Different types of residents

When I started in long term care over 20 years ago the average age of the residents on my unit was probably in the neighborhood of 75. Now on the unit I'm working the average age is probably around 65. I have several "grandmas and grandpas" but more of my residents are to young to retire. They are there either because of drug/alcohol abuse or extreme morbid obesity. Also I have several younger residents who are there because of mental health issues. Unfortunately in my area there are not enough group homes for folks with MH/MR issues---so they end up in nursing homes, where we are not able to truly meet their needs.

I'm lucky that my facility still has many of the "grandmas and grandpas", but we also have a few younger residents with developmental or chronic health issues. As a rule though, we try to keep the younger ones as rare exceptions. In my experience, they tend to be the most difficult cases to deal with.

I think it depends on the facilities vision for their community. Some are staying focused on the "Grandmas and Grandpas", while others are focusing on the younger generation.

On our LTC unit we have a few who are 100+ and mostly the g'ma, g'pa type. Our skilled unit, on the other hand, does have a much lower average age. Most are 50's - 60's with hip/knee replacement or some sort of chronic illness. There are also quite a few that are younger who are ill from drug or alcohol abuse. This area is saturated with LTC/SNF facilities. I would be interested to see the age break down from all the facilities in this area combined.