Standing Up for Our Senior Citizens
Nearly 500,000 Connecticut residents act as caregivers, and many of them feel unprepared to provide the technical care needed to keep their loved ones healthy. Senate Democrats partnered with AARP to pass the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, which guarantees that caregivers are given follow-up care instructions when a patient is discharged from the hospital or nursing home and to reduce costly hospital readmissions.
The CARE Act will better prepare family members and friends to perform the critical task of helping our loved ones remain in their homes and physically recover. Additionally, The CARE Act was specifically designed to alleviate the stress and uncertainty caregivers face, and will empower them to keep their family members in the community and out of the hospital.
The CARE Act requires hospitals and nursing homes to:
- Provide each patient with the opportunity to designate a caregiver during the patient’s admission to the hospital or nursing home
- Make reasonable attempts to notify the designated caregiver if the patient is to be discharged back to his or her home, and
- Provide the caregiver with instructions on how to perform medication management, wound care, injections or other medical tasks for the patient when the patient returns home.