HB 1677 would require all long-term care facilities to allow residents to designate one more people as “compassionate caregivers”, who would then be given immediate access to the LTC resident. It passed along party lines, with 73 Republicans voting in favor, and 19 Democrats (including my rep., Emily Virgin) against.
The stories told by representatives during the debate, of parents and grandparents who died alone or who haven’t received a visit since March 2020, are horrifying. The callous disregard, even as nursing staff go in and out of these facilities on a daily basis, for the emotional and mental well-being of these residents is ghastly. Even more so is to consider the caliber of person who would vote to continue such an inhuman policy.
Here’s hoping it passes, and we put this dark episode in our state’s history behind us.
