By Christina Leslie | Staff Writer

Morris Hall, a non-profit nursing and rehabilitation facility of the Diocese of Trenton, announced a new concept in assisted senior living during an Oct. 14 press conference held on its campus in Lawrenceville. Construction of “Morris Hall Meadows,” a neighborhood of a dozen self-contained cottages which promote independent living within a protective medical facility, began this May and is due to accommodate its first elder residents beginning the spring of 2015.

“This deinstitutionalizes long-term care in senior living,” noted Darlene Hanley, president and CEO of Morris Hall/St. Lawrence, Inc., of the innovative “Green House” cottage model first designed by gerontologist Dr. Bill Thomas. “It’s more than additional buildings, it’s a different model. This will be only the second such nursing home community in the state.”

The innovative design will feature a campus of 12 cottages connected with garden walking paths, front porches and rear patios. Inside each 6,500 square-foot residence will be 10 private bedrooms with full bathrooms as well as an administrative office, laundry facility, living/hearth room, spa and family kitchen and dining areas. “It will appeal to the baby boomer generation,” Hanley asserted. “It is more dignified.”

The “Green House” design resembles a private home; it situates all bedrooms of the cottage along the outside walls and the communal kitchen, dining and hearth rooms near the core. The non-institutional feel means no long hallways or isolated rooms, promoting more mobility and interaction of residents. The design is based upon three core values, Hanley said. “They are real homes, offer a meaningful life to elders, and have an empowered staff.” 

Independence and empowerment is promoted within each residence, she continued. Residents eat as a group and design their own menus with the help of dieticians, “yet if an individual wants eggs and toast at 10:30 a.m., they can set their own hours for a meal.” Elders also may choose their own daily activities, schedules and responsibilities in the house.

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) perform the housekeeping, cooking and laundry in each house, while trained personnel visit the cottages for activities, medical care and physical therapy, allowing the residents to stay in place for all their needs. Due to the open design, CNAs can supervise residents easily as they explore the community outdoors. The CNAs are called Shabazz, Hanley said, a Persian word for falcon. “A falcon watches over and protects its brood,” she explained.

The new residences will fulfill Morris Hall’s mission statement to provide “a loving, spiritual and caring environment, as well as quality health care, to help each resident experience life to the fullest; and additionally, to provide a support system to family and friends involved in the care of the resident.” Independent studies have shown that “Green House” residents enjoy greater interaction with family members, share meals with them, eat better, fall less often, wander less and require fewer psychotropic  medicines.

One cottage of the first six due to be completed will be designated for the retired priests of the Diocese, Hanley noted, and have a small chapel inside.

Morris Hall/St. Lawrence, Inc. is a non-profit organization of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton that provides care in a residential and skilled care setting without discrimination by race, religion, sex, physical or cognitive disability. It consists of St. Mary’s Assisted Living, Grace Garden Memory Care, St. Joseph’s Skilled Nursing Center at Morris Hall and St. Lawrence Rehabilitation Center, a 166-bed, fully accredited, not-for-profit, physical rehabilitation hospital.

The seeds for Morris Hall Meadows were planted about three years ago when Hanley visited a “Green House” in West Orange.

“I knew it was a culture change in long term care,” she remembered, and invited the Morris Hall board of directors to accompany her on a road trip back to the care facility.

"They said, ‘We have to do this,’ and I thought, ‘This is some place I would check myself into,’” Hanley asserted.