Advanced Directives: Planning for Medical Care
The MLTCOP offers an easy to use booklet to help you make decisions about your future medical care. The booklet covers a number of options for surrogate decision making. You may also call our office at 517-825-8040 to get a copy mailed to you.
Michigan Physician Order for Scope of Treatment (MI POST)
MI-POST is an optional, 1 page, 2-sided medical order with a person's wished for care in a crisis. The intended population is people with serious advanced illness or frailty. MI-POST is a part of the advance care planning process that included choices about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), critical care, and other wanted care. It is intended to guide care only if the person cannot tell others what to do at that time. MI-POST is signed by the patient/patient representative and their physician, nurse practitioner, or physician's assistant.
https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/inside-mdhhs/legislationpolicy/ems/news/mi-post
Long Term Care Options
Long term care can meet a wide variety of needs. Services can be provided in your own home or in residential settings such as nursing homes, homes for the aged, and adult foster care homes. However, determining which services and living arrangements best meet your needs and what options are available and affordable can be complicated and confusing. Visit the state website to explore a number of long term care supports and services:
Nursing Home Information
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) within the federal government, provides information about every nursing home in the country that participates in the Medicare or Medicaid program. On the CMS website, you can view information about nursing homes and select nursing homes to compare. You can see information about the owner, the findings from recent surveys, staffing, and the overall star rating from CMS (from 1 to 5 with 5 being the best rating). This can be a helpful tool in locating homes in your area as well as comparing them to see what meet your needs.
https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=NursingHome
The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory affairs licenses nursing homes in Michigan. You can visit the LARA website to view information about all nursing homes including the homes recent survey report.
Moving to a Nursing Home
Are you or a loved one faced with moving to a nursing home? Wonder what it will be like and how you will adjust? Read "The Ups and Downs of Living in a Nursing Home", a delightful story from one resident's true life experience of living in a nursing home.
Ups and Down of Living in a Nursing Home
You may also want to review the MLTCOP fact sheet on What to Expect When you (or a family member) Moves Into a Nursing Home.
Homes for the Aged and Adult Foster Care
A home for the aged (HFA) provides care to persons who are aged (55 years old or older) and homes for the aged are licensed for 21 or more persons, unless they are operated as part of a nursing home.
Adult foster care (AFC) home can provide care to any adult in need of adult foster care services. AFCs are typically licensed for no more than 20 persons. Some AFCs specialize in supporting people with developmental or intellectual disabilities or people with memory care needs.
Visit the LARA website to learn more about these long term care options a short educational video.
https://www.michigan.gov/lara/bureau-list/bchs/adult/general
You may want to review the MLTCOP fact sheet for HFAs or AFCs.
Home for the Aged Fact Sheets:
Arabic Chinese English Spanish
Adult Foster Home Fact Sheets:
The Eldercare Locator
The Eldercare Locator is a public service of the Administration on Community Living which connects people to services for older adults and their families. Visit the website or call 1-800-677-1116 for more information.
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care
The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care was formed as NCCNHR (National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform) in 1975 because of public concern about substandard care in nursing homes. The Consumer Voice is the outgrowth of work first achieved by advocates working for Ralph Nader and later for the National Gray Panthers. Elma Holder, NCCNHR founder, was working with The Long-Term Care Action Project of the Gray Panthers when she organized a group meeting of advocates from across the country to attend a nursing home industry conference in Washington, DC. At that meeting, representatives of 12 citizen action groups spoke collectively to the industry about the need for serious reform in nursing home conditions. Visit the Consumer Voice website to see the free resources available to residents and their families as well as take action to advocate for change. Membership is free for long term care residents.