By JW August

Reprinted, with permission of author, from Times of San Diego, a  member of the San Diego Online News Association.

Photo:  Lynn Dedrick’s mother Petey had Alzheimer’s and during the pandemic thought her daughter had forgotten her.

May 14, 2024 (San Diego) -- There are 250,000 California residents in long-term nursing homes. Their health and safety are at possible future risk, say a wide range of experts, unless we learn from the tough lessons of the pandemic. 

Those lessons are detailed in depth in a taxpayer-funded report released last fall that found “The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact” — not just on residents but their families. The report — California Long-Term Care Facility Access Policy Workgroup — is critical of decisions made by state health officials to lock down residents in nursing homes.

The findings form the basis of proposed legislation, Assembly Bill 2075, from San Diego Assemblyman David Alvarez. The bill is now working its way through Assembly committees in Sacramento. It’s already cleared both the Health and the Aging and Long Term Care committees and is now awaiting action by the Appropriations committee. It faces some of the same  hurdles which in 2022 stopped a similar effort.