Critical Community Update: Caregiver/Staffing Crisis

The entire nation is experiencing a crisis with the caregiver shortage and Douglas County is no exception. The burden on the local healthcare system infrastructure from this caregiver crisis is severe. This crisis is affecting many individuals in our community and is a health and safety issue for those most vulnerable, resulting in negative health consequences for the community at large. These health consequences include:

Persons not getting the care in their homes become sick and need medical care/hospitalization

Local hospitals unable to discharge patients due to lack of skilled and unskilled caregivers at local nursing homes, residential facilities, or care within one's home

The lack of caregivers has created a bottleneck system in which individuals cannot safely remain at home. This caregiver shortage affects us all. Because we cannot find caregivers to come into people's homes to meet simple and complex care needs, as a result patients are seeing unnecessary prolonged hospitalizations which has both emotional and financial impact on them.

As a community, we have formed We Care Douglas County. We are a group of interested individuals, organizations, and businesses working toward a solution. Our mission is to bring awareness to vital stakeholders in order to address this public health crisis. We can do this by ultimately reducing the caregiver shortage and increasing the amount of local caregivers for this rewarding profession. During our monthly meetings, we are strategizing and implementing interventions. We are reaching out to you to ask for your help, and would love to tell you more about what we are doing and invite you upcoming meetings!

 

Contact Information coming soon

For immediate questions/contact,

Email: WeCareDouglasCounty@gmail.com