Nursing Home Transition

Nursing Home Transition & Relocation

Individuals with disabilities prefer to live in their chosen community environment outside of nursing homes. We can assist them with the necessary support services they will need to successfully transition out into the community.

Ability 1st Utah assists people with disabilities who are living in a nursing home, intermediate care facilities for intellectual disabilities, or other types of institutions, to relocate into a community-based living environment in our center’s service area, Utah, Wasatch, Juab and Sanpete Counties.

Our Staff provides individualized services with advocacy assistance, skills training, and other assistance in helping individuals to understand and utilize federal, state and local programs that will assist them in their transition process.

Nursing home Transition

What you need to become eligible?

Participants are expected to be actively involved in their transition planning. They work with staff on determining their goals, and will be responsible for helping make sure that those goals become a reality.

  • For individuals in need of state assistance, they must have been in an institution for at least three (3) months to be eligible for those services.
  • There is no cost for nursing home transition services.
  • Reintegration means discovering that as a person with disabilities, you do have choices. Too often, individuals who have spent years in a nursing home develop learned helplessness and aren’t aware of the options available to them.
  • We assist people with disabilities who are living in nursing homes, intermediate care facilities or other types of institutions to relocate into a community-based living environment.
  • Center staff provides individualized services with advocacy assistance, skills training, and assistance in helping to understand and utilize federal, state and local programs during this transition process.

Because consumers are individuals with various levels of need, apprehension and motivation, the speed of transition will vary from one to another.

Goals of Nursing Home Training/ Relocation Program

Our goals include:

  • To educate persons with disabilities about their choices for community-based living.
  • To teach persons with disabilities decision-making skills.
  • To teach persons with disabilities to be their own advocates while interacting with people involved in their transition.
  • To teach persons with disabilities the necessary skills for successful community living.
  • To help persons with disabilities to identify community resources that can assist them in their transition to community living.

Nursing Home Transition Success Story:

Doris Angleton*
Doris’s mother Esme, contacted Ability 1st Utah in October of 2023 to get assistance with getting a ramp. Doris has cerebral palsy, is blind and experiences seizures.

When I assisted Doris’s mother with getting her signed up for services with Ability 1st Utah, Doris had been living at Provo Care Center for people with developmental disabilities for the past 5 years and due to needing a wheelchair to access her living space and was not able to visit her mother’s home due to the house having steps in order to access it. Then, in September of 2023, Provo Care Center was bought out and the residents needed to find new places to live.

Esme decided that she wanted Doris to come and live with her but in order to do so, would require a ramp in order for Doris to access the home. Ability 1st was able to facilitate an evaluation to see what size of ramp was needed and then contacted Accessible Solutions for the purchase and installation of the ramp.

In December of 2023, funding for the ramp was authorized through the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation and then, on January 9, 2024, Doris was able to move to her mother Esme’s home and with the ramp was able to access the community.
Doris passed away in December of 2024 due to liver and kidney failure and was able to spend her last year of life at home with her mother and was able to pass away at home with hospice.

Esme reported that she was very grateful for all of the assistance that she had received with Doris and that she would “give Ability 1st ten plus stars for what you people do”

For more information, please contact:

Nursing Home Transition Specialists

Deon Anderson

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 801-602-6217

Utah & Wasatch Counties

Wendy Hansen

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 435-283-4949

Sanpete & Juab Counties