November 24, 2020

In this Issue:

1. Holiday Visits and COVID-19
   
2. Consumer Voice Response to AP Article on Nursing Home Neglect Deaths
   
3. New Podcast on Understanding Person-Centered Care
   
4. Updated Session Agenda for Consumer Voice Conference
   
5. New Website from OIG HHS on Preventing Elder Fraud, Abuse, and Neglect
   
6. Giving Tuesday is December 1st
   

Holiday Visits and COVID-19
As COVID-19 rates are increasing throughout the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging all of us to celebrate virtually or just with members of our own household. And because nursing home residents are particularly at risk, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken the unusual step of issuing an alert with recommendations to residents, their families and representatives and nursing home.

To help families as they determine how best to include their loved ones in their holiday plans, Consumer Voice has prepared this fact sheet that summarizes the key points in the CMS alert and provides additional information and suggestions.

Consumer Voice Response to AP Article on Nursing Home Neglect Deaths
The Associated Press published an article last week detailing the devastating effects short-staffing and facility lockdowns have had on residents of long-term care facilities since the pandemic began - Not just COVID: Nursing home neglect deaths surge in shadows.  The AP article finds that over 40,000 residents of long-term care facilities have died prematurely of causes unrelated to COVID-19, since the pandemic began.  The horrifying article relates stories of residents dying from starvation, dehydration, and neglect. 

The Consumer Voice has issued this statement and calls upon Congress to act swiftly to take steps to protect residents of long-term care facilities, before tens of thousands more of our fellow citizens die unnecessarily.

Read Consumer Voice's statement.

New Podcast on Understanding Person-Centered Care
Episode 7 of the Pursuing Quality Long-Term Care Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts.

Everyone living in a long-term care facility deserves good care that meets their needs and takes into account their likes, dislikes, preferences, and goals. But what does that mean? And how do we achieve it?

In this episode we're talking with Sonya Barsness, a Masters-prepared Gerontologist, about a philosophy that honors the needs, preferences, and goals of elders by emphasizing choice, self-determination, relationships, purposeful living and other similar values.

Subscribe to the Pursuing Quality Long-Term Care Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on our website.

Updated Session Agenda for Consumer Voice Conference

Join us virtually December 14-16 for the Consumer Voice Conference.  Listen to key experts, learn best practices, hear the voice of long-term care consumers, and connect with other advocates nationwide.  Our preliminary agenda has now been updated with session titles.

Our virtual conference will include the same great content you expect from a Consumer Voice Conference with new, unique opportunities to connect online.  Registration for the conference includes three full days of LIVE programming and 30 days of access to all of the recordings after the event. 

Learn more and Register.

New Website from HHS OIG on Preventing Elder Fraud, Abuse, and Neglect

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) launched a new website dedicated to educating the general public on the prevention and reporting of elder fraud, abuse, and neglect, and to encourage all citizens to become advocates on behalf of our elder population.

The website, Operation CARE, and initiative is also aimed at encouraging nursing homes and EMS providers to use best practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and report instances of suspected elder fraud, abuse, or neglect to their local law enforcement, state agencies, or the OIG Hotline.

Visit the website.

Giving Tuesday is December 1st

Join us next week for #GivingTuesday. GivingTuesday was launched in 2012 as a simple idea: to create a day that encourages people to do good. Over the past nine years, this idea has grown into a global movement that inspires hundreds of millions of people to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity.  Participate this year by making a donation on Giving Tuesday and inviting your family and friends to join with you to support our advocacy. Use #GivingTuesday on Facebook and Twitter to share your support of Consumer Voice.