From Rachel Colliver

MIDDLETOWN – Otterbein residents and local children sang Christmas in July songs with elected officials recently at the Otterbein Skilled Nursing & Rehab Neighborhood in Middletown.

Children from the Atrium Family YMCA came to sing Christmas in July songs at the community, while State Sen. Shannon Jones, District 7, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, District 6, happened to be there. Everyone joined in song together.

President/CEO Jill C. Hreben and Otterbein Middletown Guide Jeff Singleton, as well as elders from the community and elder assistants, discussed several topics with the senators, including the implementation of the state’s integrated care delivery system demonstration project covering those who are dually eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare with managed care providers, and the potential impact of health care reform in light of a recent Supreme Court decision.

Jones and Lehner toured the Middletown neighborhood and engaged in a discussion of Otterbein's new innovative small house model of nursing home care that deinstitutionalizes elders in need of nursing home care by restoring them to home, not something that is "home like."

After Ohio Director of Health Transformation Greg Moody visited the small houses in December 2011, he compared Otterbein small houses to condos and called them “incredible.”

Of the nearly 900 facilities evaluated in the Ohio Department of Aging 2011 Resident Satisfaction Survey, Otterbein’s North Shore’s Jane Baker House, a small house featuring skilled nursing and rehabilitation, was rated the number one facility in the state of Ohio.

Small house neighborhoods are made up of five homes, each with 10 residents in private suites. These small houses combine the warmth and companionship of home with all of the skilled clinical nursing care services in a residential setting. Ohio has the largest number of small house neighborhoods in the United States. In addition to Springboro, Otterbein has locations in Maineville, Middletown, Monclova and Perrysburg.

To learn more about Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Choices, please visit www.otterbein.org or call 1-888-513-9131.

CUTLINE: State Sen. Shannon Jones and State Sen. Peggy Lehner sang Christmas in July songs with children and elders recently at Otterbein Skilled Nursing & Rehab Neighborhood in Middletown.

About Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Choices

Otterbein Senior Lifestyle Choices, founded in 1912, is a non-profit health and human service ministry, serving nearly 3,000 people, and is related to the East Ohio and West Ohio Conferences of the United Methodist Church. Otterbein has five full-service retirement communities, five skilled nursing and rehabilitation neighborhoods and a home health agency.