There’s a new law that allows parents to see their special needs children at a living group home during public health emergencies. Ville Platte Representative Rhonda Bulter has a 31-year-old child at a facility in Alexandria and says her child suffered greatly when in-person visitation was halted in March.
“And he was rubbing the hair off of his head and we had some children losing ten or fifteen pounds. There was a lot going on, someone had to step up and come to the table,” said Butler.
The bill signed into law by the Governor allows visitation for close family members, and Butler made sure the law required precautions be taken during those visits.
“So now they’re allowed with onsite testing and wearing PPE, they’re allowed to touch their child, hold their child and see their child,” said Butler.
Some special needs patients go back and forth between home and a care facility, and regulations were set in place for those situations like Butler’s.
“And for those that take their child off of the facility like I do, we are allowed to pick them up and have two negative testings prior to bringing them back and they can go back into the facility,” said Butler.
More than 3,500 children and adults live in nearly 500 of the sites statewide with intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, and other ailments that require 24-hour treatment.
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