PROVIDENCE – Unionized caregivers at Charlesgate Nursing Center in Providence held a press conference on May 4 to urge the state to intervene in the nursing home’s closure.
Davenport Associates, owners of the senior care facility, announced recently that the nursing unit would close over the summer due to a severe staffing shortage. Members of Service Employees International Union 1199 New England, which represents approximately 90 members at Charlesgate, gathered to ask the state to find a new owner to prevent the closure.
Inside Scoop on PC’s Sports Administration Program
This past August Providence College announced its newest graduate program, an online Master of Science…
Learn More
“We have gotten no clear answers from management regarding our future as workers or what will happen to our residents,” said Carolyn Clark, a certified nursing assistant from Charlesgate. “Scattering our residents throughout the state not only uproots them from their home, but could disrupt their care and cause undue stress to a population of people that already have very little control of their circumstances. Our residents deserve stability and dignity, and leaving them without clear answers about their future is the opposite of that.”
Charlesgate has been operating for over 50 years, providing assisted living options, nursing care and health care services. But recently, the union said the center has experienced instability, which lead its front-line workers to fight for better wages and benefits and safe staffing.
“I have been here for 29 years, and I was planning to retire in two to three years,” said MaryAnn Dardeh, a certified nursing assistant and medical technician. “Now I have to start from scratch. What’s more, after all these years, we are leaving with no severance pay, which is a slap to the face. It is scary and hurtful to serve a company for so many years to leave empty-handed with no advance notice. We are calling on the state to step in and put us into receivership so that we don´t lose our jobs and our home.”
Davenport Associates first announced its plans to cease operations at Charlesgate Nursing Center on April 28. The closure, planned by the end of summer 2023, is caused by “severe staffing shortages and shortfalls in state funding to sustain adequate care for its residents,” the group said in a news release. Davenport Associates President Neil Shunney said there were “no other options.”
“This difficult and unfortunate decision was made necessary due to unprecedented staffing shortages, in particular among nurses, that are impacting healthcare facilities throughout the region and nation,” Shunney said in a statement. “The shortages, combined with insufficient state reimbursements to care for residents, have created an insurmountable challenge to the sustainability of the Nursing Center. We also recognize the impact of this decision on residents and their families and will work with them to secure housing in another nursing facility.”
Davenport said it will work with the residents to secure placements for them in another facility. It also said it will work with employees to provide assistance in securing new positions or applying for state benefits.
“While operations will cease this summer at the Nursing Center, Davenport Associates is committed to its mission of providing assisted living facilities and affordable housing to those in need,” Shunney said. “Throughout this process, we will continually communicate with residents, their families and our employees.”
Shunney did not immediately comment on the union’s press conference.
Claudia Chiappa is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Chiappa@PBN.com.
