Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

How the elderly are treated should scare you

Excerpt from the Calgary Herald: (click for entire article)

I am 72 years young and I have worked in the health-care system for 47 years as a professional physiotherapist, and over six years as a private care-giver.

I have worked in hospitals, nursing homes and private physiotherapy clinics. I have seen the rise and fall of our health-care system, but never have I been as scared as I have been the past six years. I witnessed the decrease in the care and respect for those living in health-care facilities. They have become a place to warehouse the elderly, the mentally ill and disabled till they die.

In the 1980s, we lobbied for the elderly so all health-care facilities had full services and access to geriatricians, specialists, all rehabilitation services, as well as social and recreational activities. Those were the good years, when the elderly weren't afraid to go to lodges, nursing homes and auxiliary hospitals when needed.

Protecting Ontario seniors from abuse in nursing homes

Excerpt from The Star: (click for entire article)

Ontario has strong legislation to care for and protect 77,000 seniors in its nursing homes. Now here’s the bad news: it’s “not enough to eliminate abuse and neglect in all long-term care homes.”

Indeed, that finding comes from a task force created in the aftermath of a Star investigation into abuse in nursing homes, which uncovered the shocking rape of a 71-year-old woman.

The group’s 18 recommendations, released in a report last week, range from increasing the role of residents and families in the operation of nursing homes to hiring more staff. That Health Minister Deb Matthews did not jump up and commit to fund additional staff in Ontario’s 634 long-term care homes is little surprise. She is struggling to keep health expenditures down in the face of a $15-billion provincial deficit.

Five county nursing home facilities had nine serious citations

Excerpt from Wisconsin State Journal: (click for entire article)

A 95-year-old woman died after a morphine overdose last year at Capitol Lakes Health Center in Downtown Madison.

A 75-year-old woman fell 26 times before breaking her pelvis in 2010 at Nazareth Health and Rehabilitation Center in Stoughton.

A woman was found outside, shaking from the cold and rain, after falling out of her wheelchair in 2009 at Karmenta Center on Madison's East Side.

Regulators fined the nursing homes and gave them immediate jeopardy citations, the most serious available. The facilities are among five nursing homes in Dane County — the others are Oak Park and Sunny Hill in that had a total of nine immediate jeopardy violations over the past three years, a Wisconsin State Journal review of state records found.

Green Houses aim to change the face of nursing home care

Excerpt from Wisconsin State Journal: (click for entire article)

Residents and staff share meals at a long table beside an open kitchen, with breakfast made to order.

Only 10 resident rooms can be found, with heated floors and individual temperature controls, just steps from a common area with an electric fireplace and reclining chairs.

On Monday afternoons, a bar rolls out for happy hour. There’s a two-drink limit, but that didn’t stop Henry Hintz from beaming when naming his favorite cocktail, an Old Fashioned.

“It’s the spice of life!” said Hintz, 80, who lives at Wisconsin’s only Green House nursing homes, in Oshkosh, touted as a revolution in long-term care.

Over 1,000 people will be stuck in Michigan Nursing Facilities Next Year

From the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition: (click for entire article)

The Nursing Home Transition Initiative (NFTI) is part of the MI Choice Medicaid Waiver program.  NFTI is a cutting edge program that has gained national attention for successfully transitioning people in nursing homes who want to leave but face barriers.  Barriers can include losing their home, not having an accessible home, and needing services and supports to stay at home.  Last year, over 1,600 people were transitioned; data suggest that every year about 3,000 people in nursing homes are candidates for NFTI.   

NFTI saves the state money because it targets people on Medicaid who cost an average of $172/day in a nursing home, compared with an average of $60/day in their own home.  It is estimated that $25 million will be needed next year to transition another 1,600 people.

The Governor’s budget allocates $11 million to serve people on the MI Choice waiting list, but only $3.1 million for NFTI, enough to continue the program for only two months.  This would mean over 1,000 people would be forced to remain in nursing homes when they could live in the community at a much lower cost to the state.  An additional $22 million is needed for NFTI in fiscal year 2013.   

Legislators are now crafting the state’s FY 2013 budget, and the final decisions will be made by joint House-Senate Conference Committees.  We need to convince committee members to approve the Governor’s request for $11 million to serve the MI Choice waiting list, and also provide the $25 million in funding necessary to transition 1,600 people from nursing homes next year.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Click here to send a letter to your legislators thanking them for their past support of MI Choice and nursing facility transitions, and asking them to approve $11 million for the MI Choice waiting list and $25 million for nursing facility transitions in the MI Choice budget for FY 2013.

Nursing Home Transition Initiative (NFTI) in Jeopardy

Excerpt from Area Agencies on Aging Association of Michigan: (click for entire article)

The Nursing Home Transition Initiative (NFTI) is part of the MI Choice Medicaid Waiver program. NFTI is a cutting edge program that has gained national attention for successfully transitioning people in nursing homes who want to leave but face barriers. Barriers can include losing their home, not having an accessible home, and needing services and supports to stay at home. Last year, over 1,600 people were transitioned; data suggest that every year about 3,000 people in nursing homes are candidates for NFTI.

NFTI saves the state money because it targets people on Medicaid who cost an average of $172/day in a nursing home, compared with an average of $60/day in their own home. It is estimated that $25 million will be needed next year to transition another 1,600 people.  The Governor’s budget allocates $11 million to serve people on the MI Choice waiting list, but only $3.1 million for NFTI, enough to continue the program for only two months. This would mean over 1,000 people would be forced to remain in nursing homes when they could live in the community at a much lower cost to the state. An additional $22 million is needed for NFTI in fiscal year 2013.

Nursing Transition Program

From Patricia E. Kefalas Dudek & Associates:

Area Agency on Aging 1-B – Memo re Nursing Transition Program (NFT)
The Area Agency on Aging is a non-profit organization that assists older adults and persons with disabilities with care options that can help individuals maintain their health and independence in their homes and communities.  The NFT program is available to residents of nursing facilities who are eligible for Medicaid.  Brochures describing the NFT program, Residential Services and MI Choice program are linked below.

MI Choice – Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver Program
The Medicaid Waiver Program is targeted to older adults, and younger persons with disabilities, who have limited financial resources, and who medically qualify for nursing home admission.  THe program has a wide range of service options from which a care plan can be designed that is most responsive to the indivdiuals home care needs.

Nursing Facility Transition Program
Nursing Facility Transition services are available to residents of nursing facilities who would like to return to their own home, move in with family members, or choose another living option in the community.

Residential Services
Residential Services (RS) is a new service option, under the MI Choice Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver Program, for indivduals needing a nursing facility level of care but who want to remain living in the community.
Related Links:

Home Care Services: MI-Choice Medicaid Waiver (Area Agency on Aging 1-B)
The MI Choice Home and Community Based Medicaid Waiver is a program where Medicaid pays for home care services in an individual’s residence (home, caregiver’s home, assisted living facility).

Moving From a Nursing Home (Area Agency on Aging 1-B)
Nursing Facility Transition Services is a program that provides nursing home facility residents with the opportunity to explore alternatives and community-based living options.

Nursing home residents rally against Medicaid cuts

Excerpt from Daily Herald: (click for entire article)

Because of the high cost of in-home care, Karin Chalifoux has been living at the ManorCare nursing home in Rolling Meadows for the last two years while dealing with the effects of multiple sclerosis.

She relies on a mix of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to pay her way at the nursing home which, she says, offers her much more than a place to stay.

“This is a place I can be and feel like I’m part of something,” Chalifoux, 43, said. “The people here are wonderful.”

But Chalifoux and her fellow residents fear that proposed cuts in Medicaid funding may lessen their experience, and so they gathered with their families Sunday for a rally to put pressure on elected representatives and the governor.

Legislation would require cameras in group homes

Excerpt from Star Gazette: (click for entire article)

A bill was reintroduced Wednesday that would require the installation of surveillance cameras at all entrances and exits of state-run group homes.

The measure would require facilities run by the state Office of People with Developmental Disabilities to install and operate surveillance cameras on the premises to curtail criminal activity. The bill is sponsored by Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, D-Forestburgh, Sullivan County, and Sen. David Carlucci, D-Rockland County.

The legislation comes after the attack of Paula Liblick, a 62-year-old developmentally disabled woman from Sullivan County who was sexually assaulted in her group home in December 2009. Liblick’s home did not have cameras installed and her attacker was never identified.

Big gaps found in nursing homes' disaster plans

Excerpt from USA Today: (click for entire article)

Tornado, hurricane or flood, nursing homes are woefully unprepared to protect frail residents in a natural disaster, government investigators say.

Emergency plans required by the government often lack specific steps such as coordinating with local authorities, notifying relatives or even pinning name tags and medication lists to residents in an evacuation, according to the findings.

That means the plans may not be worth the paper they're written on.

Nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans exposed the vulnerability of nursing homes, serious shortcomings persist.