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While Ohio has improved its long-term care options for the state’s aging population by increasing in-home services versus nursing homes, it still lags behind most other states regarding the balance of those services.
That’s according to a new report released by the Scripps Gerontology Center at Miami University on the difficulties Ohio faces in funding and providing long-term care services for a rapidly increasing older population.
The report, “Providing Long-Term Services and Supports to an Aging Ohio,” notes that Ohio ranks sixth in the nation in the number of persons age 60-plus and that the state’s older population with severe disability – those most likely to need LTC services – is expected to double between now and the year 2040.
The report observes that Ohio has improved in its efforts to balance nursing home care with home- and community-based services for its older citizens over the past decade, but the state still ranked 43rd with an institutional versus home-care expenditures ratio of 72 percent to 28 percent respectively.
“With the increased enrollment of PASSPORT, assisted living and other home- and community-based services – as well as productive efforts with the unified budget initiative – Ohio has clearly come a long way in providing its older population with a broader array of cost-effective services offering choice and autonomy,” stated Shahla Mehdizadeh, co-author of the report and senior researcher on the Ohio Long-Term Care Project.
“Still,” she continued, “given the demographic projections, Ohio’s progress in long-term care represents only the initial steps on the long and challenging road ahead.”
The report lists several recommendations for meeting those challenges, including:
- Expand options for self-directed care (i.e., consumer-centered programs allowing those receiving care to directly hire family members, friends, neighbors and others in the community) of adults with disability
- Continue to pursue housing options for delivering assisted living type services, particularly in residential care facilities
- Develop a pre-admission review and follow-up approach that would allow a more careful look at those admitted to and residing in nursing homes
- Examine the increased nursing home utilization rates of Ohio’s under-60 population
Report co-authors are Robert Applebaum, Miami professor of sociology and director of the Ohio Long-Term Care Project, Jane Straker, Scripps senior researcher, and Malinda Deacon, a doctoral student in social gerontology at Miami.
For more information, contact Mehdizadeh at 529-2914. The report is available online.
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