After 107 years, each day for Louise Fuller is something of a triumph. Having spent nearly three weeks in a hospital and a nursing home while recovering from a fall, Fuller went home.
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NCC Extended Care Center
266 South Orange Ave., Newark NJ 07103
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New Community Workforce Development Center
201 Bergen Street, Newark, NJ 07103
973-824-6484 or 973-639-5600
As featured in NewarkPulse.com
The Center is a state-of-the-art, $4.5 million continuing education facility and New Jersey’s premier on-stop center for career training in a variety of fields, including (click to download brochure):
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CONTACT: Angela Stewart
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233 West Market Street
Newark, New Jersey 07103
Office: 973 497-4413
Cell: 201 259-5116
YOUNGER NURSING HOME PATIENTS A GROWING NATIONAL TREND
Kevin Johnson is not your typical nursing home patient. Just 48 years old, he enjoys activities like playing pool and watching sports on a high definition, flat-screen television. Until recently, however, he was forced to settle for what passes for the norm in many long term care centers-- bingo and arts and crafts.
“I’m really not that interested,” he said.
But administrators at his Newark, New Jersey nursing home, The New Community Extended Care Center, have realized that growing numbers of non-elderly patients like Johnson require a departure from the status quo. The youngest patient at this Newark nursing home currently is 26, a woman with advanced breast cancer.
“You need to have things in place that will appeal to the young people while they are in your facility,” explained Betty Lawson, administrator of the 180-bed Extended Care Center in Newark.
Today, nearly 1 in every 7 nursing home patients is under the age of 65, with the 31 to 64 age group being the fastest growing group. Between 1999 and 2008, the number of patients under 65 grew from 238, 151,000 to 265,190,008, according to figures from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Johnson, who has been at Extended Care for almost six months while awaiting a hip implant, will be among the first patients at the Newark nursing home to try out a newly opened game room. The room offers amenities like a pool table and ski ball toss.
“I like the room. I think it’s good for everybody who’s active, not necessarily just young people,” said Johnson, who will be on hand during the official ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2011.
Paul Langevin, president of the Health Care Association of New Jersey, the non-profit trade group representing 300 long term care facilities in the state, said there is no doubt that more non-elderly residents can be found in today’s nursing homes. He said these settings can often provide more efficient, cost-effective care when it comes to rehabilitation.
Ka-Ryn Eley, 48, a resident of the Newark nursing home who has breast cancer, is undergoing outpatient therapy at another facility. She also likes the game room.
“I think it’s going to be beneficial to us younger residents, giving us an opportunity to be more active,” she said. “It will also put me back on my game of pool,” Eley added, noting she used to play while in the Air Force.
Many nursing homes, including the New Community Extended Care Center, also now offer sub-acute units, where patients—many of them non-elderly- who are recovering from major medical events such as a heart attack or stroke can be cared for while they undergo their therapy. They are also taking in younger patients with chronic diseases.
“We are not building more beds, but just restructuring the current compliment we have to meet the needs and desires of people of the next generation,” explained Langevin, of the Health Care Association of New Jersey.
New Community Corporation is recognized as the largest non-profit community development agency in the country. New Community provides services in four basic areas: housing, health care, job training and education. Founded in 1968 after the Newark riots,
New Community’s mission is to help community residents improve the quality of their lives to reflect individual God-given dignity and personal achievement.