New Budget: A Hope For The Elderly?

Jul 13, 2021

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Thousands of requests go unattended every week at the Granite State Independent Living owing to a staffing crisis.

These unanswered requests include making meals, trouble getting up from the wheelchairs, cleaning homes, and bathing. Though the statewide nonprofit organization provides caregivers to the elderly and disabled for better care, most of the time, there are people left out due to understaffed personnel.

According to the words of Deborah Ritcey, the organization's CEO, "clients are sometimes forced to choose which services are most important to them — often getting out of bed and getting dressed — while other requests, like help moving around during the day, are pushed to the wayside."

She continued:

"They could have nobody in the home all day, and somebody might come back at 8 or 9 at night to feed them dinner and put them back in bed. They could be in their home sitting in the wheelchair all day with no help. That's how far behind we are."

Needless to say, answering such a problem can be tough. Deborah's organization would need to hire more than 460 employers to fill in for the hours of demanded care if we put this in perspective. This is a near-impossible number as the salaries of these employees would be most likely lesser compared to McDonald's employees.

"It's not sexy," she said. "What we do is not something that a young generation is signing up for."

As a silver lining, the state's budget can be Ritcey's hope. Signed last week, this year's state budget has several provisions. These provide monetary help to services like nursing home care. This includes a 15% increase in Medicaid reimbursements for the types of personal care services GSIL offers.

According to Douglas McNutt, the Associate State Director of Advocacy for AARP NH, "Over the years, some critical parts of the home-based care system have atrophied as funding has waned."

Senior care facilities are designed to take care of the elderly when their children are away to attend office. This includes their diet, hygiene, leisure activities, etc. They also make sure to notice personality changes in the elderly and take appropriate steps to address them.

So, McNutt estimates that half a dozen of such facilities were forced to shut down in the past five years. One example is Concord's center that shut down in 2018 owing to thousands of dollars of debt.

However, this year's budget is better and is expected to offer relief. Why so? Because it increases the daily reimbursement rate from $54 to $74.

Here's what Ritcey further had to say about the new budget:

"New Hampshire has historically focused its funding for elderly care on nursing homes while programs centered around home care have often scraped by with modest budgets. However, after COVID-19 ravaged many of the state's nursing homes, some benefits of home-based became more apparent. During the pandemic, none of my consumers were hospitalized due to COVID-19. The real benefits of home-based care extend beyond the pandemic. Adults living in their homes still have the freedom of choice – when to get up in the morning and how to spend their days."

She further continued:

"People say 'I would rather die in my bed than go into a nursing home.' I think there's a time in a person's life when a nursing home is absolutely the best place for them. Our consumers are not ready for that next level of care."

According to Ritcey, the extra funding may not solve the industry's extreme staff crisis, but it may be a step in the right direction.

"Does it fix it? No, it doesn't fix it. These employees are still underpaid for what they do," Ritcey said. "Does it help? Immensely."

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