Public Presentation on the NHoF

Posted by Allan Tear on September 26, 2008

The BIF team held their first public briefing on the NHoF project on Wednesday, September 10 at BIF headquarters in Providence. The audience was very diverse and included experts such as Richard Besdine (director of Brown University’s Gerontology Center); administrators from local nursing homes, aging citizens interested in the project, representatives from Tockwotton, and representatives from other BIF member and partner companies. Approximately 40 people participated in the briefing. 

The conversation about the NHoF project had effect BIF hoped for: nursing home administrator sat next to medical equipment designers while an engineering director from a precision measurement multinational company talked with the activities director at Tockwotton. A public relations professional discussed public perceptions of aging with a nurse. The chairs filled with CEO’s, caregivers, and retirees, some from the health care field, but many from other occupations and walks of life.

Following the formal presentation the group took questions from the floor. The participants were eager to discuss what components of the project they found most compelling and what areas for exploration we had thus far overlooked. Questions included: Have we thought about giving this presentation to medical school and nursing students as part of their core training? Could we use these insights to improve the experience of younger people with disabilities who are living in assisted living or rehab environments? How could we measure the effects of innovations in relationship to the rate of clinical depression in nursing home residents? Which of these insights also applied to elders aging in their own homes? The conversation revealed that there is a strong appetite for follow on work across communities, in both in the nursing home and in other environments. The next public presentation of the project will occur on October 15 at the BIF-4 Collaborative Innovation Summit.