A dedicated Neuro-Cognitive CARE Unit that will be created at Rockview state prison in Benner Township will be the first of its kind in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections system, Corrections Secretary John Wetzel said on Thursday.
As Pennsylvania deals with the challenges of an aging prison population, the specialized unit will serve the needs of incarcerated individuals diagnosed with dementia and other memory loss diseases. According to a DOC news release, the unit’s mission is represented in the CARE acronym, which stands for “compassion, assistance, reassurance, enhancement.”
It will focus on individualized support services for medical, functional and social aspects of patients’ treatments.
“Creating this dedicated unit at a centralized location not only allows the PA DOC to provide the appropriate level of care to men suffering from memory loss diseases, but also allows us to reallocate medical resources at other facilities,” Wetzel said in a statement. “We anticipate the NCCU concept being scalable to additional prisons, including facilities that house female inmates.”
It will allow care for up to 12 patients at a time, with therapeutic and leisure activities provided based on individual needs and abilities.
Care will be provided by a team including medical director, registered and licensed practical nurses, certificate nursing assistants, corrections officers, social workers, psychology staff and therapeutic activities specialists.
That team also will work with community partners including Penn State School of Nursing, Mount Nittany Medical Center, Juniper Village Wellspring Memory Care at Brookline Village, Comfort Keepers, the Department of Human Services and the Greater PA Alzheimer’s Association.
Work on the unit is nearly complete and it will begin accepting patients ” in the coming weeks,” according to the Department of Corrections
While commonwealth’s overall number of inmates has declined in recent years, the inmate population over age 50 has grown, increasing from 10% of the prison population in 2000 to 23% last year.
Because Pennsylvania does not have medical parole, the Department of Corrections is responsible for end-of-life care.
Wetzel and Gov. Tom Wolf have voiced support for medical parole, with Wolf including it in his most recent budget proposal and noting it would save money while allowing patients to receive end-of-life care in an appropriate setting.
Wetzel said at a 2020 budget hearing that end-of-life care for an inmate costs about $500 a day and that medical parole would save the state at least $22 million a year.
“Most inmates who would be eligible for medical parole are incapacitated and not a security threat,” Wetzel said. “Medical parole is a humane way to alleviate costs while getting the infirm into the appropriate healthcare settings.”
