Tuesday, March 28, at 2 p.m., SEIU 1199 nursing home workers are standing up and demanding Governor DeWine’s Nursing Home Quality and Accountability task force listen to their perspective on how to improve Ohio’s nursing homes.
The task force is holding a listening session at the Wood County Senior Center (140 S. Grove St., Bowling Green) and SEIU 1199 union members will be attending to make sure workers’ voices aren’t the missing piece of the conversations.
Workers are standing up to Governor Mike DeWine’s Nursing Home Quality and Accountability Task Force to show just how important it is to have the experience and input directly from nursing home workers.
This task force plans to hear only from family members of residents, nursing home administrators and state regulators, failing to include the workers, who are actually providing the care. To exclude workers from this conversation is not only a missed opportunity to better understand why Ohio’s nursing homes are not working the way they should but a clear display of failed leadership.
Medicare rates Ohio’s nursing home industry as 39th in the US in terms of quality, and some of the worst in the country. Nursing home workers are leaving the industry in droves due to lack of respect, unsafe staffing levels and low wages. There is currently a 25% shortage of nursing home workers.
“Seniors and people with disabilities are suffering due to the catastrophic staffing crisis in all of Ohio’s nursing homes. We implore Nursing Home owners and Governor DeWine to prioritize their care over profits. The only way to fix the broken nursing home systems in our state is to increase care hours, hire more staff, pay a living wage and respect staff enough to work with them to create sustainable solutions,” said Becky Williams, President of SEIU District 1199.
Join us Tuesday, March 28 at Wood County Senior Center to demand Governor DeWine and his task force talk to the workers about what is really going wrong in the nursing home industry. Without the workers’ voice, it will be impossible to fix any of Ohio’s broken systems – and our loved one’s care will continue to suffer.
