"State working on plan to help elderly stay at home"

According to this article the state of North Dakota Department of Human Services has determined that:

Helping seniors and the disabled live in their own homes is the goal of a quadrennial plan that state officials have nearly completed.

And it is an admirable goal - except that it continues to assume that the responsibility for keeping the elderly at home or in the home of family caregivers lies with the state and not with the family.

The draft of a report outlining their plan for achieving this goal can be read here.

Last evening I had a long conversation with a young mother who was curious about my plans when Emily leaves home, and wondered if I would return to my nursing career. I explained to her that I made the decision after my mother died to no longer keep up my certification - that I had been away from nursing too many years to safely practice without considerable re-education, but that doesn't mean that my education and skills cannot be used in a different way.

Helping families to understand the stay-at-home options for family caregiving and giving caregivers the confidence and tools to do so apart from government/tax payer support is my goal, and like the state of North Dakota, I'm working on a plan.