In my State of the State address just two weeks ago, I stood before the people of Wisconsin and reported on that we have seen some great success in Wisconsin – from job creation to holding the line on taxes – and that our state is moving forward again. But we can, and we must, do more – especially for our seniors.
A large percentage of our population is growing older, and as a state, we are going to be faced with some significant challenges in the years to come. We have to make sure our state is not only a great place to raise a family, but also to retire. Part of that is ensuring that, as they get older, we have viable long-term care options available to our seniors.
One of the top worries for families and seniors in Wisconsin is long-term care. I know what a toll this takes, because my family has had to face it with my 89-year-old mother. Given the state of her Parkinson’s disease she needs to be in a nursing home; but there are thousands of other seniors who neither want nor need to be there.
Sometimes older people go to nursing homes to recover from a medical episode, and they want to go home again after a few months of recovery. Unfortunately, with long waiting lists for home care, these people have to wait months or years for the services that will let them go home again. Many lose hope, but they shouldn’t have to.
That is why, in my State of the State address, I reaffirmed the goal I set a year ago: we must help seniors and people with disabilities stay in their homes and communities for as long as they are willing and able. We should reduce the use of nursing homes by 25 percent over the next 8 years.
We have launched a comprehensive effort to achieve this ambitious goal, and it is working. In the past year, we’ve helped hundreds of seniors move from nursing home care to community care – and in the next 18 months, we will help another 1,200 seniors get home.
Despite our significant successes, there are still more than 10,000 people around the state on waiting lists for community-based long-term care.
Years ago, Governor Thompson started a great pilot program in five counties called Family Care, which gives people the ability to move off the waiting list and out of the nursing home. By any standard, it has been a success, and I have proposed that we expand Family Care statewide – eliminating waiting lists across Wisconsin.
To aid this effort, I am awarding $1.4 million in grants to counties around the state to expand Family Care statewide. The grants will help develop partnerships between multiple counties and private partners to lay the groundwork to implement Family Care programs and eliminate waiting lists for community-based long term care.
This initiative is going to save the state money, but it is about so much more than that. It is about what any one of us would want for our mother or father. It is about helping our grandparents, who meant so much to us, live with dignity and independence.
Our seniors are Wisconsin’s greatest generation – the men and women who left to fight a World War and then came home to build our great state and make it what it is today. They enrich our communities and our lives. We owe them the best care and our best efforts to ensure that they have the choice on where to spend their golden years.
