We are honored and thankful to spend part of New Years Day with YOU!
Go ahead and make merry, but be ready to take note of upcoming issues and actions. Adrienne, Mark, Eddie and Sheela (maybe Josh and Shelley, too?) will talk, roundtable fashion about the hard times and delicious nuggets from this year…yes, there HAVE been delicious nuggets.
Also, excerpts from “
The Advantages of Having a Speech Disability” by Jacob Lesner-Buxton. (Full text below)
Listen in for some hope for the coming year and to prepare for the battles to come.
Produced by Sheela Gunn-Cushman.
By Jacob Lesner-Buxton
Lydia Nunez
Less than 1% of U.S. residents live in nursing homes , yet between 30-40% percent of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred in these institutions. One hundred thousand people have died due to the coronavirus in various types of nursing homes. These shocking numbers are raising big questions. And the biggest question is, will these deaths galvanize big changes in the care of disabled and older people? For decades, our guest, disability activist Lydia Nunez, has sounded the alarm about ongoing nursing home abuse and the conditions that gave rise to this pandemic tragedy. Even before COVID, over 80% of nursing homes had infection control deficiencies and were rife with abuse and neglect. And it comes as no surprise that the biggest offenders are nursing homes caring for residents of color.