CASE STUDY: NURSING HOME RECOVERS FROM TRAGEDY

Client:

Assignment:

Two brothers terminally ill with Huntington's Disease were institutionalized in a Griffin, Ga. nursing home. Their mother, claiming she did not want to watch them die slowly from this degenerative disease, entered the nursing home and shot both men to death. The tragedy drew national attention to the nursing home and its parent company. They quickly turned to Jackson Spalding to help them manage public perception as the crisis unfolded.

Strategy/Implementation:

We advised SunBridge to make a donation to the Huntington's Disease Society of America in honor of the brothers, have nursing home representatives attend the funeral and reach out to the nurses working the night of the shooting. A letter from the administrator appeared in the Griffin Daily News to thank the police, grief counselors and others who helped during the tragedy. We immediately media-trained the chief administrator, emphasizing the need to reassure the public of the organization's overriding goal to provide superb quality care for its residents. Our strategy throughout was to focus on the devastating effects of Huntington's Disease on victims and their families rather than the tragedy that occurred at the nursing home.

Results:

The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and "CBS News with Dan Rather" ran stories that only referred to the nursing home in general terms and focused instead on Huntington's Disease. Following the incident, the organization asked us to provide media training and additional media relations work for all of its facilities in Georgia.