Many older Mainers worry they’ll have to leave their homes because they can’t access or afford basic support services, according to a new statewide study.
Long waiting lists for home care services and a shortage of trained staff, particularly in rural areas, were among the chief concerns cited in the study, released by the Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program. The study sought to identify gaps in services and opportunities for improvement, but didn’t specify what changes should be made.
“Everyone wanted access to affordable services at home,” said Brenda Gallant, executive director of the federally mandated ombudsman program. “People want to be home when they can.”
Prepared by the Muskie School of Public Service, the study was funded by the Maine Health Access Foundation and the Bingham Foundation. The results reflect listening sessions held last fall in eight communities across the state and survey responses from about 750 elderly and disabled consumers, family caregivers, community leaders and others.
“What we’re finding is there is a growing number or a growing capacity of services that can be provided in a person’s home so they can stay home longer,” said Bonnie Smith, deputy commissioner of programs at the Department of Health and Human Services. Smith presented the report at an Augusta event last week.
Older and disabled residents need help with transportation to doctors’ appointments and assistance finding information about long-term care, the study found. Many don’t know how to arrange for care after being discharged from a hospital or nursing home.
“The thing about long-term care is people don’t think about it until they need it,” Gallant said.
The confusion can result in people being matched with unnecessary services, Smith said. A registered nurse, she said early in her career she witnessed seniors who required only basic help living in nursing facilities.
“I wondered why they were in a long-term care facility because the support we gave them was minimal,” Smith said.
The survey polled low-income residents who use state-funded home care services but are not eligible for MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Many respondents said MaineCare dollars should be shifted to better support home and community-based services rather than nursing home care.
Residents in charge of hiring and managing their in-home help were the happiest with their care.
The study also found that family caregivers need better training, support and respite from the stress of tending to their loved one’s health.
Nearly all survey respondents had a primary care doctor, but 28 percent reported visiting the emergency room because they couldn’t get a timely appointment with their physician.
Affordable housing also rose to the top of the list of seniors’ concerns, the study found. Waiting lists for subsidized units can stretch from three months to three years, Gallant said.
The study will be handed out to Maine lawmakers this week, she said.
“We want legislators to know what people think about long-term care services in Maine,” Gallant said.
No comments because there are no pit bulls,bath salts or texting accidents…Funny…
That’s your criteria?
Good ideas. Sufficient home care is better for all concerned and could also save money.
I have always thought staying at home was the answer. For
the most part those I have advocated for worry about getting by with heating
fuel, food, and somebody to honestly talk with once in awhile (not state agents
or ‘DHS Marshals’). Yes, some, and in the end most will need some form of
medical care, but inability to trim our toenails does not mean we are incompetent.
Many of us do not have much, but our houses are our homes where we have done much
of our living.
The people in this state who hate social services of all kind are absolutely certain that they themselves will either never grow old, or will become millionaires if they complain enough about the poor and disabled. So they’ll be totally against the services this article recommends.
I hope and pray that my wife and I will be able to stay in our home. So far so good but at this time in our lives, anything can happen. That’s life. I don’t hold out much hope for the current bunch in power to have any empathy for seniors.
Hopefully this “study” will produce some results for rural seniors, many of whom desperately need things such as transportation to dr. appts., home health services, etc. but sometimes get lost in the cracks.
When we get old and we cannot afford to live in our House’s, it only makes sense to sell it. There are many senior aptment complexes where you don’t have to worry or choose between eating and heating your house.. If you are worried about leaving it to your children then have them pay for heat, traveling to the doctors etc, etc.. Most children don’t want your old house anyway…
If anyone has ever spent time in a nursing home for rehab, they will determine that a nursing home is the last place they would ever want to spend their senior years. Money spent on home care for seniors would be a lot cheaper and much more beneficial to anyone than a nursing home. A nursing home should be a last resort after everything else has been explored.
oh yes I went through rehab for a year or so while I fought like heck to get back home…I hope I drop dead before I have to go back to a place like that again..
well that is thoughtful of you. just fill out a plan of care called advance directives with orders do not resusitate so that the government will not waste the money on you to take care of you and will spend it on someone who appreciates it and looks at the glass half full.
please don’t put them all in the same basket. just because you have a few rotten apples like anything else, don’t label them all hell holes. there are some nice facilities that are family owned and operated that do a good job.
yes i agree that there is no place like home of course buttt, it cannot always be practical such as when a person in need of care needs more care than the homecare agency can provide such as when someone becomes incontinent or has dementia. then you are facing hiring someone around the clock to provide care and therapy, social services, and a licensed nurse to administer meds or other needs that only a licensed person can do. at that point it becomes cheaper to put someone in a facility and if you are not paying the bill, the government will put you where they get the biggest bang for their buck, thank fully.
if you want something different like staying at home with better services, you should have worked harder with 2 jobs and saved instead of blowing the money.
if you were unfortunate and could not due to circumstances, the government will take care of you, with care, food and a roof but with a private aide around that clock.
this is why people should save for their old age, for when the get sick so they can pay for homecare instead of going to the nursing home and being on mainecare cause they gave all their money away to their kids who went to hawaii and blew it. now mom and dad are broke, mainecare is broke and who is going to pay the bill to take care of them.
when one was born into this world, one was entitled to nothing, not one thing unlike what the liberals think , that the government should take care of everybody be it college, welfare, housing, healthcare and eldercare. and who is suppose to pay for this?
thank god we do not live in a socialistic society,,, yet.
I live in a very rural area of TX. I care for my bio-pop and all of his illnesses, COPD, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure/dialysis. We can get NO in home assistance where we live, partly due to our boondocks location and partly due to the very low wages that home care attendants are paid. No one wants to do the kind of work necessary for only a little more than minimum wage and have to drive up to 150 miles a day to make rounds. That is why there is a shortage of aides here, I am guessing it is the same in Maine.
unfortunately, that happens when you choose to live in the boondocks because you liked it there? so is the government suppose to pay someone extra to travel and take care of your family because you chose to live out there??? i don’t think so.
Show a little empathy for this person. Did you realize the ailments she is listing here for one person that she is taking care of? I didn’t take it that this is a complaint, just making a statement of the facts.