Health & Wellbeing

Nurse and non-nurse staffing in Florida nursing homes “appears to be on a downward trajectory,” pointing to an “urgent need” to understand staffing patterns and how to increase time devoted to resident care, says an AARP Florida study.

Gov. Ron Desantis has said the state's goal is to vaccinate most people in its top priority group — including older adults — by February. The vaccine would then become available to more people, likely including essential workers like teachers and police officers.

AARP Tampa Bay is hosting a series of walking events during which people can enjoy an outdoor stroll while chatting with local health care professionals.

Florida scores highly as an age-friendly state, but now it has a new metric to distinguish itself: public-health friendly.

Florida continues to rank first in the nation reporting 289 new nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19, up from 237 deaths in the previous month’s report. These new deaths in Florida represent 14 percent of 2,131 total COVID-19 deaths occurring in nursing homes across the United States – a number that nearly doubled nationally since the last report.

Donna Weiner has had more than her share of health challenges. A breast cancer survivor twice over, she also suffers from a damaged and nearly destroyed pituitary gland.

Low nursing home staff and resident vaccination rates have experts concerned about another wave of infections

Though COVID-19 vaccines are now widely available, AARP Florida is still providing critical information and helping anyone who has not been vaccinated but wants to be.

On behalf of AARP Florida’s 2.8 million members and all older Floridians, we encourage AHCA to find creative ways to enhance, expand, or strengthen home- and community-based care under Florida’s Medicaid program. With so many families in need of help with care, now is the time to take advantage of these new federal resources, which can supplement existing state efforts around home- and community-based services.

The latest release of AARP's Nursing Home COVID-19 Dashboard shows that Florida is trending higher than the national average for new reported cases of COVID-19.