Navigating Food Allergies in Medical, Elder Care, and Correctional Facilities: Disability Laws and Your Rights
We will discuss the rights of patients, seniors and prisoners with food allergies and learn what the law requires of these often large and complex institutions to ensure safe food allergy management practices.
Food allergy management poses unique challenges for patients receiving hospital care, residents of nursing homes or assisted living communities, and individuals who are incarcerated. Injury or illness can make it difficult for hospital patients and care facility residents to communicate about their food allergies, and imprisonment also limits communications and choices. Medical, elder care, and prison facilities must make modifications to create and maintain a safe environment for individuals under their care. In the final webinar of our five-part series on food allergy patient rights, we will discuss the rights of patients, seniors and prisoners with food allergies and learn what the law requires of these often large and complex institutions to ensure safe food allergy management practices.
About the Speakers
Laurel Francoeur, Owner/Managing Partner, Francoeur Law Office
Laurel Francoeur graduated from M.I.T. with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy. She is a graduate of Suffolk Law School and has been a practicing lawyer since 1996. Her practice focuses on food allergy issues. She is a national speaker on the topic of food allergy and the law. She drafted legislation in Massachusetts to allow easy access to epinephrine for students in classrooms and has testified at the state and federal level about food allergy issues. She has also worked with the Mass. Department of Public Health on food allergy guidelines for restaurants. In 2019, Laurel was named a “Top Woman In Law” in Massachusetts. She is the author of “Flying With Food Allergies” and co-author of “The Preschool Food Allergy Handbook,” which serves as an official reference for preschools in New York City. She has a 21-year old son with multiple food allergies.
Mary Vargas
Mary Vargas is a founding partner with the litigation firm Stein & Vargas, LLP, based in Washington, D.C., where she engages in nationwide impact litigation on behalf of individuals with disabilities. Vargas has won key victories in federal courts throughout the United States on behalf of individuals with food allergies, celiac disease and other disabilities. She was awarded the 2017 FARE Vision Award for food allergy activism, the 2016 Eagle Award for groundbreaking disability rights litigation related to the representation of a deaf medical student, and the 2010 Advocacy for Persons with Pain Award. Vargas is a 1998 Skadden Fellow and a 1994 Truman Scholar. She is the mother of three boys, one of whom has food allergies and celiac disease.