Who Will Care For Me video explains caregivers' rights

You should now be better prepared when a loved one comes home from a hospital stay, thanks to a state law passed in 2016.

You may be caring for an older parent or a loved one helping them to live independently in their own homes. Chances are that you have a lot of responsibility for your family member’s well-being, and now there’s support in place to make life a little bit easier.

AARP Nebraska led efforts to pass the Assisting Caregiver Transitions Act – also known as ACT – to help family caregivers when their loved one goes into the hospital and as they transition home.

Watch Who Will Care for Me, a video recently produced by a team of AARP Nebraska volunteers to inform caregivers and patients about their rights under the ACT.
“An ongoing priority for AARP is to support caregivers and their families,” said Danny DeLong, volunteer project chair for Who Will Care for Me. “Family caregivers in Nebraska provide more than 180 million hours of unpaid care valued at $2.5 billion annually. The Assisting Caregiver Transitions Act recognizes the critical role of caregivers in our state.”

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Specifically, the ACT requires that:

• The name of the family caregiver is recorded when a loved one is admitted into a hospital.

• The family caregiver is notified if the loved one is to be discharged to another facility or back home;

• The facility must provide a description of tasks necessary to assist the patient and provide the caregiver with contact information for services in the community; and

• The facility must provide an explanation and live instruction of the medical tasks – such as medication management, injections, wound care and transfers – that the family caregiver will provide at home.

Feel free to contact us a neaarp@aarp.org or 1-866-389-5651 if you have questions about the Assisting Caregiver Transitions Act or other family caregiving issues.

For nearly anything else you might need to know as a caregiver, AARP offers resources from A to Z at www.aarp.org/caregiving. Be sure to add this site to your favorites list and check back often to see what’s new!