Friday, June 04, 2021

4 June 2021: Advocates for Disabled Living in Group Homes Demand More Resources

Advocates: Protect people in group homes amid COVID

Governor Cuomo's COVID policies for group homes, which represent a smaller scale version of the administration's COVID nursing home deaths scandals, has been percolating in the background during the last few months. Now, advocates for the disabled are raising the profile of that story in a bid to gain more state resources from New York's legislature.

New York failed to provide desperately needed protective gear, testing and help with staffing for group homes serving residents with developmental and intellectual disabilities at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders of those homes and family members told lawmakers at a legislative hearing Thursday.

Staffing levels in New York’s system supporting individuals with disabilities have dwindled since the COVID-19 pandemic, which advocates say threatens the quality of care for some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers faced calls Thursday to boost pay for group home workers, require routine COVID-19 testing and ensure people with disabilities are a priority in response plans.

Among advocates concerns is that group homes, unlike nursing homes, aren’t required to regularly test staff for COVID-19 or launch rounds of testing after a resident or staffer test positive.

“It’s very troubling that people in group homes aren’t given the same protection as people in nursing homes and other congregate settings,” said Julie Keegan, a director with Disability Rights New York. “People in group homes often have higher rates of comorbidities that put them at higher risk of death. There is no rational basis for this discriminatory practice.”

At least 577 people have died due to confirmed COVID-19 infection at group residences overseen by the state’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, according to the agency’s latest data.

That tally doesn’t include the number of residents who died at hospitals, or deaths of residents who likely died of COVID-19.

Related background information from the timeline:

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