Maria Mazurowski used to visit her mother every day at the nursing home. That all stopped when the pandemic hit.
"I am my mother's legal and essential care partner," she said. "I've been doing this for years on a daily basis. I help her with all her bathing, dressing, and taking her to her appointments and being there for her. And one day we were restricted. And it's happening to everyone; it's not just me, it's thousands of people in America."
She reached out to the Nevada State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program for help. That's a program designed to improve the quality of care in America's nursing homes. But so far, she says, she's only had one visit, a supervised one outdoors, and that's just not enough.
"Every day I was part of her life and one day she didn't know what happened," she said. "And she says, I'm a prisoner, what happened, why can't you come in? It broke my heart. What happened with the humanity, what happens to everyone in these terrible times of pandemic?"
There's a report out this month from the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes, one that recommends that "visitation is a vital resident right," and recommends "safely increasing controlled, in-person visitation," something a lot of families have been pushing for.
"I want people to know they're allowed to visitations and they can reach out to the Ombudsman Program if the administration doesn't allow for visitations," Mazurowski said. "Our loved ones have rights, and they're not abandoned."
For more information on the Nevada State Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, click here.
