Dr. Bill Thomas contributes a bi-monthly column, The TGB Geriatrician, to Time Goes By, about elder health issues. It appears during the first and third weeks of each month.
Dr. Bill Thomas is an international authority on geriatric medicine and eldercare. He is a professor at the Erickson School and has been heavily involved in the culture change movement to promote elderhood as an honorable and valuable position in our society.
He is the founder of the Eden Alternative, a philosophy and program that de-institutionalized nursing homes world-wide over the past 20 years. Most recently he developed the Green House, a radically new approach to long-term care where nursing homes are torn down and replaced with small, home-like environments where people can live a full and interactive life.
In 2005, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a five-year, ten million dollar grant to support the launch of Green House projects in all fifty states.
Dr. Thomas graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1986, and was selected by the Mead Johnson Foundation as one of the top Family Medicine residents in the country during his three-year residency at the University of Rochester.
He earned board certification in Family Medicine in 1992, and added a certificate in Geriatrics in 1994. Dr. Thomas also maintains a part-time appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor in Family Medicine for Upstate Medical Center.
In addition to writing The TGB Geriatrician column for Time Goes By, Dr. Thomas blogs at Changing Aging.
Dear Dr. Thomas,
You have mentored me from a distance for about 8 years. I can not tell you how much I admire the restructuring of Elder Care Homes. Thank you for your dedication to our valuable population of elders. I am a Gerontologist and first found your Eden Alternatives while I worked for our Area Agency on Aging. I just wanted to say thank you for all you have done! Cecille Noto, NCG
Posted by: Cecille Noto | Tuesday, 12 October 2010 at 05:42 PM
Thank you so very much for all you have done for our elder population. The world needs more people to stand up and fight for them. I visit yoursite daily, and if it was not for Changing Aging, I don't know how long it would have been before I found TIME GOES BY.
Posted by: Katie | Thursday, 02 December 2010 at 12:44 PM
I notice home care companies starting up here in western wa. Considering the full employment gap in the U.S., the fulfillment of home care goals, the unemployment situation might fade away. Now I'm searching for the other top six or seven new industries staring us in the face and watching them mature.
There is no excuse for the elderly to be denied the dignity of aging. Bless you all.
Posted by: Deem J Benepe | Wednesday, 21 September 2011 at 09:52 PM
I'm so pleased to have found this blog again - full of links, wisdom, great ideas.
Posted by: Joanna howard | Sunday, 23 March 2014 at 11:25 AM
I have been helping our county Human services adviser, get services and activities re-instead in our senior center. (I'm 84 and have a spinal cord injury.)The present coordinator has stripped our county's centers of everything. Federal grant money isn't being used for the seniors. We have contacted commissioners, State DAAS and local authorities and only get lies. The state DAAS director wrote me a SEVEN page letter blaming me for the problems. I was only the messenger.
It's a big cover up and This is an urgent matter. NO One will help us. We need rides to medical appts (there is NO other transportation to doctors one and a half hours away. The meals are inedible (they took out the steam table that kept the food at a safe temp.) etc., etc. I'm hoping that you know someone with enough clout who will work with us in getting our senior center back.
Posted by: Escalante Rose | Sunday, 24 August 2014 at 11:31 AM
I believe Dr. Thomas effort should be appreciated and treasure as he share his expertise to everyone.
Posted by: michaeljones | Sunday, 12 October 2014 at 01:50 PM
Dear Dr. Thomas,
I would like to implement your dream for the elderly at our nursing homes in my hometown. How do I contact you about this? God bless you. YOU are Wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: cindy | Sunday, 07 February 2016 at 06:01 PM
I live in Paducha KY. Would you give me some direction for finding Geriatric Doctors in my area?
Posted by: Andrew | Wednesday, 23 November 2016 at 04:27 PM