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This Black History Month, the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative highlighted multiple Black disability and elder justice advocates: Youself Seegars, Travar Pettway, and Dr. Feranmi Okanlami.

The Michigan Long Term Care Ombudsman Program and MEJI are proud to support the Statewide Residents' Council in advocating for an increase in the personal needs allowance for nursing home residents on Medicaid. The $60 allowance, which was adopted decades ago, is the amount of monthly income most nursing home residents are allowed to keep if their stay is being paid for by Medicaid.
Residents need to rely on the limited allowance for everything from their cellphone contracts and clothes to haircuts, personal care items, reading material, snacks, and stamps and birthday cards for their family or friends. Many find that they have to make painful choices between urgently needed items and often have to wait months to save up for a small item or go without. They tell ombudsmen that having enough money for their basic expenses is a matter of dignity as well as necessity.

The conversation followed Bridge's extensive investigation of Michigan nursing homes. The articles revealed the suffering some nursing home residents endure and the pervasive problems of understaffing, inadequate training, and failure to meet residents' needs.

MEJI Systemic Advocacy Attorney Nicole Shannon noted that the "brazen" alleged actions of the defendants highlight the weaknesses in the guardianship and conservatorship system and reinforce the need for real reforms to provide more robust protection for vulnerable individuals.

MEJI recently filed comments with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) criticizing the agency's Interim Final Rule rescinding minimum nursing home staffing requirements. The regulations would have required nursing homes to have a Registered Nurse on duty 24 hours/day and to provide a minimum of 3.48 hours of hands-on care to every resident every day. On average, Michigan nursing homes are already providing approximately 4 hours of care per resident per day but the regulations would have helped protect residents at risk of harm in the homes with the poorest staffing. MEJI and our advocacy colleagues across the country will continue to advocate vigorously for adequate staffing in nursing homes, the most essential factor in assuring residents receive quality of care and quality of life.

Michigan Long Term Care Ombudsman Salli Pung, noting the tragic loss of life, remarked that assisted living facilities are supposed to be able to monitor residents, especially those with cognitive challenges, to maintain their safety.

“The feedback that we’re hearing from residents is that the care they’re receiving [in their new facilities] and the food they’re being served and the activities are so much better,” said Salli Pung, Michigan’s long-term care ombudsman, whose office assisted in the relocation. “I think it’s telling that this home really wasn’t able to provide that minimum standards that are required by [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]. I don’t think that it’s a bad thing that this home closed.”

"In four Michigan counties, the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative is operating a pilot program aimed at offering courts and community organizations alternate tools to help solve problems without fully stripping away adults’ rights.

Alison Hirschel, an attorney with the advocacy organization, said that in one county they saw a 42% reduction in guardianship filings in the program’s first year."

“Across several states, evictions have increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In California, nursing home eviction notices rose from 195 in 2022 to 273 in 2024. In Michigan, there were 317 nursing home eviction cases in 2024, up from 143 in 2022.
What those figures don’t capture are the countless quiet discharges that happen every day. An example is when a resident’s Medicare-funded rehabilitation ends and a nursing home insists it’s ‘time to go home,’ even though federal law offers broad protections against such forced removals, says Alison Hirschel, program director and managing attorney of the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative, which supports the legal needs of older adults and adults with disabilities.”

Michigan Elder Justice Initiative honors the more than 441,000 Michigan veterans. Thank you so much for your military service and for the sacrifices you and your families made. MEJI is proud to serve many of Michigan’s older veterans and veterans with disabilities.