COFAR blog

We’ve just published a special issue of our newsletter, The COFAR Voice, which is devoted to the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the DDS system, and how the Baker administration has
responded to it.

We also look ahead to the end of the pandemic, and we raise some questions about its potentially lasting impacts on care and services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Included in our January issue are articles on:

• The slow response of the administration to the COVID crisis, and questions about what the pandemic portends for the future of DDS care
• How a mother is dealing not only with separation requirements during the pandemic, but is fighting to keep her co-guardianship of her son
• Vaccines are coming, but the timing is uncertain for residents and staff in group homes
• How confusion continues to hamper visitation during the pandemic
• How the administration dragged its feet on testing of staff for COVID-19

You can link to the newsletter here and on our website. As usual, we value your feedback. Please feel free to comment on this site, or email us directly. Contact information is included on the back page of the newsletter.

While we are critical in the newsletter of the often slow and after-the-fact response of the administration to the pandemic with regard to the DDS system, we also want to recognize the heroic efforts made during the past several months by staff throughout the system.

Frontline personnel, from direct-care staff to clinicians, have put their lives on the line every single day of this crisis. An undetermined number of staff have died as a result of the virus. Their work on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society should never be forgotten.