conditions in Minnesota assisted living facilities. My mother, age 93, lives
in an assisted living facility in Coon Rapids, and I am familiar with some of
the very serious shortcomings that have affected her safety and well-being.
Poorly trained (and presumably poorly paid) aides, understaffing, poor quality
food and unresponsive management are a few of the deficiencies.
Minnesota is the only state that does not license assisted living facilties.
But legislation providing for licensure and consumer protections has been
introduced. Please consider contacting your state representative and senator
and urging them to support this legislation. I note that one well known
Republican senator is listed as an author, and this issue has potential to
transcend partisan divides.
The House bill is HF 649. See:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=HF649&b=house&y=2019&ssn=0
Companion bill in the Senate, SF 805. See:
https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?f=SF805&y=2019&ssn=0&b=senate
Text of HF 649: (Revisor's site) https://tinyurl.com/yxhns4w9
A thorough background report on the topic was issued by a consortium of citizen
groups. See:
https://mn.gov/dhs/assets/2018-03-vulnerable-adults_tcm1053-333711.pdf
Please note that in addition to the hair-raising examples in which elders died
after falling and being left lying for four hours, or stumbling into a pond
where they drowned, there are the less dramatic and more common cases in which
elders do not get their medications in a timely manner, or wrong meds are
given, personal alert signals are not answered for hours or not at all, etc.
Terry Hoknsn (terryhokn -zat- visi -zot- com
PS--I am open to discussion about this. I am looking for a few concerned
neighbors from my own legislative district 60B (Prospect Park) to pay a group
visit to our representative (Mohamud Noor) and senator (Kari Dziedzic) to
underline how vital it is that this law be passed.