AARP honors legislators for helping family caregivers

PROVIDENCE – The AARP named Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, House Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello, D-Cranston, Sens. Gayle L. Goldin, D-Providence, and Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, and Reps. Eileen S. Naughton, D-Warwick, and Joseph M. McNamara, D-Warwick, as 2015 “Capitol Caregivers,” a bipartisan group from 25 states. These elected officials have furthered policies to help family caregivers who enable elder Rhode Islanders to independently “age in place” in their homes, according to the organization.

“AARP thanks these members of the General Assembly for championing passage of the CARE Act of 2015,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Kathleen Connell, in a statement. “They provided integral leadership to pass the CARE Act … and helped make the huge responsibilities of family caregivers in Rhode Island a little bit easier.”

The CARE Act allows a family caregiver to get timely information that can assist in the post-discharge care of the ill family member. The law calls on the hospital to notify and alert the family caregiver if the ill family member is being transferred to another facility or being discharged. By providing the family caregiver with timely information, the caregiver can better coordinate and manage the transition from one care setting to another. The law also creates a framework for hospitals to provide the caregiver, before the patient is discharged, instructions on after-care medical and nursing tasks that the patient will need at home.

According to AARP, family caregivers assume huge responsibilities; the organization’s Public Policy Institute reports that, at any time during the year, some 148,000 Rhode Island caregivers provide 142 million hours of care for an aging parent or relative, helping them to live independently at home. Based on that 2009 data, the care that these family caregivers provide is valued at nearly $1.9 billion each year.

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“The CARE Act,” said Connell in the statement, “is just the first step in providing a little bit of help for family caregivers. AARP will continue to fight for Rhode Island’s family caregivers and their loved ones in 2016: For more support, help at home, workplace flexibility, training, financial protection and more.”

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