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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Texas Among Nation's Worst for Quality of Long-Term Care

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Thursday, June 19, 2014   

AUSTIN, Texas – It's a finding that's being called dismal, as a scorecard on long-term care ranks Texas 49th in the nation for quality of care and quality of life.

Trey Berndt, associate state director of AARP in Texas, says among the factors in that low quality rating were the high staff turnover at nursing homes, the percent of high-risk residents with bed sores and the percent of residents receiving anti-psychotic medication.

"That's a very concerning finding because that suggests that folks in nursing homes may be being medicated as a way of restraining them behaviorally rather than the nursing doing proper assessments and doing proper interventions for behavior problems," he says.

The 2014 scorecard is from the Commonwealth Fund, the SCAN Foundation and AARP.

Berndt says this scorecard comes on the heels of a report from the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission on the Department of Aging and Disability Services, finding that the agency issues very few sanctions for nursing home violations.

"Including serious and repeated violations and in that study they say that that leaves folks in nursing homes in harm's way," he points out.

While Berndt says there are many quality nursing homes in the state, he also says there needs to be stronger sanctions and stronger enforcement against those so-called bad actors with a repeated history of violations. And he notes it's an issue important to all Texans.

"Everybody eventually will have a family member that needs quality long-term care or they themselves may need quality long-term care,” Berndt stresses. “This isn't something that's happening just to other people, this will eventually effect everybody's family."

Recommendations on how the Department of Aging and Disability Services can make improvements will be outlined at hearings next week, with a final decision by the Sunset Advisory Commission expected in August.

Despite the troubles on quality, overall Texas ranked 30th for long-term services and supports with strong showings in the areas of affordability and access, support for family caregivers and choice of setting and provider.




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