State Legislation, Policy & Reports
California: Issue Brief on Long-Term Care Policy Over the Last Decade
The California HealthCare Foundation recently released an issue brief, "Long-Term Care Reform: Ten Years After Little Hoover," which examines the progress made to improve the availability, access, and quality of long-term care in California over the past decade. It reports that efforts to fulfill recommendations made ten years ago by an independent state oversight agency, known as the Little Hoover Commission, and to tackle broad systemic change have been largely inadequate, noting that families still face huge hurdles in trying to identify and find appropriate care for their loved ones with long-term care needs. For more information, visit:
California HealthCare Foundation
Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota, Wisconsin: Case Studies on Long-Term Care Policy Reform in Four States
The National Conference of State Legislators released an issue brief, "Long-Term Care Reform: Legislative Efforts to Shift Care to the Community," in December 2006 which contains brief case studies on long-term care policy reform in four states, Iowa, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin. The case studies describe examples of "narrowly focused state legislation that is setting the policy and infrastructure for consumer direction, expanding the direct care workforce, and supporting persons who return to the community after living in institutions." For more information, visit:
Clearinghouse for the Community Living Exchange Collaborative
Massachusetts: Enhanced Adult Family Care Program Will Soon Pay Family Caregivers
The new Enhanced MassHealth Adult Family Care program will soon allow family members to be eligible for about $18,000 to provide a loved one with the help and support that prevents or delays institutional care. Caregivers may be any friend or family member other than a spouse, parent, or legally responsible relative, and the program will allow elders and persons with disabilities to move into a caregiver's home or caregivers to move into the individual's home. Qualified individuals must meet financial eligibility requirements for MassHealth, Massachusetts' Medicaid program, and require physical assistance with activities of daily living and/or help managing their behavior. For more information, visit:
Malden Observer
AARP Releases Across the States 2006 and Includes Data on Family Caregivers and Support Programs
In December 2006, AARP released Across the States 2006: Profiles of Long-Term Care and Independent Living. It presents comparable state-level and national data for 150 indicators from a wide variety of sources. Among the new indicators in the state profiles of the 2006 edition is the percentage of adults who are caregivers for an older person with a disability or long-term illness. For the first time, two of the maps in the long-term care section of the report profile family caregiver support programs. These data were based on the 2004 report titled, "The State of the State in Family Caregiver Support: A 50-State Study," produced by the National Center on Caregiving at FCA and funded by the U.S. Administration on Aging. For more information, visit:
AARP
Federal Legislation, Policy & Reports
President Signs Lifespan Respite Care Act
President Bush signed the Lifespan Respite Care Act into law on December 21, 2006. The new law authorizes $289 million over five years for states to: (1) develop lifespan respite care at the state and local level; (2) provide respite care services for family caregivers caring for children or adults; (3) train and recruit respite care workers and volunteers; (4) provide information to caregivers about available respite or support services; and (5) assist caregivers in gaining access to such services. The new law cannot be implemented until Congress appropriates the funding. For more information, visit:
THOMAS
Fundamental Principles and Clinical Practice Guidelines for Caregiver Assessment Accepted by the National Guideline Clearinghouse and Posted Online
During the week of December 25, 2006, "Caregiver Assessment: Principles, Guidelines and Strategies for Change" were posted to the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC). The NGC, an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents. The NGC provides health professionals, health care providers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining detailed information on practice guidelines and facilitating their dissemination, implementation and use. The caregiver assessment guidelines incorporate fundamental principles and practice guidelines resulting from the National Consensus Development Conference for Caregiver Assessment convened by FCA's National Center on Caregiving in September 2005. Funding for the national consensus project was provided by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with additional support from the Archstone Foundation and The California Endowment. For more information, visit:
National Guideline Clearinghouse
HHS Launches New Website on Long-Term Care Planning
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration on Aging (AoA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) recently launched a new web site, the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information, which "provides comprehensive information about long-term care planning, services and financing options, along with tools to help people begin the planning process." The web site is "designed to increase public awareness about the risks and costs of long-term care and the potential need for services, and to provide objective information to help people plan for the future." For more information, visit:
National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information
International News
Canada: Respite Care Programs
The Canadian newsmagazine, The Family Caregiver, published an article in Volume 2, Issue 4 called "Respite Care Programs in Canada." The article describes various respite programs and policies in different Canadian provinces. It pointed out, for example, how Nova Scotia's policy of providing in-home and nursing home care as two respite options is not working well because it doesn't match precisely with want caregivers need. On the other hand, the article describes a model caregiver support program in Quebec which offers a variety of unique programs intended to fit caregivers' needs, including adult day services, in-home stimulation programs, and short-term counseling for caregivers. For more information, visit:
The Family Caregiver
Research Reports & Journal Articles
Study on Effects of Disease Management on Dementia Care
The Annals of Internal Medicine published an article in its November 21, 2006 issue (Volume 145, Issue 10) called "The Effect of Disease Management Intervention on Quality and Outcomes of Dementia Care" by Dr. Barbara Vickrey and her colleagues. The article highlighted the findings of a study in which some patients and their caregivers "received higher-quality health care and more assistance" than those in the control group, including care managers who "regularly assessed and coordinated guideline-recommended provision of services by health care providers and community agencies using computerized information systems." The study found that those who received the intervention had higher quality health care and better caregiver quality. An accompanying editorial by Kenneth Covinsky and C. Bree Johnston made the point that "caregivers need to be a dominant focus of any effective dementia management strategy" and advocated for Medicare and other providers to reimburse an extensive array of caregiver support services. For more information, visit:
Annals of Internal Medicine
Consumer-Directed Supports Shown to Have Positive Impact on Caregivers
The December 2006 issue of Mental Retardation (Volume 44, Number 6) recently included an article called "Consumer-Directed Supports: Economic, Health, and Social Outcomes for Families" by Joe Caldwell. The article reported on "the impact of a consumer-directed support program on family caregivers of adults with developmental disabilities." "Caregivers of adults in the program reported fewer out-of-pocket disability expenses, greater access to health care, engagement in more social activities, and greater leisure satisfaction" than those not in the program. Furthermore, caregivers in lower income families "reported better mental health and access to health care than did similar caregivers on the waiting list" for the program. For more information, visit:
Mental Retardation
Study Finds Occupational Therapy Helps Adults with Dementia and Their Caregivers
BMJ, formerly called British Medical Journal, recently published "Community based occupational therapy for patients with dementia and their caregivers: Randomised controlled trial" by Maud Graff and her colleagues in its December 9, 2006 issue. The article reported findings from a study that provided adults 65 years and older with mild to moderate dementia and their caregivers ten sessions of occupational therapy "to train patients in the use of aids to compensate for cognitive decline and caregivers in coping behaviors and supervision." The study found that "occupational therapy improved patients' daily functioning and reduced the burden on the caregiver, despite the patients' limited learning ability." For more information, visit:
BMJ
"Hispanic Health and Aging in a New Century"
"Hispanic Health and Aging in a New Century" is a report of the Second Conference on Aging in the Americas (SCAIA). It reported that less than 3% of older Hispanics reside in nursing homes, compared to 5% of all people in the United States, which creates a greater reliance on family members for long-term care. The tendency for elderly Hispanics to receive long-term care in the community, rather than an institutional setting, is the case for a number of reasons, including cultural norms and the lower socio-economic status of many Hispanic families. The report stresses the need for more understanding about "the availability of Hispanic community-based elder care services, including culturally welcoming adult day care, assisted living, and nursing homes." For more information, visit:
National Alliance for Hispanic Health
Conferences & Trainings
National Conference on Caregiving Slated for March 6, 2007
FCA's National Center on Caregiving, in partnership with the American Society on Aging, is presenting a one-day preconference special program "Family Caregiving: State of the Art, Future Trends," at the 2007 Joint Conference of the American Society on Aging (ASA) and the National Council on Aging (NCOA). The special program will be held on Tuesday, March 6 from 8:30am-5:00pm in Chicago (the Joint Conference will be held March 7-10). It will bring together experts from practice, policy and research arenas to discuss leading edge research, effective service interventions, and future trends that will profoundly affect family caregivers. For conference speakers, program details and information on registration, visit:
Family Caregiver Alliance
Alzheimer's Association to Hold Public Policy Forum in March 2007
The Alzheimer's Association's 19th Annual Public Policy Forum will be held in Washington, D.C., from March 18-20, 2007. The event will bring together advocates from around the country to communicate a message to Congress that Alzheimer's is a non-partisan epidemic that must be addressed immediately. For more information, visit:
Alzheimer's Association
Free Web Seminar on Planning Care for People with Alzheimer's
The American Society on Aging (ASA) and the Medicare Rights Center have teamed up to offer two free web seminars. One is on Planning and Coordinating Care for People with Alzheimer's, in which caregivers and healthcare professionals will receive the tools they need to help loved ones and clients recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The other seminar is on how uninsured baby boomers can save on prescription drug costs. Both presentations are currently available on demand. For more information, visit:
American Society on Aging
Funding, Media & Miscellaneous
National Council on Aging Upgrades BenefitsCheckup Website
The National Council on Aging (NCOA) launched a more user-friendly BenefitsCheckup website in December 2006. BenefitsCheckUp is a free and confidential online service that helps seniors determine what benefits they qualify for and how to claim them. The upgraded website "has more consistent navigation to help seniors, families and other users find what they are looking for faster and easier; including applying for Medicare Part D's Extra Help, or finding and enrolling in... many other Federal, state, local and private benefit programs." For more information, visit:
BenefitsCheckup
"Elder-Care Costs Deplete Savings of a Generation"
On December 30, 2006, the New York Times reported on the growing number of adult children who are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars a month in out-of-pocket expenses to care for their elderly parents. Many of these children deplete their savings and sacrifice their own retirement security to cover their parents' long term care expenses, most of which are not covered by Medicare and are covered by Medicaid only for those who are low-income. The article points out that, unless public policy addresses the gap in the government safety net for the elderly, this will continue to be a common story among adult children as the baby boom generation retires, grows older and lives longer. For more information, visit:
New York Times
