Paul Da Veiga

My mother is 91 years old and has been in a nursing home for the past 3-1/2 years. The home has been very good to my mom and we are appreciative for their care. We need the enactment of immediate, limited visitation policies that are strategic and consider the disease type of patients in a nursing home.  My mother has advanced dementia and cannot remember what happened five minutes ago but does remember me and my siblings and is used to regular visits from our family.  Our absence and lack of personal touch is causing her emotional distress and she is declining rapidly.  She very seldom speaks now and cries frequently, which is a rare occurrence before and not in her character.  She has lost a considerable amount of weight dropping from 140 lbs down to 119, completely due to the inability to receive the comfort from her family. Many patients in the home are of sound mind and understand the current situation to some degree.  Unfortunately, she cannot and this is quite difficult on her and our family, viewing this from the outside.  The lack of protection for the livelihood of the elderly population in the Governor’s policies are having direct and measurable consequences to my mother’s condition and ultimately are leading to her demise.