Voting in Care Facilities
Residents of care facilities have the right to vote! But because of COVID, restrictions on visitation, and fewer physical polling places, people may not be able to vote. Many of the residents who are most likely to be disenfranchised in this election are poor, disabled, and people of color.
This election has been called the most important election of a lifetime and is in large part a referendum on the pandemic that threatens long-term care facility residents the most.
We are reaching out to skilled nursing facilities and other care facilities to ask them how we can support them to reach out to EACH resident to provide voting assistance. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, California Department of Public Health and California Department of Social Services have reminded facilities of their responsibilities, but we need to follow up to make sure it happens!
Please use any of these fact sheets and distribute to facilities near you. This resource list has government guidance, numbers to call if there are problems, and news articles, and is being continually updated.
Fact Sheet on Voting in Care Facilities – for all of U.S.
Fact Sheet on Voting in Care Facilities – California
Fact Sheet on Voting in Care Facilities – San Francisco
If you can help us reach facilities, please click here or email jessica@sdaction.org.
Stop Care Rationing
We must take action to stop hospitals and states must setting up triage plans that deprioritize older adults and people with disabilities. They say that our lives are not worth as much. But we can fight back.
* Sign on to an open letter and take a “solidarity selfie!” #NoBodyIsDisposable
* Print out DREDF’s Know Your Disability Healthcare Rights information (here in English/Spanish), available at dredf.org in multiple languages.
* Post a note on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, with a story of someone you know who lived to be old, or someone disabled, who gives an example of people whose lives are worth saving.
The Center for Public Representation has compiled a wealth of information on medical care rationing, including an overview of the issue, national and state-specific letters, and media articles.
On July 28th, we held a teach-in. Watch the video and listen to the discussion here:
Articles about seniors & disabled people potentially being denied care:
America’s Looming Experiment in Health Care Rationing
COVID-19 in Assisted Living Facilities
CA Nursing Homes Got Insider Access…
Disability Visibility Project: Fatphobia, Ableism & the Covid 19 Pandemic
Opinion | My Life Is More ‘Disposable’ During This Pandemic
Opinion | ‘Covid-19 Kills Only Old People.’ Only?
Opinion | Defeating the Pandemic Means Confronting Ageism and Ableism
Opinion | Rationing Care Is a Surrender to Death
HHS Warns States Not To Put People With Disabilities At The Back Of The Line For Care
Ventilators limited for the disabled? Rationing plans are slammed by advocates
Long-Term Care Facilities
Disabled people and seniors living in facilities such as nursing homes, board and cares, assisted living, and other facilities are at high risk of illness and death from COVID-19. SDA is working with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) and others to secure protections, testing, and good treatment for residents and workers in long-term care facilities.
Learn more in this article about the national crisis in LTC facilities.
Building a movement of seniors, disabled people, and allies 