BlogCOVID-19FeaturedFeatured NewsFundraisingMedia CoverageNewsVideos

Boston Helrald: Aging-in-place initiatives another lifeline for our elderly

By July 22, 2020March 13th, 2024No Comments

The Boston Globe
Aging-in-place initiatives another lifeline for our elderly
By JOYCE FERRIABOUGH BOLLING |
July 22, 2020 at 5:48 a.m.

Amid the backdrop of protests and demonstrations, the steady drumbeat of coronavirus infection and death rates continue. For the elderly, it’s too often a death march as the virus continues to devastate the places where seniors are too often a captive audience — nursing homes, assisted living facilities, generational housing and veterans housing.

Just recently, families of veterans in the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home filed a $176 million lawsuit arguing that the staff violated patients’ rights through their failure to contain the virus. It has also been heartbreaking to see renderings of changes to the Chelsea Soldiers Home recommended years ago but ignored. It makes you wonder, had they been implemented, how many lives might have been saved.

Of the 8,214 deaths from coronavirus in Massachusetts, 7,995 were people aged 60 and older.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have long needed an overhaul and increased oversight, which thank God, I hear is underway.

Read Story: https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/07/22/aging-in-place-initiatives-another-lifeline-for-our-elderly/