AARP Applauds Passage of SB 675: The California Hospital & Family Caregiver Law

 

STATEMENT OF AARP CALIFORNIA STATE DIRECTOR NANCY McPHERSON:

On behalf of AARP’s 3.1 million California members, I wish to thank Governor Brown for signing into law SB 675 (Liu) and Senator Carol Liu for her leadership in authoring this legislation, now known as The California Hospital & Family Caregiver Law.

Today, millions of Californians are providing care for a family member, partner, or friend with a chronic, disabling, or serious health condition. These “family caregivers” provide indispensable help with such tasks as meal-preparation, bathing, dressing, administering medications and wound-care. AARP has estimated that the annual economic value of these services is more than $57 BILLION.

At the same time, family caregiving today is more complex, costly, stressful, and demanding than at any other time. Many family caregivers are unprepared to provide the necessary care for a loved one who has been discharged from a hospital.

The California Hospital & Family Caregiver Law will:

• Require California hospitals to record the name of the family caregiver when a loved one is admitted to a hospital, notify the family caregiver when the loved one is to be discharged to another facility or home, and provide detailed instruction about the medical tasks that the family caregiver will perform.
• Require this information to include, but not be limited to, education and counseling about the patient's medications, including dosing and proper use of medication delivery devices, when applicable.
• Require the information be provided in a culturally appropriate manner in a language that is understood by the patient and caregiver, and includes an opportunity for the caregiver to ask questions.
• Require hospital discharge planning policies to ensure that planning is appropriate to the condition of the patient, meets the patient's needs and acuity, and is appropriate to the discharge destination.

 

The need to support family caregivers is greater than it has ever been, and it will continue to grow as our population ages. The California Hospital & Family Caregiver Law is an important step toward ensuring that this need is met.

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