Your article, “Nursing Home Move Sparks NIMBY Outcry” (Feb. 24), overlooked a crucial fact in documenting the neighborhood’s concerns: Contrary to the widespread myopic assumption that nursing facilities are exclusively for the elderly, it should be emphasized that people of all ages — including children — are consigned to such care. Because of insurance constraints in today’s health care system, patients with debilitating illnesses face shorter, cheaper hospitalizations; they are transferred, more quickly and still ill, to nursing homes, for short-term rehabilitation or prolonged stays. Simply put, that fate can befall any one of us when life as we know it comes to a crashing halt with an unexpected illness.
Those who are propelled by acts of social justice should leap at the opportunity to provide gold-standard health care to the most vulnerable among us.
Jewish Home Lifecare has taken a commendable step in this direction with plans to emulate a national model that de-institutionalizes nursing care, a crying need recognized by anyone personally touched by this issue. Communities should partner with such endeavors instead of pummeling them.
Newton, Mass.
