City Shames NYers Relying On Nursing Homes Instead Of Family Care

NEW YORK CITY — New Yorkers should try harder to take care of elderly and differently abled relatives at home, and not rely on nursing homes and adult care facilities, Mayor Bill de Blasio told the city Wednesday.

"More and more of the care given to our seniors may be given at home," said de Blasio. "We gotta make that the norm more and more."

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De Blasio's assertion that New Yorkers should claim more responsibility for family care comes as reports surface of disturbing conditions amid the novel coronavirus crisis in New York City care facilities that include children finding out via voicemail their parents had died, families not being notified the virus was spreading and patients left in soiled diapers.

An estimated 3,116 New Yorkers have died from COVID-19 in city nursing homes and 46 lives were lost to the virus in its adult care facilities, state Health Department data show.

Dr. Mitchell Katz, the head of the city's public hospital system, suggested more New Yorkers should do what he has done, find vacant apartments in their own buildings for his 92-year-old mother and 97-year-old father.

"I've seen too often, as a physician in the hospital or in the clinic, where people are sent to skilled nursing facilities or adult care facilities because no one puts in the time and the creativity," Katz said.

"We should always look for ways to enable older people and younger disabled people to live independently."

Unlike the majority of New Yorkers, Katz earns nearly $700,000 a year, a salary set by the New York City Health + Hospital board, the New York Daily News reported in November 2019.

De Blasio's net worth is about $1.5 million with income derived from his two Park Slope properties and his salary as mayor.

"He chose to set it up so his parents could live in the same building he lives in," said de Blasio of Katz. "I think that's a very beautiful thing."

De Blasio has also made plans to provide more immediate relief to New York City's 169 nursing homes, providing 3,000 COVID-19 tests a day and creating "outbreak response teams" to help stop the spread among the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

Each team will be lead by a Health Department epidemiologist and two other healthcare workers to address the needs of residents and staff, de Blasio said.

When asked about New Yorkers' ability to care for relatives with severe and complicated illnesses, or who would pay for an extended home care system, the mayor, who faces a $7.4 billion deficit in his "wartime budget," provided few details.

"I would put this in the same rubric in universal health care...That should be federal support first," de Blasio said. "

"I think it's time to reexamine the entire reality," de Blasio said simply. "It should be our goal to enable everyone who can live at home to do so."

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