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I ask because I am looking to move a family member to a different facility and am hearing horror stories about staff shortages and care issues.

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I don’t have experience with nursing homes during COVID times, so I can’t compare, but I can tell you that my mom’s experience in the county LTC facility was much better than you might expect. Her options were limited to facilities that would accept her as Medicaid pending, and the building itself is pretty basic and institutional. However, because staff are county employees, the salary and benefits are better than at some for-profit facilities, which makes it a more desirable place for nurses to work — a good thing for staff and for residents. The facility is also required by law to maintain a certain staff-to-patient ratio if they want to keep their funding. They do use some agency aides, but the majority of staff have been there for years and are always very responsive and attentive. They act quickly to mask and protect residents when there is illness on the floor — and to lift restrictions as early as is safely possible.

The place is not a resort by any means. But the care is good where it counts. There are probably better LTCs out there, but there are also certainly worse ones. (The first place I looked at for my mom when she needed placement was so awful that I couldn’t sleep that night thinking about it.) Quality varies among facilities, and I imagine that’s always been the case.
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Reply to knits4pixies
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I’m a big believer in judging most anything in life one at a time instead of lumping all of anything into one category of good or bad. There are horrific facilities and there are still good ones. I recently went to an excellent one where all levels of residents were clean, engaged, and as active as they were capable of being. I personally think perhaps the biggest factor that’s changed caregiving, like it has so much of our world, is everyone now being attached to a cell phone. “Playing on your phone” has hurt the work ethic in most every field including the work in facilities
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Reply to Daughterof1930
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My husband is 61 and is in a memory care facility. They are horrible. He has been left in the same clothes for a week, put on so much meds that he is a zombie, and just neglected. I am working with a company now to bring him home. This company is going to help me pay for caregivers. I have Hospice, but they just want to keep him doped up. It is horrible. I have heard someone say that prisoners should be placed in nursing homes or memory care facilities and elders should be placed in prison. People are treated better and have more rights and activities in prison that they do in nursing homes. I was told that they had activities during the day, they had a barber, they took them outside, etc. None of this is true. The only activity that I see is the nurses sit in the cafeteria in the afternoon with the TV on and play on their phones.
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Reply to mlwilson19
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Fawnby Mar 20, 2025
My husband is in a memory care facility, and it is nothing like you describe. The aides are very kind, concerned, and they care about the residents. My husband is well cared for and content.
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About the same .
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Reply to KNance72
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Isthisrealyreal Mar 20, 2025
Just curious if you base that on experience.

I have a before and after experience and I don't think it is the same at all.

Employee problems seem to be the biggest factor, nobody wants a tough job for minimum wage and owners are too greedy to offer higher wages.
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Reporting to move this to Discussions, which it is.
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Reply to Geaton777
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It's my understanding that all facilities are still running short handed including the most expensive facilities, which in turn affects care issues.
It's a sad truth that many are now having to deal with.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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Elder care isn't at the moment getting better.
Hedge Funds and Corporations have decided there isn't now and isn't in the future expected to be sufficient money to support fabulous care in fabulous facilities.
At best care was unpredictable as the people requiring it.
The fact has always been that caregiving in facility is not well paid.
There are now more and other choices for jobs. Many young love the GIG economy where they drive about delivering a pizza to you or you to somewhere else. They make their own work hours. Can get a following. Can sell their cranberry scones on the street corner every Saturday (killer good in my neighborhood) and can get by in different creative ways.
Regulations are horrid. Residents are difficult. Families are difficult.

5 years ago my brothers treatment at his ALF was STELLAR gold star stuff. But Pacifica Senior Living has sold them now to something else. I hope it's as good. I wouldn't bet on it.

I wish I had better news. We are living too long too sick and too little left of our minds. I say that as an 83 year old. Our needs are many. And there's almost NO WAY to give stellar care to us all. Would you want to either own or manage a facility? Work at one?

It's a good question. There are good places left. And many--most--are doing the best they can with what they have. Mom and Pop operations such as Board and Cares that were once so very good are rare as hen's teeth now.
The times they are a-changin.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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