National SAGE Conferences

Changing Spaces: New Models of Long Term Caring

2005 National Conference, Columbus , Ohio - October 19-21, 2005

Held in partnership with Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University of Ohio, this conference will bring together leaders, providers, funders, regulators, and others from both community and residential settings to explore the intersection of environment, technology and culture change in long-term care. Faced with serious demographic challenges in the future and concerns about a failing system today, the time is right, politically, financially, and technologically to re-examine the fundamental principles of what constitutes quality of life for older people who experience chronic disability. The conference will explore new models for designing, administering, and regulating long-term care. Look for more information soon about this upcoming conference.

For more information, please see the Upcoming Events.

Better Environments for Aging: Re-forming Design and Regulation

2000 SAGE Conference, Kansas City , Kansas - September 19-20, 2000

SAGE was interested in establishing local chapters in additional mid-western states; this conference was conceived as an effort to gain momentum toward that goal. The conference was designed to provide both an introduction to the SAGE organization and a forum for multidisciplinary discussions on regulatory and environmental issues in long-term care and “design for aging” in general.

The keynote address by Helen Fredeking, Senior Advisor, Center for Medicaid and State operations, was entitled The importance of the environment in improving the quality of life in nursing homes and the HCFA quality of life initiative. The SAGE organization adheres to a policy of participatory learning, which was evident in the tour and post occupancy evaluation (POE) of The Village Shalom CCRC located in Overland Park , KA. The tour was held in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary panel discussion entitled “How can Village Shalom happen in our state?”

The conference was successful in establishing the critical mass needed for a local unit of SAGE Kansas and SAGE Utah.

Moving from Reaction to Innovation: Revising nursing home codes to respond to the OBRA philosophy and mandate

1994 First National Symposium, Chicago , Illinois - October 14, 1994

This symposium provided a forum to educate those who work in or on behalf of settings serving older adults about the need for changes to the regulatory system related to the design of nursing home. It also served to facilitate networking among a cross section of disciplines in order to bring about needed change. Issues discussed included the tension between federal regulations that seek to promote privacy and uncluttered public space and state codes, which limit allowable square footage and cap the amount that can be spent per bed in new construction or major renovation. These controls restrict the number of private rooms and the amount of social spaces that can be provided. Much of the problem lies in that original nursing home codes were drawn from hospital codes, which assumed patients spend the majority of time in bed, and stays are relatively short. When applied to nursing homes, these codes result in limited personal space for residents and little possibility of establishing a sense of home. Privacy and autonomy are difficult to achieve, and the hospital-style layout promotes resident dependence on staff for assistance in negotiating living spaces. The keynote address was given by Kay Jewell, Medical Officer, Office or Coverage and eligibility Policy Bureau of Policy Development, Health Care Financing Agency.