Important care

To the editor:

May 9-15 is National Nursing Home Week. We all need to consider what our lives would be like without the services of long-term care facilities: overcrowded hospitals from the influx of older adults with nowhere else to get medical care, overwhelmed emergency medical services called to transport them to the hospital, overworked visiting nurses and home health aides to provide short-term care after they return home (unless the patient has the funds to continue paying for services once Medicare benefit is exhausted), overstressed families coping with the complex care of their parent(s) or hiring someone (unregulated by the state) to provide care and risking abuse or exploitation of their parent. Please, educate yourself on elder care options, and include visits to area long-term facilities. If you have a loved one residing in a long-term care facility, please remember to thank the hard-working, dedicated staff.

Gina Bailey-Carbaugh,

Lawrence