Caitlin Synovec, OTD, OTR/L, BCMH, the Council’s Director of Medical Respite, is featured in “Nursing Homes Have Become Last-Resort Housing”, a TIME Ideas piece by health reporter Michele Cohen Marill on why a growing number of older adults experiencing homelessness end up in nursing homes they neither need nor want.
Drawing on her years as an occupational therapist in medical respite care, Caitlin describes a pattern she saw again and again: a stroke or other serious medical event, a long hospital stay, and then the loss of a job and a home. Medical respite offers a place to recover, but the question of where to go next too often has no good answer. For older adults, that answer is increasingly a nursing home, even when they are able to live in the community with some support.
“They get to a point essentially where there’s not a place in the community for them to go. The option is long-term care—nursing home care—or they die on the street.”
Caitlin Synovec, in TIME
The article lays out the numbers behind the problem: one in 11 nursing home residents has low-care needs, one in five people living in shelters or on the streets is 55 or older, and a year in a nursing home costs roughly seven times what a year of permanent supportive housing does. It makes the case for age-friendly, low-income housing that meets older adults’ mobility and care needs while preserving their independence, and for a broader rethinking of long-term care as the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80 this year.
Congratulations, Caitlin!
The feature comes on the heels of Caitlin’s promotion to Director of Medical Respite. (The article was published before her promotion, so it lists her previous title.) Caitlin brings deep expertise in medical respite care, occupational therapy, older adults and aging, and disability to the role, and we are excited to see her lead the Council’s medical respite work into its next chapter.
Learn more about the Council’s medical respite work at the National Institute for Medical Respite Care.
