The nation is plunging further into the COVID-19 crisis as its impacts continue to take lives and disrupt the economy. This is happening in waves across the country, fueled by the lack of a national strategy, dismissal of the science, and the Trump administration’s willingness to place cynical electoral politics and profits ahead of public health.
The pandemic has had a particularly devastating impact on nursing facilities, group homes, and other long-term care settings – both on the individuals who live there and those who work there. To make matters worse, a growing body of evidence is also revealing that a host of social and economic inequities are causing the brunt of the suffering to fall on people of color, many of whom disproportionately represent the long-term care workforce. Direct-care workers, both home- and facility-based, are historically and chronically underpaid and are thus most vulnerable to the sweeping economic consequences of the crisis. These are the hard-working individuals who take care of our parents, grandparents and other family members, yet they are being left out in the cold.
This simply isn’t right and sadly it is happening right here in New Hampshire.
According to data from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, more than three-quarters of the state’s COVID-19 deaths to date have been connected to New Hampshire’s nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and similar institutions. Emerging data in New Hampshire is also revealing that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, which is in keeping with national figures that paint a picture of the deep socioeconomic and racial inequities.
The long-term care workforce is being exposed without the proper protocols and safety equipment necessary to reduce contagion. These workers and their families often lack financial resources due to a long-standing, systemic undervaluing of direct-care workers and deep-seeded structural inequalities. Cost of and limited access to health care is compounding the problem, as does the ever-increasing wage gap and wealth concentration that leaves working families struggling to make ends meet.
The structural vulnerabilities and inequities COVID-19 has revealed in our long-term care systems are particularly poignant in the Granite State due to the increasing number and percentage of older people in our state. Whether facing the COVID crisis or the daily challenges of long-term care, our aging population deserves to live with dignity and receive care they can count on – and our hard-working direct-care workforce deserves to be safe when they go to work.
New Hampshire must increase testing for everyone, particularly our vulnerable seniors and direct-care workers in long-term care facilities. We must also ensure that direct-care workers receive the personal protective equipment, fair wages, hazard pay, sick leave and benefits they so desperately need. We made progress last legislative session in improving Medicaid rates in New Hampshire, but we still have a long way to go to ensure providers are able to adequately support their workforce.
As a native Granite Stater, public interest lawyer, and health care advocate I can attest to the troubling truth that COVID-19 did not create these systemic failures and injustices – it has merely exposed them. Righting this kind of injustice is why I have dedicated my life to public service and am now running for state Senate District 15. To make progress, we need leaders willing to take on the toughest issues and who bring the necessary expertise, not just talking points.
As a staff attorney at the Disability Rights Center, I saw these inequities firsthand and advocated for equal access to services while helping families navigate our healthcare system to receive necessary care. As policy director for the Children’s Behavioral Health Collaborative, I worked with Democrats and Republicans to increase services for children in crisis and improve the child protection system, including helping pass Senate Bill 14, which transforms how New Hampshire provides critical healthcare services to our most vulnerable children.
A true measure of our compassion and strength as a state will be how we support the most vulnerable among us. As a New Hampshire senator, I will work hard to ensure that every Granite Stater has access to a livable wage, and a reliable, effective and compassionate health care system, regardless of age, gender, race, or ZIP code.
(Becky Whitley is lawyer and candidate for New Hampshire Senate District 15. She lives in Hopkinton with her husband and 6-year-old son.)