Not Enough Facilities to Handle Dementia Patients in Maine

This article from the Bangor Daily News addresses the need for more facilities to handle dementia patients in the state of Maine.

Rick Erb, executive director of the Maine Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes in Maine, confirmed in a recent interview that the shortage of places for Mainers with difficult behavior has been a serious problem for several years and is likely to get worse as the population ages. Only three Maine nursing homes offer specialized long-term psychiatric units, he said, with higher levels of trained staff to handle aggressive patients and locked units to prevent residents from wandering. None of the three is north of Waterville or west of Gorham.

Erb said it’s up to the state to fund more of these high-level programs for Mainers with dementia.

“But right now, there is no movement toward creating more special units to deal with these psychological issues,” he said.

According to Diana Scully, director of the Office of Elder Services at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, the state is well aware of the problem.

“There are long waiting lists” for admission to the three nursing homes with specialized psychiatric units, she said in a recent interview. “It’s hard for the existing facilities to address the need.”

But looking ahead, she said, state officials have yet to tackle the problem of ensuring that appropriate — and expensive — nursing home care is available for Maine baby boomers who develop difficult behavior related to dementia. Instead, the current focus is on increasing space for aging individuals in less-restrictive settings such as assisted living programs and boarding homes, as well as developing community-based support for families caring for their elderly relatives at home.

Scully acknowledged that it is not enough. “There will be more Alzheimer’s and other age-related dementias. We know we are going to need more options as people age,” she said.

Until those options are developed, waiting lists will continue to grow and hospitals will bear the burden.