Green House® Homes

These modern, residential communities offer a home-like environment with the ability to live life on an Elder’s own terms.

Schedule a Tour

News & Events
Posted: Fri, November 2, 2012

Check out our latest version of the Answer, Tabitha's quarterly magazine!

Posted: Wed, May 2, 2012

TABITHA COMMUNITIES CELEBRATE INAUGURAL YEAR

Posted: Tue, March 6, 2012

Tabitha Promotes Jeremy Hohlen to Vice President of Operations

Posted: Thu, March 17, 2011

Tabitha adds new options for Elders living in Lincoln

Welcome to the Green House® Homes!

In May 2006, Tabitha opened Nebraska’s first—and the nation’s second—Green House® Project. A Green House transforms the way care is delivered, departing from the traditional nursing home model by bringing long-term care into a home setting.

One of the first indications that life in a Green House is significantly different from a traditional nursing home was when one of our Elders asked to eat her first meal outdoors on the patio. Her wish was immediately granted. Since then, her love of the outdoors has been served every day weather has permitted. Why is this remarkable? For years, the same Elder was cautioned “never to go outside alone." Now, because she has the assistive technology to keep her in touch with caregivers whenever she is on her own outdoors, she is living on her own terms.

Although Green House homes can't promise medical miracles, its true that their residents have made remarkable clinical strides. One Elder who consistently—and dangerously—had been losing weight in a nursing home began to gain healthy mass as a Green House resident. Another Elder, who was nearly bedfast upon admission, today walks to the dining room with a little help from a caregiver. And, an Elder determined to walk again by her upcoming birthday took independent steps just days prior to entering her 101st year.

One evening, the a Green House family welcomed three newly trained caregivers to the household during an evening punctuated with music, dancing, eating, champaign popping and a warmth that can only be felt when one is truly at home. That night, in one beautiful and spontaneous moment, an Elder leaned in to one of the guests of honor and whispered, “You know, there just isn’t time to be lonely here.”

William H. Thomas, M.D. initiated the Green House Project, and it currently is being developed in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Cooperative Bank Development Corporation (NCBDC).