Louisiana needs to work harder to take care of our elderly residents.

Our state ranks 37th in the nation in meeting the long-term care needs of senior citizens. This ranking shows up in the latest AARP Scorecard

Louisiana gets bad marks from the inability to place many of its older residents in the most appropriate settings - 51st among states and the District of Columbia - and the 41st ranking out of 51 for quality of life and quality of care indicators.

 

Andrew Muhl, director of advocacy for AARP Louisiana, tells the Baton Rouge Advocate more must be done, and at an accelerated pace, to change state policies.
“It’s important that the state offer choices for people to stay in the home and community. We need to rebalance and reshift the funds from nursing homes to home- and community-based care.”

One other report shows that many elderly residents are in nursing homes in our state, but they may be institutionalized because of a lack of services in their own communities.

 

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