Combating Social Isolation with Testing

Dear Governor Beshear,

Thank you for your unwavering leadership as we navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. I appreciate your work and the work of the Kentucky Department of Public Health toward slowing the spread of COVID-19, especially in long-term care facilities. Your efforts to provide testing and support to these facilities have been particularly important.

Nevertheless, the last few months have been an especially difficult time for residents of long-term care facilities and their families, especially Alzheimer’s caregivers who have been unable to safely visit their loved ones living in facilities due to COVID-19 restrictions.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 48% of nursing home residents are living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias and, among older adults in assisted living and other residential facilities, 42% or more have some form of Alzheimer’s or other dementia.There are growing concerns that social isolation among people with dementia has contributed to individual decline and stress among family caregivers who cannot assess the health of their loved ones.

Our state needs rapid-turnaround testing to ensure COVID-19 does not spread in these long-term care settings, and although access to testing has increased, a lack of access to rapid, point-of-care testing equipment and supplies continues to make it difficult for safe visitation. The only way to end social isolation for my loved one is to ensure every long-term care community has access to rapid testing for all residents, staff and visitors.

On behalf of the thousands of families in our state impacted by dementia, I appreciate your leadership thus far and ask that you prioritize access to rapid testing for all long-term care communities. Thank you again for making our most vulnerable populations a priority during these challenging times.