1 week Ago
By Gail Smith I am a lifelong New Jersey resident who now lives in a nursing home in Somerset County. This was never the plan. I was raised in Morris County and I owned a home in Middlesex County for 20 years, raising two wonderful sons.
For most of those years, I was a single parent who worked as a legal secretary and other times as an administrative assistant. At age 46, I became disabled due to neck and back issues, as well as carpal tunnel syndrome. I was living on my own until four years ago, at age 64, when I almost died due to a health emergency.
I have been living in nursing homes ever since. For nursing home residents on Medicaid, like myself, New Jersey gives our monthly income to the nursing homes, except for $50. This is all that we have to live on.
I have been blessed to receive some gifts and a little financial help from family and friends these past four years. Many residents have no one who can help out financially, and $50 is woefully inadequate to pay for the things that nursing homes do not provide. It’s a shame and shouldn’t be this way.
Now, the New Jersey Legislature is considering a bill that would increase the personal needs allowance (PNA) from $50 to $140 per month. (Learn more about the PNA legislation, Assembly Bill A3908 /Senate Bill S3319 , at njleg.state.
nj.us .) I would like more people to realize how life-changing this would be for nursing home residents across the state.
Forbes Advisor ranks New Jersey as the fifth-most expensive state to live in, behind Hawaii, Massachusetts, California, and New York. Yet 31 states and the District of Columbia provide a higher PNA to nursing home residents, according to the American Council on Aging . In New Jersey, we need more money to buy things like clothes.
At some nursing homes, clothes are washed together with heavily soiled items, using harsh detergents in industrial machines, so they wear out quickly. If you lose or gain weight, you also need different clothes. When people were calling me “baggy pants” after I lost a lot of weight, I knew it was time to get new clothes.
But how? I worked on buying new, better-fitting clothes all last year, but $50 a month wasn’t enough to buy necessities and replace all of the baggy clothes. We need haircuts, just like anyone. A woman’s haircut at my former nursing home cost $40 — all but $10 of my monthly PNA.
I asked around to find someone who might at least be able to cut a straight line. I made do with that hairdo until I could get a ride to a discount salon, where they actually straightened it out. Our facilities have food shortages pretty regularly.
When they run out of fresh vegetables to make a salad, we may wait days for another delivery. We’re left with overcooked vegetables that have less nutritional value. Besides that, we have salt-free kitchens and sometimes get very bland food and repetitive choices.
If we want more palate satisfaction, we are on our own to buy it. Some residents do get gifts and treats; some get well-intended promises that are not kept. Maybe it’s a case of us being “out of sight, out of mind.
” Some get help from God and things last longer than expected. This has happened to me, for which I’m very grateful to Jesus. From the Bible, in James 2:15-16: “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to them, ‘go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” This bill is a chance for the Legislature to give residents what we need. It would be life-changing to help restore some of our dignity and give us more choices. This is not a pity party.
We’re only saying that this is a difficult way to live, and this increase would help us. Please don’t leave us “out of sight, out of mind.” Most of us have worked hard all of our lives and lived independently.
We deserve to live independently again. Calling your elected representative in the state Assembly or Senate is the most effective way to influence policy. To find your state Assemblymember and Senator to voice your position, go to the New Jersey Legislature website’s Legislative Roster .
Long-term care residents are leading this initiative with technical assistance from the Long-Term Care Ombudsman’s Community Engagement Program. Call (609) 690-4740 or email [email protected].
gov . Local journalism needs your support. Subscribe at nj.
com/supporter ..
