Locating Hurricane Survivors Memo

Original Message: ----------------- From: Justice For All Moderator jfa@jfanow.org Date: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 13:18:52 -0400 To: justice@jfanow.org Subject: Urgent Request From The Us Department Of Health And HumanServices - Please Forward Urgent Request From The Us Department Of Health And Human Services - Please Forward Dr. Margaret Giannini, Director of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office on Disability needs our help to locate hurricane survivors who were placed in nursing homes and other restrictive facilities. We are all aware that people were transferred from many shelters to nursing homes and institutions across the US over the past four weeks, but there are no records of who these people are or where they went. HHS is enlisting our help so they can work with HUD to get these folks back out of the nursing homes and into temporary housing in the community. Nursing homes have 90 days to bill for their care so its not likely these people can be tracked through nursing home census data at this time. Please include all people who were previously in community based residential settings like group homes, in addition to those who were living independently who were placed in ICFs and SNFs anywhere across the country. Early reports indicate that people were scattered broadly in reopened institutions, empty nursing home beds and other restrictive environments. We have their attention and we are in a position to insure that no one gets left behind. As solutions are created for hurricane survivors, so can those solutions work for others! Please send specific information about hurricane survivors who you know to be in nursing homes, institutions and all other examples that would indicate that someone was evacuated or transferred to a restrictive environment. This is also a good opportunity to keep the focus on many, many other who have been waiting for community based services for years. Please send all information to: margaret.giannini@hhs.gov, and please cc mroth@spinalcord.org by COB on Monday, September 26th. Please continue to send information after that deadline, but do not delay sending what you do know now because a report will be sent tomorrow at COB with temporary housing discussions beginning immediately. Thank you! Marcie Roth Marcie Roth Executive Director/CEO National Spinal Cord Injury Association 6701 Democracy Blvd Suite 300-9 Bethesda, MD 20817 (301) 717-7447 (Direct) (301) 214-4006 (VM) (301) 963-1265 (Fax) (800) 962-9629 (Helpline) mroth@spinalcord.org www.spinalcord.org