The Story from APM

Home Sweet (Nursing) Home

Wednesday, January 31 2007

HOME SWEET (NURSING) HOME

Cordelia Taylor

In America, nursing homes are in high demand - there are only 17,000 slots for the 1.6 million seniors who can no longer live on their own. Overcrowding is common. Patients often talk of insensitive staff. Staff, on the other hand, talk of low pay and high stress.

But Cordelia Taylor has found a way to offer care to seniors that is like being home.

As a nurse, she was unhappy with how many elderly people were treated. So she decided to do something about it.

She tells Dick Gordon about quitting her job, selling her house, and moving into her old, derelict neighborhood so she could afford to open her own nursing home, called "Family House."

Cordelia says "Family House" has become far more than an elder care program. It's become a hub for revitalization of the community.

• See pictures of Family House and Cordelia with her staff
  
• Learn more about elder care at Family House
  

Listener Follow-Up - Finding Home

Tony Pobee-Mensah

Last week, Dick talked with Janet Butler, an African-American businesswoman who decided to move with her family to Accra, Ghana.  Janet told Dick that she simply felt freer in Ghana to be herself.

That story inspired Tony Pobee-Mensah to write in to The Story.  Tony's story is more or less the opposite of Janet's: he came to the US 30 years ago and has married and had children here.  But he longs to go back home. He urges Dick to consider moving to Ghana as well!

• Learn more about regional celebrations of Ghana's 50th anniversary as an independent nation
• Hear the show that inspired Tony to write