Journal of aging & social policy
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With nursing homes being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to know whether facilities that have any cases, or those with particularly high caseloads, are different from nursing homes that do not have any reported cases. Our analysis found that through mid-June, just under one-third of nursing homes in Ohio had at least one resident with COVID-19, with over 82% of all cases in the state coming from 37% of nursing homes. Overall findings on the association between facility quality and the prevalence of COVID-19 showed that having any resident case of the virus or even having a high caseload of residents with the virus is not more likely in nursing homes with lower quality ratings.
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What services are available and where racial and ethnic minorities receive long-term services and supports (LTSS) have resulted in a lower quality of care and life for racial/ethnic minority users. These disparities are only likely to worsen during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the pandemic has disproportionately affected racial and ethnic minority communities both in the rate of infection and virus-related mortality. By examining these disparities in the context of the pandemic, we bring to light the challenges and issues faced in LTSS by minority communities with regard to this virus as well as the disparities in LTSS that have always existed.
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The risk of developing severe illness from COVID-19 and of dying from it increases with age. This statistical association has led to numerous highly problematic policy suggestions and comments revealing underlying ageist attitudes and promoting age discrimination. ⋯ These outcomes are unjustified and unethical. We develop six propositions against the ageism underlying these suggestions to spur a more adequate response to the current pandemic in which the needs and dignity of older people are respected.
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As of May 2020, nursing home residents account for a staggering one-third of the more than 80,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in the U. S. ⋯ This perspective offers a framework, designed with the input of nursing home leaders, to facilitate internal and external decision-making and collective action to address these threats. Policy options focus on assuring a shared understanding among nursing home leaders and government agencies of changes in the operational status of nursing homes throughout the crisis, improving access to additional essential resources needed to mitigate the crisis' impact, and promoting shared accountability for consistently achieving accepted standards in core quality domains.
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Hong Kong is a major international travel hub and a densely populated city geographically adjacent to Mainland China. Despite these risk factors, it has managed to contain the COVID-19 epidemic without a total lockdown of the city. ⋯ Hong Kong's public health intervention was developed from the lessons learned during the SARS epidemic in 2003 that killed 299 people, including 57 residential care residents. This perspective summarizes Hong Kong's responses to the COVID-19 virus, with a specific focus on how the long-term care system contained the spread of COVID-19 into residential care homes and home and community-based services.