Solutions for Better Care for t...(ed by the state via e-mail and has been ...),Health

These survey results are heartening and strongly support the state's proposal on this topic. And they significantly undercut continued lobbying by the industry for lower standards.

"Consumers deserve a home-like setting with enough room that they can have a quality life and that they can maneuver around their living space while using their wheelchair or scooter," said Alissa Halperin, Senior Attorney and Deputy Director of Policy Advocacy at the Pennsylvania Health Law Project and director of the PA Assisted Living Consumer Alliance (PALCA). Published data from 1999, the most recent available such report, showed more than 21 percent of residents in assisted living facilities relying on wheelchairs and 44 percent on walkers. "According to the architects we've consulted, who are recognized experts in the Americans With Disabilities Act and accessible design, anything less than roughly 200 square feet, even excluding bathrooms and closets, is not accessible to a wheelchair user," Halperin added. "And even that amount of space is only accessible if arranged and furnished in just the right way."

Residents who use wheelchairs and staff at various facilities have told the Pennsylvania Assisted Living Consumer Alliance that some residents have to sit in bed and wait to be transferred to a nearby wheelchair because the room doesn't provide enough space for the residents to roll the chair up to the side of the bed so that they can transfer on their own. See their stories at www.paassistedlivingconsumeralliance.org.

About 50,000 people in Pennsylvania live in facilities that may call themselves assisted living facilities, housing p
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