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Support our work advocating to make life better for long-term care consumers

November 23, 2021

In the last year, the whole country witnessed the dark side of long-term care facilities and the heartbreak residents and the people who care about them have suffered. Long ignored issues including understaffing, poor infection control, lack of emergency preparedness, ineffective oversight, and resident isolation have been burned into the public consciousness, documented in the media, hashed out in legislative hearings, and decried by advocates.  

The good news is that the worst crises also present powerful opportunities for real change. We owe it to residents across the country to redouble our efforts and seize this moment. At Consumer Voice, we feel both galvanized and hopeful that the lessons of the pandemic can result in long-needed reforms and a real transformation of long-term care.  

We’re advocating to make life better for long-term care consumers, to ensure federal and state long-term care funding is used to enhance residents’ lives instead of providers’ profits, and to support the ombudsmen, families and advocates who fight to ensure residents enjoy both quality of care and quality of life. 

Achievements so far this year include:

· We provided needed information and tools to families who successfully used our materials to secure visits with loved ones in long-term care facilities. 

· CMS rescinded a policy that lowered fines for past-noncompliance due to a lawsuit filed by Consumer Voice and California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, with the assistance of counsel AARP Foundation and Constantine Cannon LLP.

· We were instrumental in bringing examples of the neglect, decline, and suffering being experienced by residents due to isolation and lack of oversight to CMS resulting in the latest new guidance reinstating residents’ right to visitation, and guidance to state survey agencies to increase oversight in the areas of staff competency, inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs, and resident health resulting from poor care, including weight loss, abuse and neglect, and loss of functioning.  

But there is so much more to do and no time to waste.  In the next year, we can, and we must build on momentum to pursue and promote policies that support residents, caregivers, and staff; improve transparency and accountability for public funds; and upend the long-term care system to be more consumer centered. This kind of intensive, sophisticated, timely advocacy requires significant resources.

We look to our donors to make this work possible. Now more than ever, to seize the opportunities before us, we need you to dig deep to support this work. With your generous support we will use every penny wisely – to lead; inspire; support residents, families, and advocates across the country; to be relentless and strong; and to make a difference. 

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