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 4024719345
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
4024719174
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 1year 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.