Nursing home closures hit residents like tornado, local leader says

LIBERTY — Sherri Smith was heartbroken when she found out she would lose her home at the former Cedarcreek Health and Rehabilitation Center in Warren.

Dressed in a pink paisley dress and decked out in jewelry, Smith talked about that traumatic event.

“I loved it there,” Smith said of the Cedarcreek facility. “It was a complete home for me. The staff was absolutely amazing.”

The sudden closures of two nursing home facilities – Cedarcreek and Campus Health Care Center in Liberty – affected about 70 residents, all of whom had to be relocated.

That’s why on Tuesday, the local Area Agency on Aging 11 brought local nursing-home representatives together at the Quality Inn in Liberty to talk about how relocation impacts residents.

“In both cases, we reached this traumatic scenario,” said John Saulitis, director of the agency’s long-term care ombudsman program. “This is no different than a tornado coming in and wiping out the nursing home.”

Read more about the meeting in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.