3 Weekly Disability Reads

Most Sundays, I post links to three things about disability that I read, heard, or viewed over the previous week, with a few notes of my own added.

January 4-10, 2020

1. This Is Why Nursing Homes Failed So Badly
E. Tammy Kim, New York Times - December 31, 2020

“The awful truth is that long-term care was designed to fail years before Covid-19.”

In disability activism, we often find ourselves saying, “We told you so!” It must sound like a kind of grim satisfaction. We’ve been saying nursing homes and other kinds of congregate care for the elderly and disabled are terrible – to be avoided or even abolished. Now the pandemic is proving it. But it gives us no satisfaction. It gives us cold terror.

But we really did tell you so.

2. Covid Spurs Families to Shun Nursing Homes, a Shift That Appears Long Lasting
Anna Wilde Mathews and Tom McGinty, Wall Street Journal - December 21, 2020

It’s interesting to see how news coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic reports things that are obvious to much of the the disability community, portrayed as new and revelatory. It’s accurate though. While the move away from nursing homes and other congregate care and towards home and community based services has been happening for decades, it’s not yet a popular trend visible to most people who aren’t deeply involved in the issue. Let’s hope this Wall Street Journal article is right and the move away from congregate care is real and durable – not just a longstanding disability activism goal.

3. Handicap accessible ramps in high demand to keep elderly, disabled in their homes and out of assisted living
Michael Paluska, WFTS Tampa Bay - July 22, 2020

The message here is a little mixed and confused, and the story is local to Tampa Bay, Florida. But the overall point I think is clear. The people in the article aren’t all that clear about the connection between the COVID-19 pandemic and ramps to make homes more accessible. One woman seems to be saying that her ramp allows her to go out during the pandemic when otherwise she’d have to stay home. On the surface that seems like it could be as harmful as helpful, since staying home in a pandemic is in some ways a positive. But I think the broader point is that accessibility overall in the home helps put off or prevent the need for institutional care, and institutions like nursing homes and “assisted living facilities” are breeding grounds for COVID-19 infection and death, as the first two articles illustrate.