Coalition deserves seat at table on revitalized Holyoke Soldiers’ Home (Guest viewpoint)
Updated Jan 31, 2021;
The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Coalition issues the following statement in response to the unanimous decision by the Board of Trustees of the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke for the state to reconsider its current plan for a new Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke by adding in an additional floor of veteran long-term care rooms, boosting the census closer to 235 beds.
The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home Coalition was formed nearly a year ago in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Home to be a voice for veterans along with their families, friends, and supporters who have the most immediate and legitimate interest in the future of the Soldiers’ Home.
By THOMAS GNAU | Dayton Daily News | Published: January 31, 2021 (Tribune News Service) Ohio leaders have a simple message to veterans and military families everywhere: Ohio is home. Or it should be. Joe Zeis knows. The senior adviser to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine spent about a third of his career at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base before retiring as an Air Force colonel in 2005. And even though at the time Zeis was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base, near the beaches of Pensacola, Fla., he knew he was Ohio-bound. We were in Florida, Zeis said in an interview. And we moved up here. Because this was where we always wanted to live.
’It was a total collapse’: State health secretary Marylou Sudders testifies in hearing on Holyoke Soldiers’ Home outbreak
Updated Jan 21, 2021;
BOSTON Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders led off testimony Thursday for the fifth legislative hearing on the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
Members of the Special Legislative Oversight Committee quizzed Sudders on staffing levels during the pandemic, with Sudders repeatedly responding that management structures at the home were lacking and led to “a total collapse” when the state-run elder care facility began heaving with the virus.
At least 76 veterans died between March and June, and dozens more were sickened along with more than 80 staff. Sudders testified that many nursing homes struggled to beat back the virus, including Holyoke’s counterpart in Chelsea.