Long-Term Care Consumers Family Members Advocates COVID-19

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Long-Term Care Consumers Family Members Advocates COVID-19

Long-term care consumers and their families talk about...

Staffing

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Resident Perspectives on Staffing

The COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic and limitations on visitation have resulted in tens of thousands of residents suffering and dying from isolation, loneliness, and poor care. Listen to residents of long-term care facilities talk about their experiences.

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COVID-19 Stories

Nursing home residents need to be allowed an “Essential Support Person” during times of crisis - A story by Rev. Judy Young about her experiences with her mother, Charlotte Smith Bode, in a nursing facility during COVID-19 and her advocacy for an Essential Support Person.

Not just COVID: Nursing home neglect deaths surge in shadows - Associated Press, November 19, 2020

Living in a Long-Term Care Facility

"Many individuals in long term care facilities have little or no family or visitors to speak of. I had a tablet that opened up the entire world to me and I am constantly amazed at what I read and learn on a daily basis." - Judith Mangum, nursing home resident

"What do you think it will take to bring about good quality care in nursing homes and other facilities? My answer: make sure the caregivers are trained." - Story by Jane O., family member of resident

Important Enough to Notice - Poem by Elaine Roberts Musser, attorney to families of nursing home residents

Important Enough to Notice

As I lie here alone, needing skilled care

Unable to walk or run as I once did

Sadly in some disarray is my hair

Away from the bustling world I am hid.

I look forward to visits from my dear son

Who, whenever he can, comes to visit

But today I wait in vain, there is no one

To brighten my morning, as here I sit.

Until the nursing staff enter my door

With a welcoming smile and pleasant word

My dark thoughts turn cheerful, and made to soar

At a kind touch and caring phrase heard.

They are my connection to life itself

Without them I would just wither away

I am made to feel not placed on a shelf

But important enough to notice this day.

Their quiet competence is reassuring

I know that I am surely in good hands

So my last years on this earth have meaning

As out of time, steadily run the sands.