The COVID-19 pandemic presents difficulties and great risk for older Americans and people with disabilities who rely on hands-on assistance from others. Since early March, nursing home residents and others in congregate care settings have faced infection, injury, death, and relentless isolation. Home and community-based services (HCBS) programs have struggled to maintain services at necessary levels.
A new Justice in Aging webinar, Advocating Today and for the Future: Nursing Homes and Home and Community-Based Services in a COVID-19 World, will look at both the present and the future. The session will bring attendees up to date on COVID-related policy changes for nursing homes and HCBS, including federal guidance for “reopening” nursing homes.
Also, the session will consider policy changes that the current crisis makes imperative. Shared-occupancy congregate care is a recipe for disaster in a COVID-19 world. The session will consider the immediate need for real change: both in remaking the nursing home model and, more importantly, in making Medicaid HCBS available to all financially-eligible persons who need it.
Presenters:
Eric Carlson, Justice in Aging
Gelila Selassie, Justice in Aging