Advocacy

Community members ages 60 and up: the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS) invites you to take an important survey.

Adding to poverty, lack of adequate housing and transportation, and food insecurity, the rural areas of Appalachia face problems with access to adequate and appropriate health care. Efforts to combat those issues were highlighted recently in the continuing series—Livable Appalachia—hosted by AARP Virginia, AARP North Carolina, and AARP Tennessee.

AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau and U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) joined a press call hosted by Invest in America

Despite the General Assembly’s rejection this year of efforts to set minimum staffing requirements in nursing homes, state Sen. George Barker said such efforts may finally succeed next year.

Rises in Cases and Deaths in Virginia Show Continued Need for Reform to Protect Residents and Staff

AARP Urges Legislators to Focus on Nursing Home Safety

AARP presents 103,486 petitions from Virginians who need lower drug prices.

Here in Virginia, staff cases spiked dramatically from a rate of 1.23 per 100 residents in December to 18.6 in January, the highest since the pandemic began. Resident cases increased nearly 10-fold from a rate of 1.49 to 14.4 per 100 residents during this same period, also the highest since the pandemic began. Nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19 more than doubled from a rate of .15 in December to .37 per 100 residents in January.

Six lawmakers to decide fate of nursing home staffing bills

Senator Petersen’s Bill to Lower Medicine Costs Supported by Wide Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and Independents