Caregivers fear what’s next ahead of impending closure of Charlesgate Nursing Center

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — A lot of uncertainty for residents and employees of Charlesgate Nursing Center in Providence. The nursing center will be closing down for good in July.

Caregivers are now trying to figure out their next steps after the owner of the facility, Davenport Associates, told them they’ll be shutting down due to staffing shortages and lack of funding.

Oprah Page is one of many caregivers at Charlesgate Nursing Center who will be impacted by the closure of the facility.

“We are depressed, we don’t know our future, we don’t know where we are heading next. I am a mom and a grandma, and I am worried about how to care for my family,” said Page.

Page has been working as a CNA at Charlesgate since 2008.

“We are feeling very saddened by the fact that our jobs are surprisingly, unexpectedly, closing down on us,” Page explained.

MaryAnne tells ABC 6 News that she’s been working at Charlesgate as a CNA for nearly 30 years.

“It is very unfair and very disheartening, it’s devastating to us, the residents as a whole, they are very depressed, they are sad,” said MaryAnne.

Residents at the nursing center will now have to find somewhere else to live.

“To them, we are their relatives, their friends, not their caregiver, so it just breaks our hearts when we come in the morning and they ask where we are going, and we say, ‘I don’t know.’ We don’t know, we are broken hearted,” explained another caregiver.

The owner of Charlesgate said in a statement that they will work with residents to transfer them to other facilities.

As far as the union employees, they’re scrambling to find new jobs. They’re also unsure if they’ll get a severance check or not.