This is encouraging news! An article in USA Today reports the percentage of elderly living in nursing homes has declined. The downturn reflects the improved health of seniors and more choices of care for the elderly.
Approximately 7.4% of Americans aged 75 and older lived in nursing homes in 2006, compared with 8.1% in 2000 and 10.2% in 1990. The upper-income white population has other options than nursing homes,” says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. “They’re moving to assisted living or their well-off, baby boomer children are taking care of them in other ways.”
At-home care and assisted-living facilities have been a fast-growing segment of elder care in the past decade, says Elise Bolda, director of Community Partnerships for Older Adults, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation program that helps communities develop long-term care and services for the elderly.
Unfortunately, those without sufficient finances or nearby and willing families have no other option but to enter a nursing home and hope for the best…and often experience the worst!