To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a deduction for qualified long-term care services in computing adjusted gross income.
A national, Web-based report card on nursing homes is improving some aspects of nursing home care, a new study finds.The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began publishing the "Nursing Home Compare" report card results on the Web in 2002. The site gives detailed information about the past performance of every Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing home in the country.According to lead investigator Dana Mukamel, Ph.D., the study is the first "to investigate the impact of a report card on quality of nursing home care." Previous such studies have focused on health plans, hospitals or physicians.
USA.gov, the U.S. government’s official web portal, now links to Caring from a Distance, a web site dedicated to the seven million Americans who manage the needs of seniors who live hundreds or thousands of miles away.
A CBS poll found that four in ten who have had the experience of caring for aging parents say issues involving care can be stressful and can lead to disputes among family members.
Caring from a Distance was founded to bring caregivers seeking help needed information and resources at-a-glance. Our goal is to utilize a range of communication and social networking technology to reduce caregiver stress through improved family communication.
For more information, visit cfad.org
The site is surprisingly complete:The 35 articles below contain over 690 pages of valuable information....
«Those in their 80s and 90s were forced to endure an era where homosexuality was considered both a mental illness and criminal,» Froelich says. «And for those in long-term health facilities, things may only get worse.»
Elder gays and lesbians are often forced to revert to living closeted lives again in their last years in order to avoid ridicule and sub-standard care in institutional settings.
«By the time they enter a nursing home, they really need a tremendous amount of assistance,» Lisa Krinsky, who directs a pioneering LGBT aging project in Boston, tells Froelich. «So the fear that those (places) may not be respectful, may not attend to you in a timely manner or (may) downright mistreat or abuse you is a fear that many older LGBT folks have.»
Three long-term care advocacy organizations--the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care (AQNHC) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL)--last week unveiled a comprehensive plan designed to create a consumer-oriented system bringing greater private resources into the long-term and post-acute care delivery system.
The proposal emphasizes better coordination of both care and financing, greater private sector involvement, and appropriate personal responsibility. The plan would reorganize the Medicaid long-term care and Medicare post-acute care systems by centralizing and streamlining government services and making more private resources available to pay for care. Read the executive summary.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- You can see it at most long-term care centers -- residents in wheelchairs lining hallways, just sitting or rolling slowly down the hall. But a health service director at a Durham center says it's time to stop parking older people in wheelchairs.Leslie Jarema of The Forest at Duke says in the old-school nursing homes, people are sitting around the nurses' station and asking for help because they are uncomfortable.The Midwest-based group called GROW, or Get Residents Out of Wheelchairs, has taken up the cause on a national level. The nonprofit urges nursing homes to help residents use regular chairs, couches, recliners. The group, which has asked Jarema to speak about her approach at The Forest at Duke, also tries to get residents to be as active as possible, encouraging walking to meals, going on foot to the bathroom or shower and taking outside walks with family and friends when possible.
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Nearly 80% of family caregivers are finding the caregiving experience emotionally rewarding, despite initial negative perceptions of caregiving, according to a nationwide survey by Caring Today magazine.
Published in conjunction with National Family Caregivers Month this past November, the Caring Today survey shows that caregivers have distinctly more positive feelings after caring for a family member than they did as they were about to take on the responsibility. The number of caregivers finding the experience highly rewarding jumped by 50% following the caregiving experience.
Knowing which nursing homes are bad can be valuable information for a family seeking long-term care for an elderly loved one but concerned about issues like nursing home abuse and neglect. Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the names of 54 nursing homes that had ranked as one of the worst in their state. Proper administration of medication to patients, appropriate assistance with activities of daily life and concern for the prevention of malnutrition and dehydration are examples of what inspectors look for in nursing homes. Inspectors also look for signs of nursing home abuse and neglect such as failure to maintain resident safety and prevent accidents, such as falls, infections, bed sores and other problems elderly people are susceptible to.
The list published by CMS containing the names of 54 nursing homes is actually a sample of 128 "special focus facilities", or homes that were identified as in need of more oversight. CMS says that the rest of the facilities were not identified because during the six months after being titled a "focus facility" they showed improvement. Democratic legislators, however, are demanding that all of the names be released in order to protect nursing home residents. Most nursing homes have around 6-7 deficiencies identified during inspection, but the ones on the list had twice as many or more. Unfortunately, no national standard has been set for the investigations so each state has its own parameters. An Illinois nursing home can be considered in terrible condition, but would not qualify in another state. A bill was recently introduced in the legislature to make it mandatory for CMS to publish all of the names, but the issue of discrepancies between states' standards is an issue that should be addressed by congress.
