Disability Rights New Jersey, the state’s protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities, recently released the results of an investigation into nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report highlights that among those living in nursing homes who died from COVID-19 were a large number of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — people, Disability Rights New Jersey argues, shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
“These are institutions, these are hospital-like settings, and a lot of them are really dismal,” Bren Pramanik, the managing attorney for the organization, said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.
“The state has to know who these people are, where they are, and they really have to know what these people want and need in their lives,” said Gwen Orlowski, the executive director of Disability Rights New Jersey.
