Delegate Landes visits senior living facility in the Valley

Delegate Steve Landes toured several senior living facilities in the area on Thursday, including Shenandoah Nursing and Rehab in Fishersville.

He said the visit would give him an opportunity to learn about senior and health care needs, and a chance for him to hear from both residents and providers.

According to Landes, the size of the "baby boomer" generation, combined with the expanding roles of facilities like the ones he visited, could make capacity a major issue for the state in the future.

"The physical therapy aspect of what assisted living and skilled nursing facilities provide now is become a major part of the continuum of care for people coming out of hospitals," Landes said, "and that wasn't the case before – a lot of that was done in the hospital facilities."

He also added that these factors might cause the Commonwealth to pitch in, to help cover the cost of care.

"The problem is that the systems were built, so that you had about the same number of people paying in through their taxes to pay for the folks that are then retiring and then that need those services."

Delegate Landes also visited a different type of assisted living facility in Charlotesville, in order to see a full spectrum of needs in the state.