursing home. She begged and pleaded to be taken back home with tears running down her cheeks. She did not get the chance to go back to her beloved home, as she passed away in the nursing home, but the entire episode had a profound effect on Rev. Dupin. He was extremely moved by Katie’s attachment to her home and her deep melancholy at being moved to a nursing home, away from her loved ones.

In a talk with Audie Cornish of the National Public Radio (NPR) he said that Katie and her emotional outpourings had left him thinking about the entire subject of elderly people and their happiness in their last days. He was seriously wondering whether there was some way whereby older people could be kept closer to their families and out of places like hospitals and nursing homes. His concern is now being addressed as a new concept called “granny pods” that is gradually becoming an alternative for the housing of the elderly.

 

In Part 2 Cohen & Oalican, LLP talk more about the concept of “granny pods” or MEDCottages. Call our attorneys to see if this is an option for you and if  Medicaid covers it.