CALAIS, Maine — Community leaders distressed by the recent closure of the city’s only nursing home will meet Tuesday, July 10, to determine what options, if any, are available that would bring displaced residents back to Calais.
The decision by Portland-based First Atlantic Healthcare to shutter its 52-bed Atlantic Rehabilitation and Nursing Center displaced dozens of residents and cost 92 workers their jobs. With a chronic shortage of licensed nursing home beds throughout Washington County, many of those displaced are now living many miles from family and friends.
Tuesday’s meeting is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. in the boardroom of Washington County Community College in Calais.
“I’m making no predictions that we’ll come to any resolution,” Calais Mayor Joseph Cassidy said Monday. “And there isn’t any distinct agenda. We just want the region’s policymakers and the health care community to put their heads together and talk until we come up with something, or realize that we can’t.”
First Atlantic’s decision to close the 39-year-old facility was linked to its plans to build a new nursing home in Ellsworth, which is 90 miles away. Construction of that project has yet to begin.
The city of Calais appealed the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ approval of the required certificate of need for the Ellsworth facility, but that approval was recently reaffirmed by Commissioner Mary Mayhew.
“As we watched this process play out, we realized that a very drastic thing was about to happen,” Cassidy said.
At one point in that process, First Atlantic CEO Kenneth Bowden suggested that the property be acquired by the city or some other nonprofit entity. Bowden said nonprofit ownership would allow for higher levels of state reimbursement for resident care.
Bowden said in April that the decision to close Atlantic Rehab was financial, with expenses far exceeding revenues.
Be very careful…now First Atlantic wants city to take the “OLD” building…One puff and it will all fall down. Calais needs a nursing home,,but lets be careful how we get it..
Right. Cement block buildings are not very energy efficient. Leave the building standing and let First Atlantic keep paying taxes on it, that’s why they want the city to take it over.
“Bowden said nonprofit ownership would allow for higher levels of state reimbursement for resident care.”
In english thsi means we will take even more tax dollars to pay for these people who’s families are to busy to be bothered to care for them.
To busy to be bothered…..what is that suppose to mean??? You obviously have no idea what is takes to care for the elderly!
FYI I moved my father here from MD to care for him. I also spent 10 years helping care for my grandmother. So yes I know EXACTLY what is needed. The difference I have enough RESPECT for my family to care for them and not send them off to one of these places. I have also been a volunteer with hospice for about 10 years as well. I have seen many families take care of family who they where told by doctor after doctor to put them in a home to relive the burden on them both time wise and financially. So I know first hand exactly what it takes I have done it and in fact am doing it right now. Is it easy NO does it sometimes require sacrifice hell yes is my family worth it RESOUNDINGLY YES!!! So you support throwing people into these places that is your choice and I hope you never have to put your family in one. I will do whatever I have to do to make sure my family never does..
No one puts a loved one in a nursing home because they disrespect that person, it is because of respect, love and concern that they are forced to do it. Those “places” as you refer to it… is a Nursing home: A residential facility for people with chronic
illness or disability, particularly older people who have mobility and
eating problems. Are you a trained nurse, what would you do if your loved one aspirated, choked, fell, need assistance using the bathroom, assistance getting out of bed, pulled up in or repositioned in bed, fed, or wandered out into traffic etc…? This is a 24/7 job? Not everyone can give up their jobs and stay home. The staff that worked at ARNC was family to those residents. The love and respect was present each and every day! Family visits constantly all day, but some have no family and some have children that are in their 80’s…do you expect an 80 year old child to care for their loved one out of “respect”. Give us all a break what may work for you Maine_guy_guy may not work for someone else. Don’t throw rocks…This place that you would not “throw” your loved one in to…Is a HOME away from home! Where people are cared for and loved!!!
I had to put my mom in the nursing home and there isn’t a day goes by I don’t wish I had the muscles to take care of my Mom day and night. There is no way I could lift her to the bathroom or watch her 24/7 without sleep. The Calais Nursing home was my Mom’s second home and they treated her with respect and love. God Bless those employees who worked to help keep her safe and well. And I did visit my Mom twice a day everyday and did all I could for her while I was there. Also my 88 year old Dad visited her twice a day so she did have family who cared and loved her a lot. I am glad Maine_gun_guy is able to care for his family but I am not so don’t put me down for that. Most people don’t put family in a nursing home because they want to but it is because it is needed. God Bless our care takers.
Sorry for your mothers issues. That said excuses abound. Just because you yourself could not do a thing makes you like everyone else. However it is very easy to get help without putting a loved one in a facility.
FYI you can have a nurse visit you home on a scheduled basis or when called. You can also have someone come to your home home to sit when needed. The difference is the people are in THERE homes and everything in under there control.
You can make any excuses you wish. The fact is if you have the will you can get it done. It boils down to if you really want to to or not.
I have dealt with many many folks over the years in all the scenarios you mentioned and many more you likely have never even thought of. I can tell you this I have NEVER meet any person who would not have rather been in there home with there things where they still had control.
The fact that you somehow equate people paid to do a job to be as vested as family speaks volumes. Again it remains a choice. Remember this when you get the age where you can not do everything for yourself or you have a stroke or other medical issue where do you want to be. In your home or a facility? Would you really choose to be in a facility even one you think is nice? Not me..
Yes the majority of those that live in a Nursing facility in Washington County do live there on State funds, our tax dollars do pay for “these people” to be taken care of. The same is said for the druggies that get Methadone every day, the young single mothers or fathers that have most likely never served in the military or paid taxes. These people that live in a nursing home, the majority fought in wars, worked to support their families, paid their taxes and are now elderly and need a safe environment to live out their remaining days, years if they are lucky! STOP making a Nursing Home out to be a dirty place to live…visit one and fall in love with those residents and the staff, sit in on a game of bingo, volunteer to play the piano, bring in some children to sing or a puppy to play with, it’s the simple things in life that we take for granted that puts a smile on an elderly person’s face!!!
I have been to many of them. I have never seen one I would want to live in. My father is a 23 year veteran ( go Navy ) this is yet another reason he will never be in one of these places. He and all our elders deserve better.
The main reason I have gone to nursing homes is to help people return to there homes. Why would anyone want to die in a place surrounded by strangers that are only there as a job?
I know for a fact that those” strangers that are only there as a job” come in on their time off to sit with a resident who is sick or dieing and has no family, others buy out of their own pocket, necessities or as I have seen in the past a lobster roll, just because a resident asks for one. The kitchen staff raised funds to buy a large screen t.v. and a gazebo. Since ARNC’s closure many staff have gone to the nursing homes to visit the residents that have moved, and if you only knew how many I overheard saying “If only I could take you home”! You are correct our elders do deserve better but sometimes that just isn’t possible and like I said before a Nursing Home is a Home Away from Home! Some are there by choice and some for safety sake. This will be my last post to you because I will no longer waste my time talking to the wall!!!
I hate to break it to you, but just because someone can’t
take care of someone in their own home DOES NOT by any means, mean that they
“can’t be bothered” with or don’t have respect for them as you so
ignorantly put it. I worked in this nursing home, & I loved every one of
those residents, treated them with dignity, & gave them the care that they
deserved. Just because their families couldn’t take care of them or afford in
home care doesn’t mean they didn’t love them. You expect someone’s 70-year-old
son or daughter to hoyer lift their parent into bed every day? Or how about the
full-time single mother who’s father has dementia & has forgotten who she
is and wanders outside alone? It’s not easy to make the decision to put someone
in a nursing home, but by God I hope that the care I give my residents shows
their families that they’ve made the right choice. Being in a nursing home
isn’t lack of care or compassion, & I’m sorry that you’ve only ever seen
nursing homes like that, because Atlantic Rehab and Nursing Home may have been
neglected by corporate, but not by the people who physically worked in that
facility & cared for those residents. I’m glad that YOU can take the time,
money & effort it takes to care for a loved one, but not everyone has the luxury.
& you say that this is “even more tax dollars”, you think the people in
these facilities never paid their taxes? You think they didn’t work for the
money that is paying for their stay? While it’s regrettable that they cannot always
be taken care of by the people that they took care of, but I will do my
damndest to take care of them as much as, & to the best of my capabilities.
& Sue, give your mother my love, I miss her!
Make all the excuses you want. I have seen every example you give done at home. Is it always easy hell no. However these are the people who did EVERYTHING for us growing up. Not so long ago it was considered almost evil to put a loved one in a home. If you worked in one then you must be aware that all the care on gets in a home can be done at a persons own home. From lifting to the john or wheelchair. To baths and housekeeping. IF you have the WILL to do it and the respect for your elders then it can be done. I have seen people sell homes, cars and all household items to ensure those who cared for them are cared for as well by those who love them. You view is fine for you. I myself think these places are horrible.
While we are on the subject why the one here closed. It closed for ONE reason. Operating costs. What was the major cost? Staff? So the staff cared for the residents so much they chose money over the residents. Somehow it just does not wash…
What good is it to sell everything you own to keep someone at home? You cannot ensure proper care from an empty household. I’ve had a loved one in the same facility I worked at, & she was well taken care of. & I’m aware that all the care that happens in a nursing home can’t be given at home unless you’re home is staffed as equally as a nursing home with a nurse & two CNA’s to operate lifts legally. They’re not excuses, how are elderly children supposed to take care of their loved ones if they can hardly afford to take care of themselves? I didn’t “choose money” over my residents. I went in on days off to visit, & I’ve done the same thing at my new facility. You don’t know us, or how we care for our residents, so let’s not pass judgement, & that is fine for me.
Because they’re building another one NINETY MILES away, this one is supposedly no longer needed? That makes no sense. There’s much more going on here than meets the eye.
I would hope that the solution would be to build a wing on to the hospital or at least have an enclosed corridor connecting the hospital that would eliminate the expense of transporting elderly residents from the nursing home to the hospital. At $5oo per trip that adds up to hundreds of thousands in no time.
The City should work in co-operation with all the surrounding communities, that also have the need for a nursing home, to raise the money needed to build a new nursing home. If they build a new structure, please for once put a peaked roof on the building. This is snow country and for some odd reason we keep building schools, public buildings, etc. with flat roofs. With a little forthought we could build a building with solar heating panels that would in the long run save much aditional money for operation.
The old structure is moldy and leaks like a seive. Mayby Kenneth Bowden could black out the windows and grow mushrooms. The city in no way should buy that building.