Menio Petition Presentation

Presentation of the NCCNHR Staffing Petitions
At Congressional Press Conference, May 9, 2002

By Diane Menio, NCCNHR President

Almost a year and a half ago at a site near here, members of the National Citizens’ Coalition for Nursing Home Reform held a rally to kick off a national petition drive that would unite people in sending a message to Congress: Give us legislation to put enough nurses and nursing assistants in nursing homes! The first signers of our petitions were tourists who just happened to be walking by -- but who understood the importance of our undertaking and wished us luck. Today, we present to you – Representative Schakowsky, Representative Carson, Delegate Norton, and others who have helped this cause – the names of almost 100,000 people in 49 states and the District of Columbia who want mandatory federal staffing standards. I am sure that every one of them would join me in expressing our deep appreciation to you and Representative Waxman for sponsoring the Nursing Home Staffing Improvement Act. This legislation is what we have been working for! We will continue to work with you until adequate staffing levels are set by law.

I would like to acknowledge several women who are here today who participated in the petition drive – Belinda Clay of Florida, Nadene Mitcham of Michigan, and Danielle Girdano of Pennsylvania, who single-handedly collected 3,000 signatures in memory of her grandmother. For family members like them, the petition drive has been an opportunity to mobilize others to present an urgent request to their Representatives and Senators: Please support better staffing so others will not experience what our loved ones have in short-staffed nursing homes.

As one signer wrote on her petition, “The old have given their lives to this country . . . surely the country can give them better care in the sunset of their lives with a few good nurses.”