Nursing Home Care
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Life Worth Living
William Thomas, M.D.
VanderWyk & Burnham
1996
232 pages
Paper

The author, a physician in upstate New York who specializes in elder care, offers the Eden Alternative in which the loneliness, helplessness, and boredom of life in a conventional facility are obliterated and "care" is substituted for superficial "treatment." Simple methods are provided for dropping long-held assumptions about nursing homes and turning them into places where residents can have reasons to live. Overmedication, treatment plans, and restricted diets of traditional homes are replaced with gardens, pets, plants, and children. The book gives concrete plans for implementing the Eden Alternative and suggests methods to empower nursing home staff, who, in turn, empower their residents. It offers a great solution for those who feel that death might be the best alternative to old age.

Nursing Homes: Getting Good Care There
Sarah Greene Burger, Virginia Fraser, Sara Hunt, Barbara Frank
American Source Books
1996
176 pages
Paper

This book offers concise, easily accessible, and authoritative information on how to select and work with nursing homes, proven procedures developed by advocates nationwide, and specific strategies for protecting patient rights.