(Boston Globe – Kay Lazar) Advocates for elderly and disabled nursing home residents in Western Massachusetts are urging state regulators to take control of four nursing homes slated to close this spring, saying frail residents are being abruptly forced out, with some threatened with homelessness, if they don’t leave quickly.
Others are being told they will be placed in facilities more than an hour away, far from family and loved ones, if they don’t find alternative placements soon.
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State Senator John Velis, whose district includes much of the lower Connecticut River Valley in Western Massachusetts,has been leading a group of state lawmakers trying to help the families. He said the problems raised in the complaints are “deeply disturbing and require a robust and expansive response.”
“The Department of Public Health must utilize every statutory authority it has to ensure that residents are getting the necessary transition supports and are not being torn from their communities and forced to facilities far away from their loved ones,” Velis said in a statement.