Feb. 16 marks five years since losing my grandmother to neglect, after she was locked out of her assisted-living facility in Dover. For months, a foot wound festered to the point of causing sepsis, which ultimately killed her. The facility did not communicate about the wound care with our family and did not transfer her to the right level of care to treat her foot. Unfortunately, my family’s story is not unique, in Delaware or across the nation. Isolation from loved ones removes residents’ access to critical advocates, allowing untreated injuries and even death from failure to thrive. Visitation is more than simply spending time together. As much as I loved watching Phillies games with my grandmother, the ability to be her voice in times of need took precedence. Fear of retaliation is real in long-term care facilities, and she was never alone with me throughout the pandemic, robbing her of the opportunity to speak freely.
Delaware remained in a pandemic state of emergency until May 2023. While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services updated federal guidance for visitation in September 2020, Delaware did not release updated guidelines until March 17, 2021. Long-term care facility visitation policies varied throughout the state, and families could not get clear guidance on what was allowed.
“Nursing home visitor policy and COVID-19 infection rates” by Huiwen Xu, et al., published in December 2025 in the American Journal of Infection Control, concluded, “Allowing visitors in the context of adequate preventive measures was safe, even during a period of high community transmission and before vaccine rollouts.”
Several states have passed “essential caregiver acts,” protecting the visitation rights of residents, and House Resolution 6766, a federal bill, was reintroduced in December 2025. Half a decade later, nothing currently protects Delaware residents of long-term care facilities from the same lockdowns. Our mission as citizens should be to ensure that the world is better for the next generation. Let’s start with not allowing history to repeat itself. What are we waiting for?
Candace Esham
Milton
Author, “Locked Out: Elder Neglect and the Keys to Change”
Founder, Delaware Elder Care Advocacy Coalition
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
