As Julie Boggess remarked in her recent blog, informal caregivers and the care they provide for care recipients represents a substantial part of the long-term care support system. Caring for a loved one with dementia is challenging and can be difficult. Both stress and burnout in caregiving are all too common, as Pam Brandon’s blog notes. This is especially true during the holiday season. The extra demands that accompany this time of year make getting the regular things done more challenging, and the expectations for getting everything done can be overwhelming.

Hospital readmissions can be costly, in terms of the effect on the patient being readmitted and the related expenses. The American Health Care Association (AHCA) established a Quality Initiative (Initiative) to support the level of care in both the long-term care and post-acute care settings. The Initiative aligns with programs underway by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to address long-term care challenges and costs related to hospital readmissions.

I don’t remember their names or all they did, but I can still see the faces of the certified nursing aides who provided care to my mother when she was in a nursing home. Mostly, the people providing the day-to-day caring for my mother were young, probably in their twenties or thirties, female, and African American. I wish I could state that they all took excellent care of my mom, but there were a few workers who were either cruel or benign in their care. Luckily, my sister and I were able to visit our mom every day and we got to know the certified nursing aides well, intervening as needed.