State launches website to promote long-term care options, jobs

The state has launched a website and media campaign to increase awareness about the choices Connecticut residents have for receiving long-term care and the career options for caregivers.

The campaign, called My Place CT, is part of an effort to expand the ability of seniors and people with disabilities to live in communities, rather than institutional settings like nursing homes. The move to reshape the state’s long-term care system also includes trying to help the nursing home industry broaden its business model to serve the needs of people living outside their facilities.

One of the major challenges in expanding the use of home and community-based long-term care options is a shortage of workers, and the My Place CT campaign is aimed in part at promoting the home care field.

“Making choices about long-term care and support just got easier,” Social Services Commissioner Roderick L. Bremby said in a statement. “In fact, the online resources and campaign are based on the theme of personal choice across the full spectrum of care — from the many options for staying healthy at home to receiving skilled nursing facility care.”

In addition to the website, www.MyPlaceCT.org, the campaign will include print and radio advertising, billboards and signs on transit shelters, and video presentations in medical offices. The campaign is funded by the federal government.

A 2007 study of the state’s long-term care needs by UConn researchers suggested that people in the state don’t have information about their options, and the website is intended to provide standardized information so people can make informed decisions, Anne Foley, an undersecretary in the state Office of Policy and Management, said in a statement.

The need for long-term care services is expected to grow dramatically in the next 15 years as the state’s population ages.