Florida, Arizona and other retirement states have been struggling for years to provide long-term care facilities for older people, and now a new study indicates the problem is national in scope.

About 90 percent of the nation's nursing homes are so inadequately staffed that they cannot provide recommended levels of such basic services as dressing, grooming, feeding and cleaning.

The shortage of trained care-givers is a "major issue we have to deal with in this country," said Bill Pierce, a spokesman for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. "And its not just nursing homes. There is a shortage of nurses across the board."

The study was ordered by Congress in 1990 and only recently was completed. The researchers concluded that providing adequate staffers in the nation's nursing homes would cost $7. 6 billion a year.

That's an enormous sum even by federal budgetary standards, and it's almost certain that state governments will have to pay much of the tab.

For Florida, the study was additional confirmation of a trend that has been evident for some time: The number of residents needing long-term care rapidly is exceeding the capacity of existing facilities.

Nearly 3 million Floridians are 65 or older, or about one in five, and that ratio is expected to increase sharply as baby boomers move into their retirement years.

Nearly one in four Brevard County residents is age 60 or older, and that ratio also is expected to rise in the years ahead.

Jack Levine, a Tallahassee-based advocate for children and the elderly, emphasizes that Florida must begin taking better care of its youngest and oldest residents.

"Unless we address the growing crisis in elder care, we won't have any resources left over for child care," Levine said during a recent visit to Brevard County.

But in recent years soaring insurance premiums and other costs have forced many nursing homes, including some on the Space Coast, to go out of business or change ownership.

Considering that trend, it's important that the states and the federal government give this problem the high priority it deserves.

Florida and California wisely have passed laws mandating minimum standards for nursing homes, but most other states have yet to address the issue.

That needs to change, and there's no time to lose.