Leaders of Faith-Based Aging Services Organizations Urge Congress to Deliver Life-Saving COVID Relief for Vulnerable Older Adults and Caregivers
MHS Joins 10 Groups Representing More than 5,000 Organizations Across Numerous Religions and Denominations Urge Congress to Find Common Ground
Contact: Chris Rahe, chris@mhsonline.org
July 29, 2020, Washington DC – As Congress negotiates the next COVID relief package, ten associations of faith-based and mission-driven aging and disability service providers joined with MHS to demand that lawmakers include comprehensive relief measures to safeguard older adults and care workers.
In a letter today to Congress and the Administration, they outline the crucial resources for all providers and staff who care for older adults, based on national aging services association LeadingAge’s Five Essential Actions. Find your elected representatives here to contact them and urge them to support the Five Essential Actions.
“Today we are coming together to urge you to find common ground, and deliver the life-saving relief we need to continue fulfilling our historic role in the lives of so many Americans,” they said in the letter. “It is not acceptable to continue on as we have been for months. This is a full-fledged crisis like we’ve never seen before that will only worsen in the crucial days and months to come.”
“We are aligned in our ardent belief that the actions you as leaders of our country take in the next weeks will determine the life and death of many of our nation’s most vulnerable older adults,” the letter continues, “This is an historic moment. It must be met with historic action. Older adults deserve nothing less.”
Collectively the organizations represent over 5,000 organizations based on a range of faiths and denominations, including Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, Methodists, Mennonites, United Church of Christ and Church of the Brethren, Presbyterian, and Quakers.
The letter notes that nearly 100,000 people over 65 have died from COVID-19 in recent months, and that the virus has been most deadly for older people of color, and nearly half of all COVID-19 fatalities have been nursing home residents and staff.
“We need Congress and the White House to agree to a bipartisan solution that protects residents and staff at the nation’s senior living facilities, including many MHS members,” said Karen Lehman, MHS President/CEO.
Lehman was joined in the letter by 10 leaders of associations of faith-based and mission-driven aging and disability service providers:
| Don Shulman President & Chief Executive Officer AJAS | Sr. Mary Haddad, RSM President and CEO Catholic Health Association of the United States |
| Michael J. Readinger President/ CEO The Council for Health & Human Service Ministries | David Lawrenz Executive Director Fellowship of Brethren Homes |
| Jane Mack President & CEO Friends Services Alliance | Charlotte Haberaecker President & CEO Lutheran Services in America |
| Cynthia L. Ray, M.Div Executive Director Presbyterian Association of Homes & Services for the Aging | Reuben D. Rotman President & CEO Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies |
| Katie Smith Sloan President and CEO LeadingAge | Mary Kemper President & CEO United Methodist Association of Health & Welfare Ministries |