Storybooks Needed to Share Our Message With Legislators

VHCA (1/11/2008)

The 2008 VHCA Winter Legislative Conference is fast approaching and, as always, we want to ensure that the time you and other participants invest in the meeting is as meaningful and effective as possible.  A key portion of the two-day event is the time allotted for visits with your legislators in the General Assembly.  Past experience indicates that personally delivering items to members of the General Assembly is very effective in sharing our message – that adequate Medicaid funding is critical to the ability of nursing facilities to provide high quality long term care services to Virginia’s most vulnerable citizens.

This year we are asking our member facilities to create several short “storybooks” briefly describing the history and personal story of residents in long term care.  These storybooks will enable you, as your facility representative, along with VHCA to inform and educate our legislators about long term care and the role that Medicaid plays in the delivery of nursing home care. 

A storybook might be something as basic as a few photos accompanied by a short narrative about one or more of your residents.  For those of you with Activity Departments with more creative energies, a storybook could be a bound album highlighting residents and the fact that Medicaid funding plays a vital role in your ability to provide care.  Ideally, the story books should include pictures of several residents accompanied by a brief history with emphasis on each resident’s life and working career. 

Be sure the name and location of your facility is on the book.  Please remember that you must obtain consent before taking photographs of your residents, as well as a release from them to put any personal information is the storybook in order to comply with HIPAA requirements.

If you can’t make it to the Conference, please mail your storybooks to VHCA no later than February 12th and we’ll make sure that they are delivered to your legislators.   VHCA will hold a drawing at the conference with cash prizes to those facilities that participate and put their heart and creative talents into this effort.  Tickets will be drawn for three prizes totaling $500 to go to the Activity Departments of winning facilities.   We hope that you will encourage your Activity Departments to participate in this important advocacy project.  If you have any questions, please contact Doran Hutchinson at 804.212.1692.