Harry talks with Susan Ryan, CEO of AgingIN, who pursued a “call to action” after seeing physical and chemical restraints used in nursing homes, including a case where a woman suffered a fractured hip and returned from the hospital with stage four decubitus ulcers. Susan moved into home care and geriatric education but found home care costly and sometimes isolating, leading her to culture-change efforts and ultimately the Green House model, developed by Dr. Bill Thomas to replace sterile institutions with small, home-like settings of 10–12 residents, private rooms, decentralized kitchens, and access outdoors. Susan says over 400 Green House homes have been built since 2003 across about 35 states, and the model can operate at similar cost to traditional nursing homes, including with substantial Medicaid populations, when paired with empowered, universal-worker staffing and shared decision-making. She explains how the Green House Project and Pioneer Network combined under AgingIN to catalyze person-directed living across the broader aging ecosystem, urges policy incentives like Medicaid reimbursement bumps, and advises individuals to be intentional about aging in community to reduce isolation.
Visit https://aginginnovation.org/
Topics
00:50 Susan’s Call to Reform
02:17 From Home Care to Culture Change
03:46 What Is Green House
05:36 Scale and Market Reality
07:09 Costs and Medicaid Viability
08:22 Renovate or Rebuild
09:23 Core Values Real Home
12:26 Assisted Living Home for Life
14:46 Community Dining and Opus
16:56 AgingIN Origin Story
20:30 Preparing for the Boomer Wave
23:34 State Plans and Policy Incentives
24:58 Advice for Policymakers and Boomers
27:27 Closing Thanks
