Coronavirus on Smart Talk Friday: Nursing home protections; Help for the vulnerable

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

A patient is loaded into the back of an ambulance by emergency medical workers outside Cobble Hill Health Center, Friday, April 17, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The despair wrought on nursing homes by the coronavirus was laid bare Friday in a state survey identifying numerous New York facilities where multiple patients have died. Nineteen of the state's nursing homes have each had at least 20 deaths linked to the pandemic. Cobble Hill Health Center was listed as having 55 deaths. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

About two-thirds — or maybe more — of the COVID-19 deaths in Pennsylvania have occurred in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities. It’s not just in Pennsylvania — the state of Maryland is requiring testing of all long-term care facilities because the death rate there is so high.

Republican Speaker of the State House of Representatives Mike Turzai is proposing legislation that would would establish a public-private-partnership approach of regional health systems. According to the Speaker, these health collaboratives would administer/manage personnel, protocols, testing and expenditures to protect the seniors in these facilities.

Speaker Turzai is on Friday’s Smart Talk.

Meanwhile, Democratic State Rep. Rob Matzie of Beaver and Allegheny Counties is proposing legislation that would require immediate inspections at all Pennsylvania nursing homes or other long term care facilities to assess infection control and provide testing.

Rep. Matzie appears on Friday’s Smart Talk.

The Pennsylvania Department of Aging’s Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC) Office has been awarded $3 million from the federal government to support efforts to mitigate and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ADRC, also known as the PA Link to Aging and Disability Resources provides information and referral services to older adults and individuals with disabilities.

Pennsylvania’s Deputy Secretary of Aging Steven Horner  joins us on Smart Talk to explain what the program is doing during the pandemic.

The Pennsylvania Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) is launching a volunteer think tank comprised of 25 experts who will develop a plan to make Pennsylvania a trauma-informed state during the coronavirus pandemic. The Office of Advocacy and Reform (OAR) was established last year to protect Pennsylvania’s vulnerable populations.

Office of Advocacy and Reform Executive Director Dan Jurman is with us on Smart Talk.