President and CEO’s Update – Brian Doherty, CAE

Sharing Your Stories of Assisted Living Impact with the People that Oversee its Policies

Q1, March 2025

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Dear Members,

I hope you will share stories about the amazing impact you have every day in improving quality of life for older adults, when we meet with legislators for Advocacy Day, May 1st at the State House. After introductions, the best way to open a meeting with State Representatives, Senators and their staff is to ask them if they have visited an assisted living community. Ask them if they are familiar with it first-hand by having had family or friends live in assisted living. That way you can hear what their experiences are and meet them where they are in terms of their knowledge of the setting. The next step is to share your stories of the work you and your colleagues do and the ways that you’ve seen it brighten a resident’s day, make them feel more comfortable, or help them experience fun activities or wellness exercises that give them joy through their own independence and preferences.

The part of legislative meetings that people often find most challenging is giving background on the policies that help or hinder assisted living. The way to get past that worry is to ground each issue in the impact it has in helping more people enjoy assisted living. Here are the three key policy points to make in the meetings:

1. Thank Legislators for passing the recent health services legislation for assisted living and educate them on the new regulations will be put in place based on that bill. Educate them about how enhanced oversight in the form of fines and more frequent regulation surveys for health services residences will bring about more regulation. With all of those updates being made this year, the regulations for which remain to be seen, now is not the time to consider additional regulations through legislation.
2.  Advocate for expanded access to assisted living by pushing for the expansion of the Frail Elder Waiver (SD.1319/HD.2385), ensuring that more older adults can access the care they need. Ask if your legislator will co-sponsor “An Act to Expand Access to Assisted Living through the Frail Elder Waiver.”
3. Highlight the hybrid model of assisted living as a distinct setting, emphasizing that it should not be governed by landlord/tenant law, which complicates and negatively impacts the care environment. Ask your legislator to co-sponsor the H.631: An Act clarifying the classification of assisted living residences legislation.

If you have a compelling story to tell on one of these issues or feel most comfortable explaining a particular issue, you can ask your colleagues that will be going into the meeting with you if they could cover one of these other issues. That way more attendees will get a chance to participate, and no one has to try to explain every issue.

If you register for Advocacy Day in advance, you’ll also be invited to a Zoom meeting where we’ll discuss the issues, answer questions, and prepare you for your participation. When we meet at the State House on May 1, you’ll hear presentations delving further into these issues to help prepare you to discuss them with legislators and their staff. Then you’ll be assigned groups with a leader and meet to prepare for your meetings with key Representatives and Senators.

For you and Mass-ALA to have the most impact that day, we will prioritize having meetings with legislators that serve on the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs and the Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing, as both of those committees work on assisted living policy. Thank you for reading about how you can have an impact. Please let us know if you have any questions or ideas to share on how we can work together to make this Advocacy Day as successful as possible.