The Masonic and Eastern Star Home of NC Inc. is planning a $30-million project to create more beds for adult care in Guilford County by August of 2021. The organization has filed a “Certificate of Need” application with the NC Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) to add 24 new adult care home beds to the group’s WhiteStone facility at 700 S. Holden Road in Greensboro.
On Thursday, Nov. 14, NC DHHS announced that a public hearing on the project will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. in the John H. McAdoo Conference Room in the BB&T Building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro.
The state is also accepting written comments concerning the proposal. Comments have to be received by the state’s Healthcare Planning and Certificate of Need Section by 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec 2. Those comments may be submitted as an attachment to an email if they are sent to DHSR.CON.Comments@dhhs.nc.gov.
Guilford County has had an increased emphasis on adult care in recent years given the county’s aging population. The Guilford County Health and Human Services Department let it be known earlier this month that there is currently grant money available for the county to help the elderly and handicapped attend adult daycare where they engage in enjoyable and healthful activities during the day.
Diane Hayden, who oversees those programs for the county, said that Guilford County’s Aging Services division also provides in-home aide services. She said there’s currently a waiting list for some of those services – though there is not for adult daycare.
“Services include personal care (bathing, dressing, meal prep) as well as home management (laundry, light housekeeping),” Hayden wrote in an email of those in-home services provided. “There are 3 levels of service within In Home Aide, as personal need increases the level of service hours and number of tasks provided increase. Average service received is 4-10 hours per week.”
She added that consumer contributions are encouraged for the program but aren’t required.
As with the adult day services, she added, the county contracts with state-licensed agencies to perform the direct care.
This is wonderful news. Whitestone/Masonic Home has always provided quality services to older adults There’s a great need for assistance in our area with all levels of care. Adding more beds to assisted living, memory care, and skilled nursing would be really helpful especially if they transition to accepting Medicaid once the patient ran out of private pay coverage. It would be great if they could find a way to include some type of in-home assistance at a reasonable cost for under 4 hours a day with transportation assistance a couple of times a week in their plans for people who want to gradually transition to independent, then assisted living as a continuing care plan for older residents.