Is there a senior care crisis in the sunshine state? See it for yourself…

Florida is known to be a retirement destination for many seniors who come here to live the remainder of their life with the dignity and respect they deserve. There are currently more than 80,000 parents and grandparents living in Florida’s nursing homes, and a growing number receiving home care. The demand for long term care keeps growing, but Florida’s nursing homes and home care agencies don’t seem to be equipped to meet families’ needs… and they don’t seem to care.

While the nursing home industry has enjoyed five straight years of market growth with revenues exceeding $350 billion annually, there is a dangerous trend growing in Florida where some nursing homes and home care agencies are putting profits over care. Let’s not forget that a large portion of those profits come from our pockets since many nursing homes are mostly funded by taxpayer dollars through Medicaid and Medicare.

Caregivers are overworked and unfairly underpaid, while our seniors and people with disabilities are being put at risk. Florida is the only state in the country that has a watch list for nursing homes and, alarmingly, nearly 1 in 5 Florida nursing homes are on it for chronically dangerous conditions. Things don’t get better for those that need assistance at home where there are 35 care consumers for each home care worker.

This year, the Mayors of Miami and Tampa have decided to step up to confront this crisis and say their cities do care about seniors and caregivers.

On February, Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado hosted a town hall with caregivers and announced he will present a resolution to the Miami City Commission calling for quality care standards in the long-term care industry and a living wage for nursing home workers and home care workers caring for Miami’s seniors and people living with a disability.

Earlier this month, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn issued a proclamation declaring April 5th, 2016 as “Senior Care Day” to highlight the importance of quality care standards in the long-term care industry and a living wage for caregivers.

We expect Miami and Tampa are the first in a growing list of leading cities to address this crisis in a state that claims to be an ideal destination for seniors.