One of the tragic outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic was not only the number of deaths from COVID, but the number of deaths in the nation’s nursing homes—which, at one point accounted for more than a fifth of all deaths according to the federal government’s estimate. And what made these deaths even more grievous was that many of these elderly people died in isolation, cut off from loved ones, their essential caregivers, who were prevented from visiting them in their darkest hour. In the wake of this tragedy, there have been many critics of the nursing home system—pointing out the lack of oversight, the need for regulatory reform, and the need for high staffing levels with higher pay for the facilities staff. In today’s episode, we talk with Michell Arnot, the vice president of Gray Panthers NYC and Michelle and Carrie Leljedal, a Family Advocate with the Essential Caregiver’s Coalition in Illinois, who are co-chairing a dynamic, thought-provoking webinar series called Unity for Long-Term Care. Their aim? To form an alliance of advocates dedicated to improving the quality of life in the nursing home space across the nation. It’s not an easy task, and there are many entities and constituencies, with different opinions, ideas and strategies about how to fix the system. Michelle and Carrie will describe several of these efforts, not only to address specific issues, but how we could fundamentally rethink the way we view and provide long-term care. What are some of the alternatives to our current models? What does good “patient-centered care” look like? What can individuals do to make a difference in changing our complicated patchwork system of long-term care? It’s easy to dwell on the negative history—and hard to agree on a cohesive path forward. But Carrie and Michelle are steadfast in their view: To transform long-term care over the long term, those who advocate for change may disagree on specific issues, but must agree to move forward together.