On November 2, 2011, Robert Jenkens testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, regarding Quality and Oversight in Assisted Living. See Below for an exerpt from this testimony, as well as a link to view the full event.
Thank you Senator Nelson, Chairman Kohl, Ranking Member Corker, and other members of the Committee for the opportunity to share my thoughts on sustaining high quality affordable assisted living. I am Robert Jenkens. I currently direct The Green House Project, a partnership between NCB Capital Impact, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Dr. Bill Thomas, and the pioneering states and providers that have joined with us.
The Green House Project assists nursing home and assisted living providers to implement a radically different approach to long-term care, one that truly operationalizes the founding values of the assisted living movement – autonomy, dignity, and privacy. Prior to The Green House Project, I directed the Coming Home Program. The Coming Home Program was also a partnership between NCB Capital Impact and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Coming Home assisted nine states – Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin – to implement policies and programs to support the creation of high quality affordable assisted living for Medicaid-eligible individuals who cannot remain at home.
Coming Home worked with its state partners to implement or refine Medicaid waiver, regulatory, and housing finance programs essential to the creation and sustainability of high quality and affordable assisted living projects. The successful approaches and tools created by these states delivered 42 affordable apartment-style assisted living demonstrations. The policy, program, and financing tools created under Coming Home continue to assist in the development of new projects today.
Through the Coming Home Program and The Green House Project we have learned just how good assisted living can be. It can deliver on the promise of high quality resident-directed care combined with meaningful control, privacy, dignity, and better direct care jobs – all in a model affordable to Medicaid-eligible individuals.
For more information about The Green House Project see www.thegreenhouseproject.org. For more information on the Coming Home Program see www.ncbcapitalimpact.org.
To view Robert’s Senate testimony Click Here. Highlights can be found at timestamp (63:10-72:20), (121:42-123:13), 124:156-124:10), (131:04-131:54), 133:35-133:59)
