Welcome to a conversation that I hope will take us down the road of hope and exploration, to find a better way of caring for our nation’s elders.  I hope to bring together seniors, their families, providers, caregivers, regulators, educators and any individual that touches nursing homes and engage them in a mission to change the long-term care system forever. 

I don’t presume to know the prescription for success, rather I hope that we can find that path together.  Ultimately, I hope we can arrive at a solution that improves the experience of all who touch this system and keeps their body, mind and spirit alive.

Everyone who enters this conversation will have  a chance to be heard.  The community guidelines are as follows:

• Respect for other’s viewpoints.  Not everyone is going to agree, but we all have a perspective or viewpoint that can bring us a step closer to the solution. 
• Respect for time and space.  Keep your posts to a length that is reasonable to the medium of a blog.  You might consider starting your own blog – it just furthers the conversation.
• Respect for the conversation.  This is not a place to rant endlessly about a bad experience or what’s wrong with long-term care.  It is a place to present problems with possible solutions.  Personal stories are encouraged, but please respect all of the people who are contained in those stories regardless of the amount of respect that they have shown to you.
• Understand that there is no single individual, organization, or system that is at fault – it is a collection of the human condition that has brought us to where we find ourselves today.

I would like for everyone to enter into the conversation through responding to the posts by me or guest bloggers.  If you are interested in posting as a guest of this community, please e-mail me at journeytoabetterway@yahoo.com .     

I sincerely hope that this blog starts a network of information, resources and solutions to help improve our broken long-term care system.

Let the journey begin!