Advocacy Team
DACA, New Resources on Hospital Supports Illinois Covid-19 Congregate Settings Data
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Dear Access Living friends and allies,
Several important updates and resources to share today! Read on.
DACA Shutdown Blocked, For Now: This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision that the Trump administration cannot immediately move to shut down the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. This decision is incredible news for the 700,000 immigrants who have DACA status, and who were otherwise facing potential deportation. Many people with disabilities are also among those who have DACA status. Access Living applauds the leadership of our Cambiando Vidas organizing group, as well as our coalition allies at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and with the Disability and Immigration Taskforce of Illinois (DITI), and many many others involved in fighting for the rights of DACA-status immigrants. Check out this news update for more detailed explanation about what has been involved. This is huge!
New Resources on Support Persons in Hospitals: The Autistic Self Advocacy Network and Green Mountain Self-Advocates have partnered to create a plain language booklet and a video to support people with disabilities who need a support person when at the doctor or in the hospital. The resources can be found at this link. If you are interested in learning more about advocacy across the states on hospital visitor policies and triage non-discrimination policies, visit this link. As a reminder, the State of Illinois has issued public health guidance on nondiscrimination in both triage and hospital policies, at this link.
If you are in Illinois and you experience discrimination in this area, Access Living would like to hear from you through calling/emailing our Civil Rights Intake Hotline.
Illinois Covid-19 Infection/Death Data in Congregate Settings: We also wanted to share the links for the currently available public data about Covid-19 impacting different congregate settings. To be clear, for Access Living this means not only nursing facilities, State Operated Developmental Centers, Intermediate Care Facilities for people with developmental disabilities, but also group homes, immigration detention centers, jails, and prisons. Access Living continues to be gravely concerned about the inability of many congregate settings to put appropriate public health measures in place.
Currently available public data (to our knowledge) is at these links:
Illinois Nursing Facilities
Illinois Group Home Data
Illinois State Operated Developmental Centers and Psychiatric Facilities
Illinois Prisons
Cook County Jail
Thank you to everyone who is carrying the load of advocacy in these important areas.