Dignity for the Aged — a Peninsula-based nonprofit that aims to improve long-term care facilities and advocate for the residents who live in them — has a new home and new university partnership to help its advocacy and lobbying efforts.
For years, the Poquoson-based nonprofit needed a physical location, with Executive Director Sam Kukich and the nonprofit’s roughly 25 active volunteers working remotely. But in late-August, the nonprofit opened an office in Newport News, giving it room to grow.
New volunteers also are on the way. Dignity for the Aged recently formed a partnership with students from Christopher Newport University, who will assist on a volunteer basis.
The organization works with government and elected officials to advocate for ways to support long-term care residents and has recommended legislation to improve staffing in senior care facilities. Kukich said her organization has had difficulty getting the General Assembly to take action to address issues with nursing homes and assisted living facilities. But she believes the new partnership with CNU students could help turn things around.
Kukich founded the nonprofit in 2018 after discovering her mother-in-law sustained numerous injuries and lost 65 pounds while under the care of a Newport News-based nursing home. When evaluating nursing homes across the country, nonprofit Families For Better Care gave Virginia a D report card.
“We found out the hard way that, no, we don’t have good nursing homes here,” Kukich said. “And they run into all sorts of issues of understaffing and unqualified people and no background checks for the staff that they do have in there.”
Kukich said CNU students’ support will depend on their area of study. For example, she said a law student could help to research ways government can better enforce or implement laws to protect those living in long-term care facilities.
“When we go before legislators, we will have current research of things being done right now that we can substantiate — why staffing is necessary and not just optional,” she said. “Why we need to stipulate specifics — instead of just saying ‘sufficient staff,’ we need to say ‘six-to-one’ for this reason. So some hard, cold facts.”
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the organization’s new office, Vanessa Buehlman, CNU’s Director of the Center for Community Engagement, said student volunteers will bring “fresh energy and insights” and technological abilities to the nonprofit.
Michelle Parker, president of CNU’s Dignity for the Aged Club, said the new office will be a hub for the club’s advocacy, outreach and vision and a space “where ideas are born, plans are made, and action is taken.”
“I’m not old. Not many people in my family have lived to an old age, but one day, I do hope to be old, and I hope for my family to be somewhere where I want them to be. And when I get there, I hope things are better than they are now,” Parker said.
In addition to advocacy, Dignity for the Aged’s website is what Kukich describes as a “one-stop shop for information and support.” The website includes a checklist of things people should ask for when seeking a nursing home, directions on how to file a complaint, and links to a nationwide watchlist about unsafe nursing homes.
Kukich said the work has been challenging, but she is optimistic about the support she’s received. In the nearterm, she said the nonprofit is in the process of developing a plan of action for addressing problems in nursing homes that is locally focused and can be replicated elsewhere in Hampton Roads and the commonwealth.
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com
