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Long-Term Care For Young Vets
UPI Health Business Correspondent Washington DC (UPI) March 21, 2007 The changing demographics of veterans in long-term care has led to efforts to make long-term care facilities seem more like home. "I'm not sure whose goal in life it is to be in a nursing home," said Gerald Cross, deputy under-secretary for health at Veterans'Affairs, at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing this week. "Transforming the culture of care in nursing homes from the traditional medical model to a more home-like, patient-centered model is an important initiative in all of our nursing home programs." An increasing number of the veterans in long-term care were injured during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those veterans are young -- and many advocates are calling for changes to the traditional nursing home model that was designed with seniors in mind. To make facilities more age-appropriate, Cross said, generational differences are being taken into account in veterans' facilities. Some of the changes come in the form of entertainment: homes have been equipped with video game consoles and age-appropriate music and movies. Other facilities are experimenting with allowing pets and letting children visit and even stay overnight. "We are seeing extraordinarily disabled veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with levels of injury and disability unheard of in past wars," said Robert Shaw, national legislative chairman of the National Association of State Veterans Homes. "They present a medical and social challenge the likes of which we have never seen." The new movement in long-term care is abandoning large institutional facilities altogether, Shaw said. Newer facilities have about ten rooms and are built to look like family residences. They have one or two skilled care workers who tend to medical needs, but also cook and do housekeeping. Unfortunately, he added, regulatory obstacles and a $500 million backlog in requests for new construction funding are standing in the way of new building. The movement for more comfortable care does, however, have advocates in the federal government. Leslie Norwalk, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said there are no regulatory barriers to prevent such group homes from qualifying and Medicaid nursing homes -- a decision that could open the door for veterans to use them as well. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies also voiced support for the programs at the hearing. "I am very positive in moving in this direction," Wicker said. Advocates of the smaller group home model, known as the Green House model, say all veterans -- young and old -- should have access to more homey long-term care. "Despite years and years of really good people trying to improve the quality of life in nursing homes, I don't think anybody would say the want to live in a nursing home," Robert Jenkins, director of the Green House Project, told United Press International. The project, a five-year partnership between NCB Capital Impact and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, seeks to establish 50 such private long-term care homes. The project has also worked with Veterans Affairs to improve existing facilities and assist in the construction of new ones. "They're very interested in trying to improve their accommodations," Jenkins said. "They want a tested approach to move to."
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Hydrogel Particles Pave Way For New Bedside Diagnostics
Boston MA (SPX) Mar 13, 2007MIT researchers have created an inexpensive method to screen for millions of different biomolecules (DNA, proteins, etc.) in a single sample--a technology that could make possible the development of low-cost clinical bedside diagnostics. |
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