Rita wrote---SNIPPED
>I posted a message during Ivan's earlier crisis time re: the inability of
>nursing homes in Indiana and Minnesota to be able to hire nursing assistants
>for the time period of evening/nights and the losses encountered by those
>establishments. I had only one response to that message, and I assume that it
>was not read by many......
Rita, I read it, and agreed wholeheartedly! Hard to know where to take
hold, though.
>
>This is not an Ivan problem, this is a societal issue that good economic times
>are not easy times to hire menial (however important) tasks.
I agree here also-- there is Ivan, whom we know of and worry about, but how
many Ivans are there out there? It is a BIG problem, because just to take
up a "collection" from Ivan's (or anyone's ) friends would not solve the
longtime problem of continuing care needed by anyone in this situation.
The resources to deal with these problems have to come from "society" or
"government", it seems, because of the enormous scope of the problem. For
example, suppose we added $2. per hour for a CG for one patient (not only
PWPs, of course) that's $48. for 24 hrs, times 7 days, times 52 weeks,
times the total of patients needing this care! Is your mind boggled yet?
And Medicaid and Medicare are cutting back on home care funds, not adding
to them! It costs so much more to place someone in a NH, yet Medicaid
will pay for that, whether it's desirable or not---and then try to recoup
expenses from the "estate" when the person dies. This is an issue that
requires political advocacy---is there any organization anyone knows of
that is specifically working on it??
Camilla Flintermann, <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/camilla/one.htm My Home Page
" Knowing when to insist, and when to let be,
is,perhaps, a lifetime learning experience ."
--Mary McCurry
