Alternative to transform elder care. According to a preliminary report published in the Journal of the Ameri- can Geriatrics Society (2011), Green House residents stayed healthier and therefore incurred lower Medicaid and Medicare costs, ranging from $1,300 to $2,300 during a 12-month period, than did their peers in nursing homes.
After Joyce Ebmeier, senior vice president for strategic planning and communications, had a conversation with Thomas, Tabitha became one of the original Green House builders. In 2006 it opened the first of four such homes with the help of a $50,000 grant from Lutheran Services of America, as well as loan and grant money from a federal home loan bank and the City of Lincoln/U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Together the four homes cost $4.9 million to build. The first home houses nine people, and the other three house 12 each. “We almost always have a wait- ing list,” Ebmeier said, adding that Tabitha would like to replace all
The name ‘Tabitha’ The name “Tabitha” honors a female disciple in Joppa known for her good works and chari- table deeds (Acts 9:36-43). Peter raised Tabitha from the dead after some widows appealed to him to do so. Tabitha Inc. is an affiliated
social service agency of the ELCA. It got its start 127 years ago when a Lutheran pastor, Henry Heiner, and his family started caring for orphans and the elderly in Lincoln, Neb. Today another pastor, the Nebraska Synod bishop, cur- rently Brian Maas, serves as an ad hoc member of Tabitha’s board of directors.
April 2013 39
Fleeta Seba, 92, lives in a Green House, a way for Tabitha Inc. to give seniors a better quality of life.
its long-term care institutions with Green House homes. The organiza- tion owns and operates assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities in Crete and Lincoln, Neb. But Tabitha may not need to build enough Green House homes to replace each institutional bed because the latest movement is toward help-
ing the elderly remain in their homes, Ebmeier said. “As we innovate at Tabitha—and that is part of our DNA and our mission—we are always looking for the next thing to serve people better,” she said.
Guy is an ELCA member and a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times.
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