A Minden Senator is asking the Edwards administration to allow clergy members into healthcare facilities to tend to sick and/or dying patients.
The current public health emergency bars family from entry, but Robert Mills says clergy should be considered mental health support personnel.
“It is understandable that it is limited, but clergy, for the most part, the clergy I know, are trained counselors and the most responsible people in our communities,” says Mills.
This would include nursing homes, hospitals and adult residential facilities.
Mills says it’s not just a quality of life issue, but a quality of death issue for those with little time left.
“Imagine the individual in the hospital, that’s who I am writing this for, the poor people stuck in the hospital,” says Mills.
A recent lawsuit in Maryland was resolved in favor of allowing clergy to enter healthcare facilities to see patients.
Mills says Governor Edwards could make this happen with a simple executive order, but…
“In the worst case I have to wait until we go back into session where I can put a bill in front of the legislature and it can go through the process so the quickest and easiest way would be for the Governor to straighten this out,” says Mills.
Capital observes estimate that another session will be held sometime in October to reevaluate state revenue.