Another South Dakota nursing home is closing its doors. Prairie Estates Care Center in Elk Point has announced its upcoming closure as of January 14, 2023. The closure is due to a combination of the ongoing underfunding of Medicaid, the current staffing crisis, and costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the addition of this closure, more than 12% of licensed nursing facilities in South Dakota will have closed their doors in the last five years. Other recent closures include centers in Armour, Salem, Lennox, Clear Lake, Ipswich, Custer, Hudson, Sioux Falls, Huron, Madison, Mobridge, Tripp, Bryant, and Rosholt.
A group representing speech-language pathologists and audiologists in B.C. is calling on the province to step in as people in long-term care homes face “a dangerous gap in services.”
Besides increasing the number of direct care workers, the Colorado apprenticeship program offers opportunities for improving earning power to residents who live at or below the poverty line, who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, or who are unemployed or underemployed.
Whitman County’s Aging and Long Term Care Planning and Management Council is seeking two new members to help represent needs for local elderly and disabled communities. The volunteer positions are currently filled by Sheila O’Rourke and Nancy Gillard, who will reach the end of their second three-year terms in January. The most important qualification for any volunteer, O’Rourke said, is a heart for community care. “You definitely need to be looking out not just for yourself, but the entire community around you,” she said. “(You need to) have a heart for that, and fight for that.” The agency helps older people and those living with disabilities to prepare for and support living independently, provides services such as case management for people needing a caregiver, and referrals to outside resources and information.
For some people, the thought of being admitted into a long-term nursing facility evokes visceral and raw emotions — worry, sadness and anxiety are likely at the top of that list. Fortunately, long-term nursing facilities have evolved over the decades into places of profound compassion, care and wellness — both physically and mentally. The term “nursing home,” which was used for decades, is no longer an accepted term in the field. Bobbie Woolcock, senior director of Operations, UPMC Senior Communities prefers the term nursing facility or senior community. Amber Bartlett, an administrator at Asbury RiverWoods, Lewisburg uses the term Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) for their wide range of living environments.
If you are not already participating in the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP), any plans you may have had to apply for coverage are likely to be delayed. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has announced it is suspending applications for coverage under this program. According to OPM, the rationale for the suspension is to allow OPM and the FLTCIP carrier, John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company, more time to assess benefits and premium rates that “reasonably and equitably reflect the cost of the benefits provided, as required under 5 U.S.C. 9003(b)(2).”