EP37: Learning from What We've Lost: Protecting LTC Residents & Staff

<p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Learning from What We've Lost: Protecting LTC Residents & Staff </span></em></p> <p><strong><em>“My passion for human rights and elder justice was rekindled.”</em></strong><strong>— Cinnamon St. John, MPA, MA</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Over the past year, COVID-19 has swept through our nation, ruthlessly claiming lives and nowhere has its toll been felt more than in our nation’s nursing homes. While only accounting for 8% of total cases in the United States, </span> <a href= "https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">almost 40 percent</span></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">of all COVID-related deaths in the United States were nursing home staff and residents.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lawmakers are looking for policy solutions to help stop the destruction within the walls of our nation’s nursing facilities. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">In this episode, we’ll talk with Health and Aging Policy Fellow Cinnamon St. John and one of the nation’s leading nursing home advocates, Toby S. Edelman, about the complexities of this issue, along with potential solutions.</span></p> <p><strong>Part One: ‘Learning from What We've Lost: Protecting LTC Residents & Staff’ with Cinnamon St. John and Toby Edelman</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In February 2020, the nation saw the</span> <a href= "https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e1.htm"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">first appearance</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">of COVID-19 in a nursing home in Washington state. Nine months later, the coronavirus has spread across the country and</span> <a href= "https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">over 87,000</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">nursing home residents and staff have died.  Older adults living in nursing