Nursing Facility Transitions

NEBRASKA

Grant Information


Name of Grantee

Department of Health and Human Services, Finance and Support

Title of Grant

Creating Systems Change in the Transition Process

Type of Grant

Nursing Facility Transitions, State Program

Amount of Grant

$600,000

Year Original Funding Received

2002

Contact Information


Mary Jo Iwan, Administrator
Office of Aging and Disability Services 402–471–9345
maryjo.iwan@hhss.state.ne.us

Mike Laughlin, Grant Coordinator
Deputy Administrator
Office of Aging and Disability Services
301 Centennial Mall South
PO Box 95044
Lincoln, NE 68509
402–471–9174
mike.laughlin@hhss.state.ne.us

Subcontractor(s)

(Year 1) Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging, Lincoln Area Agency on Aging, and Northeast Nebraska Area Agency on Aging.

(Years 2 and 3) Aging Office of Western Nebraska; Blue Rivers Area Agency on Aging; Midland Area Agency on Aging; South Central Nebraska Area Agency on Aging; West Central Nebraska Area Agency on Aging; and Bailey Lauerman, communications and marketing firm.

Target Population(s)


Current Medicaid clients residing in nursing facilities who meet criteria for potential transition to home and community-based settings.

Goals


  • Bring Nebraska's long-term care services together as a continuum of care, with components that meet consumer needs at the right time, and a streamlined, seamless method for these components to work together.
  • Help older persons and persons with disabilities to have both an awareness of choices in the type of living environment that is most appropriate to them, as well as the ability to exercise those choices.

Activities


  • Develop a communication/marketing campaign that both informs candidates and key stakeholders about choices in how and where to live, and also creates a cultural change in the way Nebraskans regard long-term care.
  • Conduct a networking campaign through Area Agencies on Aging with the nursing facilities in their territories to enlist nursing facility staff in identifying transition candidates, informing the candidates and key stakeholders about choices in how and where to live, and facilitating successful transitions to home and community-based settings.
  • Employ specially trained Ombudsman Volunteers to link with every Medicaid client placed in a nursing facility for the purpose of identifying transition candidates and facilitating successful transitions.
  • Develop and implement a statewide toll-free number for nursing home transition assistance.

Abstract


Nebraska's project will capitalize on momentum already building in the State around enhancing our long-term care system. A previous 1–year Nursing Facility Transition Grant has allowed us to conduct qualitative research which revealed weaknesses in both the message sent to consumers about long-term care options, as well as the mechanism through which we offer alternatives to nursing facility placement. As a result, we have developed marketing materials and strategies we believe will be effective with targeted audiences, and have also devised strategies to expand and better link our home and community-based services into a more cohesive system.

This project has the potential for significant and sustainable impact on Nebraska's long-term care system, both lowering costs for our Medicaid program and, perhaps most importantly, creating greater awareness and better options for consumers.

To assure statewide acceptance of this revolutionary (for Nebraska) plan for cultural and systems shift in long-term care, the project is divided into two phases. In the first year, the Department of Health and Human Services, Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging, Lincoln Area Agency on Aging, and Northeast Area Agency on Aging will operationalize the plan. During the second and third years, the project will expand statewide.