Retirement News : Seniors : City faces shortage of elder care

City faces shortage of elder care

Date Added: 05-04-2005

With a growing senior population in the Coachella Valley - driven in part by the year-round warm climate - health-care and senior representatives cite a need for more specialized facilities for seniors.
In Indio, the need more specifically is for assisted living, skilled nursing and sub-acute care.

Beula Nyback, 84, whose husband died five years ago and who now lives on her own, realizes she needs a little help getting by, so she plans to sell her home in downtown Indio and move into an assisted-living facility.

She'd like to stay in Indio, where she was raised and has friends, but without any options, she's decided to move to Palm Desert.

"I've been here all my life, and I knew there weren't any (assisted-living facilities) here," she said. "I certainly would have stayed here (if there were) because I don't know too many people in Palm Desert."

There are a couple of plans - one for an assisted-living facility and another for a skilled nursing/subacute facility - in the works to provide more options for Indio residents. A timetable on when they could materialize, however, is not yet known.

Indio Mayor Melanie Fesmire, who was faced with having to put both of her parents in nursing homes, knows firsthand the selection out there and thinks there are plenty valleywide. Locally, though, it's a different story.

"I think there needs to be more options," she said.

Plans offered up

One option is coming from Indio councilwoman Lupe Ramos Watson, who with her husband owns Watson & Watson, an engineering firm. She has applied for entitlements to build an assisted-living facility and retail building on 4.9 acres on Burr Street, north of Avenue 43. Watson could not be reached for comment, and Fesmire said she didn't know about the facility.
Tony Ricci, an administrator with Milestone Health Care Center in Costa Mesa, wants to provide another option by opening a skilled nursing/subacute care center in Indio in the former Mul-Care Skilled Nursing Facility at 45-700 Aladdin St.

That facility closed a few years ago, leaving only two skilled-nursing facilities in Indio - Valencia Palms Nursing Center and Indio Nursing & Rehabilitation - which, combined, provide 167 beds.

As the population ages, Mark Moran, chairman for the Riverside County Advisory Council on Aging, said the current number of beds will not be enough.

"As more and more seniors age ... more and more we will need those beds for long-term care. Those that cannot receive care in their homes will end up in a skilled-care nursing facility. I am aware we have a problem in terms of not enough skilled nursing beds," he said.

Add to that a current nursing shortage, and the situation is even more desperate, Moran said.

Ricci, who has a degree in business and has been working in the health-care industry for about 10 years, said he plans to address the nursing shortage by opening a nursing school on the same grounds as the nursing facility.

He plans to open The American School of Healthcare Worker in Costa Mesa on May 1. He said the school in Indio would be affiliated with the Costa Mesa school.

"I was looking on the map (at cities) where they are lacking in service, and Indio is just a glaring example. You're already underserved, and you're growing," said Ricci.

Indio, with 59,100 residents, according to the state Department of Finance, is the largest and fastest-growing city in the valley. But according to the 2000 Census, Indio does not have the largest population of those 60 and older. It came in fifth of the nine valley cities, with 5,913 people 60 and older.

Palm Desert, with 14,135, had the most residents 60 and older.

Robert Kendall, 83, an Indio resident for five years, said he doesn't mind having to go outside Indio for care when the time comes.

"I think there are a number of facilities in the valley. It doesn't really bother me to move ... it's not that far," he said, as long as it's not outside the valley.

Some residents, however, have to drive to San Bernardino County if they need subacute care, which can require life support and more advanced care.

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