Health aide company drops service

Sometimes people just need a helping hand to live safely at home.

At Larson Commons - an affordable apartment building for seniors and the disabled in Cloquet - workers from Senior Friend Home Care have been that helping hand for years. Clients live in their own apartments, but they receive a range of services on a regular basis to make that independent living possible, and they know they can call the Senior Friend extension when they need someone to pop in. On Tuesday, Senior Friend had five employees providing a range of services to 15 people in the building, with staff available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, that all ended. A month ago, the locally based home health agency announced it could no longer provide its "customized living services" at Larson Commons effective April 6. They had been unable to find a registered nurse after months of advertising.

The agency will still be able to provide home health care visits, likely in two-hour blocks, two to four times a week.Home care ...

The 24-hour care that came with the customized living services has ended. And for some of their clients, that was the difference between living in their own apartment and needing to move to a different facility.

Senior Friend executive director Mike Lawden blamed a "horrendous labor shortage" for skilled nursing but also for home health aides as well as cleaners/homemakers, another service provided in Carlton, St. Louis and Aitkin counties.

"Our primary mission is to keep people out of nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and for us, Larson Commons is their home," Lawden said. "From our perspective, it's devastating to have to do this."

Like family

Since the announcement, home health aide Debra Hendrickson has been vacillating between tears, worry and hope that a nurse will suddenly appear and the company could reverse course.

She has been a home health aide for 27 years at Senior Friend, the past 12 years at Larson Commons. She has known most of her clients for years, and they're like family.

Health aides provide assistance with medication, showers, mobility issues, changing dressings, even helping diabetic clients manage their blood sugar. Then there are all the things that pop up, like helping Wayne "PeeWee" Francisco when his motorized wheelchair went on the blink Monday.

Hendrickson helped him get out of the bathroom where he was stuck with his now nonfunctioning chair, then located his old self-propelled wheelchair and added air to the deflated tires.

On Tuesday afternoon, she was working on borrowing a motorized wheelchair until Francisco's chair is repaired. On top of that, she's worried about how he's going to get in and out of bed every night and morning, and how safely he can shower alone.

They can't provide the same service in 2-hour chunks of time.

"I hate to use the word 'nightmare,' but I'm so worried about tomorrow night, that's the first night," Hendrickson said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. "Even though PeeWee will get home care, we don't have staff at night to put him to bed. There won't be staff on the weekends."

Multiply those worries by more than a dozen, for each client they serve at the senior high rise, and you'll get an idea of her state of mind.

She said all her tears are dried and now she's just trying to do what she can to make sure people have some assistance.

"I want this program to continue," Hendrickson said. "We need to get word out there that we need an RN two times a week in this building. I'm hoping a retired nurse or someone who wants part-time work will see this. Where are the workers? This is a crisis."

Confusion

Francisco's sister, Sheri Johnson, came to Larson Commons Monday night from her home in Mountain Iron after his wheelchair broke down. She's trying to help her brother figure out how he can continue living there.

During the interview on Tuesday, there were a lot of laughs but also deep worry about the future from Francisco, his sister and his aide.

Francisco has cerebral palsy, diagnosed when he was 2 years old. His legs don't work anymore, so he needs help getting in and out of bed, and feels more secure if there's someone to help in the shower.

The former Esko resident loves living at Larson Commons. He's been there since 2008. He is an admitted social butterfly, and enjoys running errands up and down Cloquet Avenue on his motorized wheelchair when the weather is warmer, stopping in to visit various businesses, picking up items for fellow residents from the Holiday station six blocks away, with a smile on his face and the wind in his hair.

He is optimistic, hopeful he can make do with less help without needing to find a new place to live and leaving his friends and downtown neighborhood.

"We're going to get this straightened out, we've got no choice," Francisco said. "I don't want to move, if we can make it work."

It's not simple. They could try to secure a space for him in an assisted living facility, but he's content at Larson Commons. Transition can be confusing for older people, Hendrickson said, and she doesn't want to move him if there's any chance that Senior Friend will restart services in the coming months.

"I will leave for home tonight, but there's that emotional side," Johnson said Tuesday. "Do I need to come back tomorrow night because services end tomorrow afternoon? What happens every night after that?"

No clear solution

The conversation Hendrickson had with Johnson and Francisco was not unique, although each client faces different challenges. Hendrickson said she's been "deluged" by calls from concerned family members.

For a month, she has been scrambling to help her clients figure out alternatives.

A few residents are trying to get into assisted living facilities in the Cloquet area, but there aren't a lot of openings and it doesn't happen quickly. They may have to look further afield to find spaces, and most don't want to move away from Carlton County, she said.

One or two have family who are stepping in, short-term, to help fill the gap.

In other cases, caregivers and social workers are finding solutions through technology, such as a device that will dispense medications and sound an alarm when it's time to take them - although it has to be correctly loaded in order for that to happen and it doesn't watch a person to make sure they follow guidelines.

County social workers are doing their part to schedule services, Hendrickson said, but she worries it won't be enough. Two hours, two to four times a week, isn't the same as having someone come in every day, or someone you can call when the unexpected happens, she said.

The biggest frustration for Hendrickson is the fact that Senior Friend is busy, with a wait list, so it's not about a lack of business. It's about being unable to find workers, and nursing.

The lack of health care staff is not just a crisis here either, Lawden said. The company has another agency in a Twin Cities area suburb that's also struggling to find staff.

"It's a direct reflection of the Covid pandemic," he said, regarding the many reports of people retiring early or leaving health care jobs because of the risks or burnout.

Senior Friend was one of just a few agencies that still exist under the customized living program, he said. The program is part of the federal Medicaid Elderly Waiver program. The intent is to find solutions to allow people to live at home safely as long as they can.

Senior Friend is still going strong in other areas. The agency will still provide its in-home services to more than 100 people in three counties and to its clients at Larson Commons, but with services in smaller blocks of time at the apartment complex. Residents will have to make do with far less, and the staff will also have their working lives rearranged.

Lawden said he'd like to see the program restart at Larson Commons, but acknowledged it would be difficult.

"Our program serves such a critical need here," Lawden said.