Advocacy

The Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), which provides electricity around Tulsa, McAlester and Lawton for about 550,000 households, is proposing an $88 million rate hike.

Oklahoma ranks among the worst in the nation on several measures of quality of care in nursing homes. This must stop! AARP Oklahoma has created the Nursing Home CARE Plan which is a series of bills that begin to correct the ways in which our state’s most frail and vulnerable are cared for:

Join AARP Oklahoma for a telephone town hall on the role advance practice nurses play in solving Oklahoma’s health care crisis.

Our state is experiencing a health care crisis and there is no sign of that letting up. While physicians play an important role, it is a variety of professional nurses who provide care for us at all levels. SB 839 would allow our Nurse Practitioners to practice to their full education and training while SB 801 would remove an antiquated requirement for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists that is threatening rural hospitals from being able to provide surgeries.

Oklahoma ranks first in the nation in the use of antipsychotic drugs without a psychiatric diagnosis in nursing home residents. Oklahoma nursing home records show one in five residents are inappropriately prescribed antipsychotics despite the medications' serious side effects. Instead of treating our nursing home residents with respect and dignity, and providing proper care, our nursing home owners simply sedate them with drugs that carry dangerous and deadly side effects. Chemical restraint of our seniors must be stopped.

Year after year, Oklahoma nursing home care ranks among the worst in the nation. Now, a News on 6 investigation, Oklahoma Nursing Homes Rank Among Worst in Nation, underscores the severity of the problem. Watch the special report HERE.

AARP Oklahoma and The Alzheimer’s Association Oklahoma Chapter today announced support for Senate Bill 142. SB 142, introduced by Senator Stephanie Bice (R-Oklahoma City) and Representative Tammy West (R-Bethany), will require a nursing home resident to have a psychiatric diagnosis prior to the prescription of antipsychotic medications.

AARP Oklahoma wants to ensure that residents in the state’s nursing facilities receive proper care and attention.

More than 524,000 Oklahomans care for older parents, spouses and other loved ones so they can live independently in their homes and communities. These unpaid family caregivers provide 488 million hours of care valued at a staggering six billion dollars annually, according to AARP Oklahoma, the nonprofit and nonpartisan advocacy organization for Americans 50 and older.

Did you know Oklahoma ranks among the worst of states surveyed in the quality of care provided in nursing homes? Join us for a telephone town hall to find out how you can help improve the lives of many of Oklahoma’s most frail and vulnerable. Also, learn about options available to you and your loved ones to remain living independently in your own homes for as long as possible.