PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Just a few days after they learned the Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center would close, staff and residents’ families are still trying to absorb the weight of what’s happening.
Management announced the closure on Friday with a letter to the 120 staff members and families of 49 residents at the facility.
Phil Cyr, a son of founders Albert and Anne Cyr, manages both the Presque Isle and Caribou Nursing and Rehab centers. It was a matter of closing one site or losing both due to lack of staff and inadequate state funding, he said Sunday.
It’s the latest in a cascade of nursing home closures that have plagued Maine, where 22 percent of residents are 65 and older. The projected June closure leaves families wondering where their loved ones will live and staff trying to plan their next steps.
“It’s complete heartbreak for everybody,” said Mitzi McKenney of Fort Fairfield, who has a sister-in-law at the facility. “And it’s traumatizing for the residents, causing deep insecurity and fear.”
McKenney, who didn’t name her sister-in-law to protect her privacy, said her family isn’t sure yet where their loved one will reside. For her and other residents, the nursing center gives them both a home and a family.
Having spent a lot of time at the center, McKenney has visited with and gotten to know many of the residents. Some have spouses living nearby who come to visit, often several times a day. It will be difficult for those families when they can’t see each other regularly anymore, she said.
She fears the loss of the rehab center will force some patients to wait in hospitals for nursing home placement, which could create a backlog and make hospital space scarce for people needing acute care and treatment.
In his letter to family members, Cyr said many residents could be transferred to the Caribou facility, if the families chose. Presque Isle Nursing and Rehab is slated to close on June 30, but will remain open until all residents have been moved safely, he wrote.
While COVID sparked a health care employee exodus, inadequate MaineCare funding has affected Maine’s nursing homes, 23 of which have closed in the last 10 years, Cyr said in the letter.
Supplemental funds, including pandemic relief payments, haven’t been enough to provide enough staff to care for all the residents, he added.
The Caribou center will remain open, as will Presque Isle’s Leisure Gardens and Leisure Village, assisted-living facilities near the nursing home.
McKenney, who is a nurse, thinks it’s imperative that both Presque Isle and Caribou remain open. She pointed to money going to help immigrant populations in Maine and said the state should also focus on its older people.
“We don’t need this, especially when it’s avoidable with some tweaking and some funds from down state,” she said.
Staff have been emotional about the impending closure. Administrator Mark McKenna said he hasn’t slept well since he first learned of the shutdown plans.
One thing that stands out is that many of the residents are more concerned about the employees than themselves, he said. The whole facility is a large family and it’s hard to witness the impact on the staff and people who call the center home.
Most of her colleagues plan to continue in nursing and some have expressed plans to apply at other local nursing homes, but CNA Mechelle Lagasse is undecided right now. She wants to stay until she sees the last resident out the door.
“There’s just such a sense of duty here,” she said. “None of us were thinking of going other places. Friday we were told, ‘You have to.’ I don’t think most of us have come to grips with that yet.”
The most difficult thing is seeing the residents’ concern and confusion, she said. Some of them have lived at the facility for many years and are afraid of what will happen next.
Lagasse has been nursing for 28 years, the last four of those at Presque Isle Nursing and Rehab. The staff and residents have formed their own close-knit community, she said.
She, too, knows people who visit spouses and other family members and will be hard-pressed to spend time with them when the residents are transferred.
But there is a positive side, she said. If staff and residents go to other local nursing homes, at least they’ll all have familiar faces in their new surroundings. And, with more staff to share the workload, nurses won’t be on the brink of burnout.
“I think it’s going to be OK,” Lagasse said. “We don’t like change, but it will be OK.”
McKenney and Lagasse both said they prayed for a sudden windfall that would enable the Presque Isle facility to remain open, though they were preparing themselves for the closure.
McKenney suggested volunteers might also help serve residents in non-medical capacities and help free staff. Particularly if people don’t have any family around, just having someone there to visit or share a meal with them can mean a great deal, she said.
“Aroostook people can link arms and move mountains,” McKenney said. “That’s what we’re known for.”
