2/7/22: Facilities & County health departments still have discretionary control over the rights of their long-term care home residents. 

As of February 7th, CDPH and CDSS lifted the testing mandate for vaccinated visitors for residents in long-term-care homes throughout California. While this was surely a step in the right direction, we read the fine print: They stopped short at fully restoring residents rights and they allow facilities to continue their discretionary practices of limiting the terms of visitation, even for the fully vaccinated. Long-term care residents still face arbitrary limitations on their visitation duration, frequency, location and timing due to all of this still being left up to the discretion of facility operators.

Meanwhile, some county health departments, such as County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health, continue with the testing mandates without providing proper supplies to ensure equal access when the county positivity rates rise. 

It's been two years of endless challenges to keep our loved ones safe from the harms of isolation and yet, with each small win, we still have more holes to fill. Thanks to our supporters (you!) and our professional advocates, we've gotten passed the most recent hurdle. It seems like an endless race to restore humanity for the people residing in long-term care homes and words can't express our gratitude for those of you who stick with us and keep fighting for them everyday. Together, we will help them regain equal access, autonomy and humanity.

Today please share this petition again far and wide, to help us continue our mission to Restore Long-Term-Care Residents Rights & Remove Limits to Vaccinated Visitation!

We continue to encourage all long term care facility residents and their loved ones to urge the federal and state governments as well as their departments of health to uphold the rights of one of our most vulnerable populations; those living in long-term care homes. They need unfettered & unscheduled in-person visits from their loved ones. With vaccinations, this should be a no-brainer.

Please also send your requests directly to Cassie Dunham, acting Deputy Director of the state Center for Health Care Quality and Rufus Arther at the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  

Rufus.Arther@cms.hhs.gov  /  Cassie.Dunham@cdph.ca.gov

Please send copies of your messages to your state Senator and Assemblymember. You can find your representatives here: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/  

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1/7/22: A state public health order went into effect on January 7th, 2022 in California that essentially shut down visitation in long term care facilities throughout the state (again).  The order requires all visitors to have a negative COVID test in the past 2 days (PCR tests) or 1 day (antigen tests) in order to visit their loved ones.  Given the substantial challenges to test access and the protracted delays in receiving results, this is tantamount to a visitation lockout.

The new visitation lockout is abominable and exasperating, especially given that:

• The testing requirement being applied to visitors does not apply to the facility staff.  Even unvaccinated staff have less stringent testing requirements than vaccinated visitors.
• The state is now permitting COVID positive staff to take care of residents while visitors are locked out. 
• Visitors were not required to show negative test results when the COVID death rate in long term care facilities was exponentially higher in 2020-21 and that was before residents and visitors were vaccinated.  
• The testing requirements expressly do NOT apply to hospital visits for vaccinated visitors.
• Federal law prohibits facilities from requiring COVID testing of visitors. (CMS QSO 20-39-NH, pp 5-6)

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