Alabama Voter Survey Finds Overwhelming Support for Caregiving Assistance

• Survey Launch Press release 5/13/2019
• 2019 Alabama Caregiving Survey Annotation
• Alabama Family Caregiver Profile One-pager
• Family Caregiver Act One-pager

Alabama lawmakers have a chance to help our state's 761,000 family caregiver's daily lives a bit less stressful.

Senate Bill 376 - the Alabama Family Caregiver Act - recognizes the critical role family caregivers play in keeping their loved ones out of costly institutions through three simple, no-cost provisions:

1. IDENTIFY - The name of the caregiver is recorded when a loved one is admitted into a hospital;
2. INFORM - The caregiver is notified if the loved one is to be discharged to another facility or back home; and
3. INSTRUCT - The facility provides instruction on basic tasks - such as medication management, injections, wound care, and transfers - that the caregiver will perform at home.

Join us and tell your state Senator to support Alabama caregivers and vote YES on SB376...

A new survey of Alabama registered voters ages 40-plus finds that the vast majority (82.3%) of current caregivers said that they will provide future caregiving or assistance on an unpaid basis to an adult loved one. It also found that eight in ten voters (82%) think it is very important to have more community resources and training for family caregivers.

The survey of 1,000 registered voters ages 40-plus conducted by AARP Alabama in February and March, also found that current caregivers are feeling stressed (70.4%), and current working caregivers are stressed trying to balance work and family (61.1%).

AARP Alabama State Director Candi Williams explains, “More than half (58%) of current and former caregivers are taking care of parents, meaning that many have to balance the demands of work, their own children and other needs. That is why there is such strong support for this simple measure that will make their labor of love less stressful and demanding.”

Other than balancing work and family, the survey found that the other major sources of stress for current caregivers are getting enough rest (64%), finding time to exercise (50%) and difficulty maintaining a healthy diet (33%).

AARP Alabama is fighting to support America’s 40 million family caregivers who help make it possible for older Americans to live independently at home—where they want to be. One measure being considered in the Alabama Statehouse will bring needed support to Alabama’s 761,000 caregivers.

The bipartisan Alabama Family Caregivers Act with bipartisan co-sponsors, has already been enacted in 39 states. This commonsense legislation works to prevent hospital readmissions and helps reduce caregiver stress and expense.

Voters show overwhelming bipartisan support for all three proven practices of the Family Caregivers Act:

• 95% feel hospitals should be required to explain and demonstrate any medical or nursing tasks family caregivers will need to perform after the patient returns home,
• 92% believe hospitals need to keep a family caregiver informed of major decisions, like transferring or discharging the patient,
• and 85% favor requiring hospitals to record the name of a patient’s family caregiver in the medical record upon admission.

Alabama’s family caregivers spend 708,000,000 hours each year caring for loved ones – a contribution totaling about $7.7 billion annually in unpaid care. They carry out tasks like managing finances, providing transportation, helping with bathing and dressing, cooking meals and more.

According to the survey, some family caregivers even take on complicated medical (58%) and managing medications (81%). Once only done by doctors and nurses in hospitals, these tasks are now performed by family caregivers at home, most with little to no training.