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· I also attached a sample of an advocacy letter of how it’s supposed to look like.

· I already below started the letter I just need it to be cleaned up and formatted and you can add anything that may be needed.

I’m writing to you Dr. Antoine M. Garibaldi the President of University of Detroit Mercy on behalf of myself and anyone on campus with a disability. I begin the Dental Hygiene program at UDM back in 2015 through 2017 and had my disability accommodations which were private room with time and half. Even when I sat for all 4 board exams for the state of Michigan and with documentation, I provided to them allowed me a private room and time and half. When I began nursing school the fall of 2017, I had my accommodations granted. All of sudden in 2019 the month of March my accommodations were revoked right before final exams. The new lady Laura Bagdady that was hired to take Emilie Wetherinton place did not care or show any kind of compassion. Laurie had me run back and forth to my doctor at least 5 times for different paperwork that she could have provided to me all at once, however she broke it up it seems on purpose to have me running around when she knew she had all that paperwork. When I finally provided all the paperwork, she needed both from my physician and my psychologist that I was diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and I am on medication. She denied my accommodations after 2 months. I even had instructors in the school that were trying to advocate me and that was still met with a no! I even went as far to talk to the lawyer of the school Pamela Zarkowski and at first she seemed like she wanted to help however after sending all my paperwork into her she got back to me stating, “As you will understand, I leave it to the Ms. Bagdady, Assistant Director of Student Disability and Accessibility Support Services to make determinations about accommodations based on the legal guidelines the university is required to follow.” As the president of the school you should be made of aware of this situation and there are others that were livid due to their accommodations being revoked.

[SAMPLE LETTER CALLING FOR SAFE NURSING HOME STAFFING LEVELS]

Dear [Senator or Congressperson XXXX]:

I am writing to you on behalf of [INSERT YOUR ORGANIZATION NAME HERE], to ask you to take a

stand to help the vulnerable people in nursing homes in our community and across the country. Rather

than being cared for, many nursing home residents are faced with painful, often heart-breaking,

conditions. These are our parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends. They turn to a nursing

home in need of help, but too often what they get is anguish – insufficient staff to help them walk to the

bathroom, eat a nutritious meal or even to assist them to move them around in bed. As a result,

unnecessary incontinence, malnourishment and painful bedsores are major problems for many nursing

home residents.

As a lawmaker, you have a critical role in ensuring that residents live safely, with dignity and adequate

care. Twenty years ago, in the face of terrible scandals in the nursing home industry, Congress passed

and President Reagan signed into law the Nursing Home Reform Law (OBRA 87) which set strong

standards for nursing homes. While there have been some improvements since that deplorable time, too

many nursing homes continue to flout the law, providing inadequate care and quality of life to our loved

ones. After 20 years of industry resistance and persistent widespread problems, not to mention increased

dependence on our tax dollars for revenue, the time has come to require that nursing homes that take our

loved ones and our money be required to have adequate staffing.

Study after study has indicated that sufficient staffing is the key to good care in nursing homes. Yet a

2002 report by the federal government found that over 90% of U.S. nursing homes lack adequate staff.

This is outrageous. Nursing homes which receive our money and are entrusted with our loved ones must

be required to have sufficient care staff.

There are two things that you can do:

1. Support federal legislation like the Nursing Home Staffing Act (H.R. 4293, introduced in 2005)
that would require safe yet reasonable staffing levels.

2. Call for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to enact nurse staffing ratios to ensure
that facilities employ sufficient staff to care to residents.

The nursing home industry will say they can’t afford to increase staffing. But that argument ignores the

tremendous financial costs of inadequate care from things like increased hospitalization, medication and

rehab; worker turnover and Medicaid fraud. Not to mention industry profiteering, as highlighted in the

recent NY Times report “More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes” (Sep. 23, 2007). The real

question is: “how much longer can we afford not to mandate adequate staff?”

I look forward to hearing from you on this very important issue.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

P.S. The average nursing home resident lives there for two years. That means that if a bill were to pass

this year and go into effect next year, an entire generation of residents would come and go without seeing

any relief. Your action on this issue is needed now.