FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Sacramento, CA) The California Senior Legislature (CSL) adjourned its 41st Annual Legislative Session and announced the Top Ten State Legislative Proposals and Top Federal proposal earlier this week. Members will advocate diligently during the 2022 legislative session to have state lawmakers support these priorities.
The following were listed as the top ten State Legislative proposals:
AP-5: Oral Healthcare in Skilled Nursing Facilities
(Senior Assembly Member Carolyn Fowler, Inglewood, CA)
This measure would require the State Department of Public Health to promulgate regulations to authorize registered dental hygienists in alternative practice to provide oral health in-service training to staff in skilled nursing facilities and provide oral health care services in skilled nursing facilities.
SP-14: Personal Needs Allowance
(Senior Senator David Wood, Three Rivers, CA)
This measure would increase the personal needs allowance from $35 to $50 per month.
SP-13: Skilled Nursing Facilities: End of Life Privacy
(Senior Senator Tony Rodella, Anaheim, CA)
This measure would require the administrators of skilled nursing facilities in the state to work with a resident who has been diagnosed as having less than 5 days to live, or with the resident’s family, to provide sufficient privacy for the dying resident so that the family or clergy or both may be with the resident and help provide a dignified death and the giving of the Last Rites.
AP-14: Hospice Standards
(Senior Assembly Member Joan Yacovone, Augora Hills, CA)
This measure would require the State of California to make various reforms relating to hospice, including strengthening hospice standards by requiring inspections every 3 years and requiring the recertification for hospice enrolled patients to be conducted by at least one independent physician in conjunction with the hospice physician.
SP-4: Home Care Aides: Home Health Aides: Training Program Scholarships
(Senior Senator Karen Gorback, Thousand Oaks, CA)
This measure would enact legislation titled “The California Caregivers Training Scholarship Act” to incentivize enrollment in home care aide or home health aide training programs at a California Community College or Public Adult Day School, by awarding scholarships of $1,500 each to up to 1,000 people per year through December 30, 2026, for tuition and other expenses, with requirements that scholarship recipients work in the field for at least one year.
AP-4: Default Hierarchy Surrogate Consent Laws
(Senior Assembly Member Gene Dorio, Santa Clarita, CA)
This measure would adopt default hierarchy surrogate consent laws similar to those existing in other states in which family members and the people closest to a patient by kinship become designated surrogate decisionmakers for the patient’s health care decisions under appropriate circumstances, including where the patient is incapacitated or otherwise unable to personally designate a surrogate.
AP-6: Public Transportation: Accessible Transportation Services: Seniors and Disabled Persons
(Senior Assembly Member Shirley Krohn, Walnut Creek, CA)
This measure would create the Accessible Transportation Account in the State Transportation Fund, establish a new vehicle registration fee or vehicle license fee to the fund the account, require moneys in the account to be used to fund accessible transportation services for seniors and disabled persons, and authorize consolidated transportation services agencies to oversee local expenditures of the moneys in the account.
AP-3: Skilled Nursing Facilities: Back-Up Electrical Supply
(Senior Assembly Member Mark Cox, Yucaipa, CA)
This measure would require a skilled nursing facility to have an alternative source of electricity, that complies with specified Federal requirements, to protect resident health and safety for no less than 96 hours during any type of electrical outage.
SP-3: Adult Residential Facilities: Notification of Closures
(Senior Senator Allegra Fortunati, San Francisco, CA)
This measure would require the licensee to notify additional specified local and county entities of a proposed closure under certain circumstances.
AP-12: Mental Health: Telephone Support Services
(Senior Assembly Member Anne Warren, San Francisco, CA)
This would use appropriate sources of behavioral health funds to fund grant programs in counties that would provide telephone support services for the senior and disabled populations, including providing paraprofessional volunteers through assertive outreach, who would be provided training to recognize when a professional referral should be made, contacting seniors and individuals with disabilities, and providing a “listening setting” to identify resources needed to reduce anxieties and other behavioral challenges, in order to combat social isolation and help rebuild social capital.
The following was identified as the Top Federal Legislative proposal:
SFP-2: Women Veterans
(Senior Senator Ted Kagan, El Cajon, CA)
This measure would recognize all women who have served in the Armed Forces of the United States.
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INFORMATION CONTACT:
For more information contact Janice Bailey, Executive Director, at (916) 552-8056 or jbailey@seniorleg.ca.gov.