Lexington County Councilman wins Statewide Volunteer Award; Expands Advocacy
March 12, 2025
Councilman Darrell Hudson, recognized for his commitment to seniors and disabled residents in South Carolina’s Midlands region, is advancing advocacy for safety and proper treatment of residents at assisted living facilities.
Darrell Hudson, Chair of the Central Midlands Area Agency on Aging’s Regional Aging and Disability Advisory Committee (RADAC), has been recognized as the South Carolina Councils of Governments 2024 Volunteer of the Year. Even before his tenure as RADAC Chair began, Mr. Hudson was advocating for seniors in the Central Midlands region. Though his advocacy began on a local level, he has since shared his story more broadly and is gaining support for an effort to require nursing homes and other senior care facilities to have cameras installed covering all entrances and exits.
In 2019, when Darrell Hudson and his family went to visit his mother at an assisted living facility in Lexington County, they did not find her in her room. She had left the building and the facility staff didn’t know where she was. As the Councilman searched for her, he learned that the facility didn’t have cameras and that state law doesn’t require them. His mother was eventually found outside the facility with a head injury. Since then, Hudson has been working to advance legislation to prevent this from happening to others.
Councilman Hudson helped pass a resolution calling on the state legislature to require cameras in assisted living facilities in 2020. Hudson serves on the Central Midlands Council of Governments (CMCOG) Board of Directors, which approved a resolution with the same objective in October of 2024. CMCOG invited other jurisdictions to consider passing a similar resolution, and thus far the following SC municipalities have done so: the City of Newberry, the City of West Columbia, the Town of Pine Ridge, the Town of Lexington, and the City of Columbia.
South Carolina still does not have a law requiring cameras at long-term care facilities, but Councilman Hudson has made it his mission to improve the lives of vulnerable residents. “As long as I’m breathing, I won’t give up.”
About Central Midlands Council of Governments
Since 1969, Central Midlands Council of Governments has been assisting local governments develop local and regional plans with the four Midlands counties (Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry, and Richland) of South Carolina, as well as providing local governments with planning and technical support to improve the quality of life within the region.
