At the turn of the century, the city`s infirmary, the sole support for some elderly people, was transformed into Cooley farms, which became a national model. A unique feature of this new village for the poor, infirm, mentally ill and elderly was a separate building where elderly couples could continue to live together. However, this modernization came at a time when Clevelander began to question institutionalization as the only solution to the needs of a growing elderly population. In 1909, for example, the BENJAMIN ROSE INSTITUTE was organized to help seniors in their own households, and was the first foundation in the United States to be established primarily to meet the needs of the elderly. The important role the nursing home continues to play in providing housing and medical care to Cuyahoga County seniors is best illustrated by the 6-page listings and advertisements for approximately 130 of these facilities published in Cleveland`s latest consumer directory. The Baptist Home of Ohio, the Cleveland Dorcas Society`s Invalids Home, and the A. M. MCGREGOR Home were 3 other private institutions for the elderly founded by women or women`s organizations. The Jewish community of Cleveland founded the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites (see MONTEFIORE HOME) in 1882, supported by a fraternal organization, and the Orthodox Old Home (see MENORAH PARK) in 1906. However, there was a remarkable lack of activity on the part of other local brotherhoods to build retirement homes. Despite Cleveland`s large immigrant population, there were only 2 ethnic institutions, the German ALTENHEIM (1886) and the Home for Aged Colored People (1897, see ELIZA BRYANT VILLAGE). In the 1950s, there was some improvement in home care, as evidenced by the activities of the Chronic Disease Information Centre of the Federation of Welfare.
The centre maintained contact with nursing homes in the area, informing chronically ill people of all ages, including the elderly, and making recommendations on which homes were best suited to individual needs. As of October 1957, there were 37 private nursing homes licensed by the Department of Social Administration of the Department of Social Welfare to provide care in Cleveland and Cuyahoga counties. Built in 1960, the MARGARET WAGNER HOME, owned and operated by the BENJAMIN ROSE INSTITUTE, served both long-term care and those requiring only rehabilitation care for bone fractures or strokes. The 1960s saw the implementation of certain policies that directly affected older adults. For example, the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid continued to drive the growth of commercial nursing homes. The Cleveland City Register listed 26 nursing homes in 1965 and 31 in 1972; The directories for the eastern and western suburbs contained 34 additional facilities. Bing, Lucia Johnson. Social Work in the Greater Cleveland Area (1938). RETIREMENT HOMES/RETIREMENT HOMES. The origins of community responsibility for the elderly in Cleveland can be traced back to the Northwest Territories Poor Assistance Act, enacted in 1795. This law imposed on “father and grandfather and mother and grandmother and the children of every poor, elderly, blind, lame and powerless person” the obligation to provide for their relatives.
Throughout the early 19th century, aid to Cleveland`s needy, including the elderly, continued to come primarily from traditional sources—family, private benevolence, and public aid (see PHILANTHROPY, WELFARE/AID). This changed in 1855 with the founding of the city`s infirmary, which housed and cared for the poor, the elderly, the mentally ill and the disabled. The first local house, which took special care of the elderly, was not founded until 1870 by the LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR. Evidence suggests that growing dissatisfaction with the city`s infirmary has led religious leaders and social reformers to create special retirement homes. Between 1870 and 1908, 10 such institutions were opened in Cleveland. The Home for Aged Women and the ELIZA JENNINGS HOME, both run by the Women`s Christian Assn. (later YOUNG WOMEN`S CHRISTIAN ASSN.), housed elderly women. Other forms of non-institutional support developed during the depression. In 1933, the General Assembly enacted Ohio`s first law to provide public funds to needy seniors, and Title I of the Federal Social Security Act of 1935 authorized $49,750,000 for each state to assist needy seniors.
One of the conditions was that federal funds could not be paid to seniors living in public institutions. This provision led nationally to the decline of the poor`s home as an asylum for the elderly and contributed to the development of the “home”. At the local level, the rapid growth of the home was evidenced by the establishment of 70 such institutions in Cuyahoga County in 1942 and the passage of a state licensing law the same year. The arrival of these new nursing homes was not universally welcomed, and Mary C. Jarrett, in her 1944 report, “The Care of the Chronically Ill of Cleveland and Cuyahoga County,” suggested that the existing nursing homeowners were close to a “public scandal.” In January 1946, Eugene S. Lindemann, chairman of the local coordinating committee for the chronically ill, reported that in 1945, there were 34 nursing and recreation homes with 1,130 beds licensed by the state to operate in Cuyahoga County, and another 9 were operating without a license. The homes responded to a growing need for better health services for the elderly. Older people lived longer, and most private charitable homes only accepted able-bodied seniors as residents. Development of new facilities for elderly people with chronic diseases or mental disabilities. In 1932, a 169-bed chronic hospital was built on the colony farm, and in 1938, the Cuyahoga County Nursing Home was opened to accommodate auxiliary patients who were permanently and completely disabled.
