\What is the most beautiful thing about Kentucky? Is it the crisp mountain air in the morning? Is it the wildflowers in the spring or the brightly colored hummingbirds that visit in the summer? The homemade bourbon balls at Christmas, or the Christmas carols sung in harmony? Ask anyone who has lived in Kentucky since birth, and they will tell you that the most beautiful thing about Kentucky is family. If you go to a supermarket, a park, or a restaurant, you will see three or even four generations of a family enjoying their time together.

Strong family ties can help you weather difficult circumstances, but the financial strain that American families are feeling is undeniable. The costs of healthcare and long-term care are becoming prohibitive, and even multigenerational households where more than two working-age adults share the responsibilities of paid work and family caregiving are feeling their resources stretched thin. Unfortunately, access to nursing home care and home health services is only becoming more difficult in rural areas of Kentucky and other states. A Northern Kentucky long-term care planning lawyer can help you prepare for the possibility that, by the time you need nursing home care, your area will have substantially fewer nursing homes than it has now.

The Crisis of Rural Elder Care

Many nursing homes struggled financially even before the COVID-19 pandemic; a common question that seniors would ask elder law attorneys was how to tell if a nursing home was understaffed since understaffing is a main contributor to nursing care errors and preventable adverse outcomes in nursing home patients. The problem is even worse now; nursing homes in sparsely populated areas struggle to replace workers who have quit, exhausted by the stressful work, long hours, and low pay. Working as a home health aide where your patients are a long drive away from each other is a similarly thankless job. Now that the emergency funding that nursing homes received has dried up, many nursing homes are closing, especially those where most patients paid for their care through Medicaid.  Some counties are left with no nursing homes at all, and residents are forced to move to other nursing homes hours away from their families.

If you are approaching retirement age, how can you avoid this fate?  Whether the nearest nursing home to you will still be open in 20 years is beyond your control, but the better you manage your finances, the better. Long-term care insurance is a must, and an estate planning lawyer can help you manage and invest your retirement assets so that you can keep your family together in health and financial stability.

Contact Darpel Elder Law About Long-Term Care Planning

An elder law attorney can help you research and prepare for several scenarios that are acceptable to you in the event that you need long-term care so that you will not have to move to a nursing home far from your family.  Contact Darpel Elder Law in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, or call (859) 341-4100.

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/nursing-homes-small-towns-closing-staff-shortages-rcna66779