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| Home > Newsletters > Caregiving PolicyDigest > Volume VIII, Number 19, September 24, 2008
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| A newsletter of FCA's National Center on Caregiving |
September 24, 2008
Volume VIII, Number 19
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IN THIS ISSUE
State Legislation, Policy & Reports
- Rhode Island: Proposes CMS Waiver to Cap Funding, Reform Long-Term Care More...
- Seven States Receive CMS Grants to Develop Person-Centered Hospital Discharge Planning Models More...
Federal Legislation, Policy & Reports
- CMS Launches Efforts to Help Family Caregivers More...
- AARP Report Highlights the Millions of Adults Who Cannot Get Medicaid More...
International News
- United Kingdom: House of Commons Committee Releases Report on Family Caregivers More...
Research Reports & Journal Articles
- American Journal of Nursing Focuses on Nurses' and Social Workers' Support of Family Caregivers More...
- Article Examines Interface of Formal and Informal Service Networks in Early Stage Dementia More...
- Paper Examines Adult Children's Influence on Spousal Caregiving More...
Conferences & Trainings
- Event Highlights Global Perspectives on Family Caregiving More...
- NCCNHR Annual Meeting and Conference October 15-17 More...
Funding, Media & Miscellaneous
- New Resource for Chinese-American Dementia Caregivers More...
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Rhode Island: Proposes CMS Waiver to Cap Funding, Reform Long-Term Care
Rhode Island has submitted a proposal to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for a first-ever "Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver," under which it would accept a capped funding amount of federal Medicaid dollars in exchange for the broad discretion to reduce Medicaid service packages, increase cost-sharing and narrow the standards of "medical need." The state is seeking such a waiver, whose effect would be to cut services and reduce the number of beneficiaries eligible for services, in order to control its Medicaid costs. While the state claims that such a waiver would allow it to emphasize home- and community-based services over institutional care, the limited funding from such a waiver could have a detrimental effect on older adults, adults with disabilities and their family caregivers. Although the Bush Administration has promoted such proposals, there is opposition from legislators and consumer advocates. For more information, visit:
Rhode Island - Government Press Releases
Seven States Receive CMS Grants to Develop Person-Centered Hospital Discharge Planning Models
On September 5, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced more than $8.3 million in grants to seven states to help maximize opportunities for older adults and people with disabilities to live at home or in the community and to have services organized around their needs, rather than place them in settings where care is delivered. The majority of this funding is for states to develop "Person-Centered Hospital Discharge Planning Models," which are intended to engage patients and their family caregivers with the hospital discharge planning process. These grant awards are part of the Real Choice Systems Change (RCSC) Grant Program. Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, South Carolina and Wisconsin all received grants. For more information, visit: CMS
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CMS Launches Efforts to Help Family Caregivers
As part of an overall caregiver initiative, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released two resources to assist family caregivers caring for Medicare beneficiaries. First, CMS developed a checklist to help patients and their family caregivers prepare to leave a hospital, nursing home or other health care setting. This discharge planning document includes a series of 16 questions for patients and caregivers to ask themselves and to discuss with hospital personnel to ensure they have a clear understanding of the patient's needs once they return home and how those needs will be met. Second, CMS launched Ask Medicare, a website for caregivers that answers questions about Medicare coverage and benefits, provides links to key organizations that assist caregivers and beneficiaries, presents personal stories from caregivers in the community, and offers support information and tools to help caregivers address common problems. For more information, visit:
CMS - Discharge Checklist
CMS - Ask Medicare
AARP Report Highlights the Millions of Adults Who Cannot Get Medicaid
AARP Public Policy Institute released a September research report called "Millions of Low-Income Americans Can't Get Medicaid: What Can Be Done?" The report, by Stan Dorn of the Urban Institute, explains that the defined categories of people who are eligible for Medicaid is very limiting and prevents many adults, no matter how poor, from accessing Medicaid. It describes the characteristics of low-income uninsured adults who do not have access to Medicaid, describes the impact of uninsurance on the health status of this population, and offers three approaches the federal government could take to provide access to this vulnerable group. This issue is particularly relevant to ill or disabled adults under 65 years old who are often ineligible for Medicaid but need it in order to receive long-term care services and relief for their family caregivers. For more information, visit:
AARP Public Policy Institute
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United Kingdom: House of Commons Committee Releases Report on Family Caregivers
The Select Committee on Work and Pensions in the U.K. House of Commons recently released a report called "Valuing and Supporting Carers." This report gets more specific than the broad ten-year vision for carers that comprised the U.K. Government's recent report, Carers at the Heart of 21st Century Families and Communities, to propose "two distinctive 'tiers' of support for carers, offering: (i) income replacement support for carers unable to work, or working only part-time; and (ii) compensation for the additional costs of caring for all carers in intensive caring roles." The report also provides detailed information about carers in Britain and the services currently available to them. For more information, visit:
U.K. House of Commons - Select Committee on Work and Pensions
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American Journal of Nursing Focuses on Nurses' and Social Workers' Support of Family Caregivers
The September supplemental issue of the American Journal of Nursing focuses on family caregiving and includes guest editors Susan Reinhard of AARP, Ashley Brooks-Danso of the Council on Social Work Education, and Family Caregiver Alliance's Kathleen Kelly. The issue, the result of a collaborative effort with those organizations as well as the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, is titled State of the Science: Professional Partners Supporting Family Caregivers. The issue includes articles from experts on the evidence currently available to guide nurses and social workers in better supporting family caregivers of older adults. It includes recommendations for developing nurse and social worker competencies to support family caregiving, recommendations for developing and promoting a patient- and family-centered service paradigm, recommendations for strategies to increase the ability of nurses and social workers to support caregivers, and a proposed agenda for research on family caregiving. The effort was funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation and the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation. For more information, visit:
American Journal of Nursing
Family Caregiver Alliance Press Release
Article Examines Interface of Formal and Informal Service Networks in Early Stage Dementia
An article in the Journal of Aging and Health (Volume 20, Number 6) investigates the interface between formal and informal service networks, including health care practitioners and caregivers of people with Alzheimer's disease living in the community. The article, "Social Care Interface in Early Stage Dementia: Practitioners' Perspectives on the Links between Formal and Informal Networks" by Dr. Normand Carpentier and colleagues, reveals that contact between practitioners and caregivers in the early stages of dementia seemed beneficial. The authors argue that the "problematic interface between formal and informal service networks could be improved by a greater understanding of micro-social and organizational-level interactions and implementing a social model of care." For more information, visit:
Journal of Aging and Health
Paper Examines Adult Children's Influence on Spousal Caregiving
A working paper (No. 14328) from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) examines whether adult children affect the care elderly parents provide each other. The paper, "Long-Term Care of the Disabled Elderly: Do Children Increase Caregiving by Spouses?" by Liliana Pezzin and colleagues, provides two models in which the anticipated behavior of adult children provides incentives for elderly parents to increase care for their disabled spouses. It concludes that spouses provide more care when they have children with strong parental attachment. For more information, visit:
National Bureau of Economic Research
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Event Highlights Global Perspectives on Family Caregiving
AARP, the National Alliance for Caregiving and the United Nations Programme on Ageing are hosting "Global Perspectives on Family Caregiving," an event on the United Nations International Day of Older Persons. It will be held on October 1, 2008 from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Speakers will present regional perspectives on caregiving to highlight the increasingly important role family caregivers play around the world. The event is by invitation only. For more information, visit:
AARP International
NCCNHR Annual Meeting and Conference October 15-17
The National Citizen's Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) is hosting its 33rd Annual Meeting and Conference October 15-17, 2008 in Indianapolis. It will combine presentations on the day's top long-term care issues with skills-building to help participants translate issues into action and action into better care. To register or for more information, visit:
NCCNHR
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New Resource for Chinese-American Dementia Caregivers
The Stanford Geriatric Education Center (SGEC) recently released a new resource for Chinese-Americans who are caring for a family member with dementia. The new 2.5 hour DVD in Mandarin Chinese provides education about dementia, delivered by a Chinese gero-psychiatrist, and offers a series of specific scenarios about common behavior problems - depicting both "less helpful" and "more helpful" ways of responding to the situations. A study showed that the DVD was an effective intervention for improving caregivers' knowledge of Alzheimer's disease and for reducing their stress and burden from managing the common problems. The DVD, along with a notebook, can be purchased by check from the SGEC for $25. For more information, visit:
Stanford Geriatric Education Center
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To find caregiver support services in your state, visit FCA's Family Care Navigator http://caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/fcn_content_node.jsp?nodeid=2083
?2008 Family Caregiver Alliance. All rights reserved.
The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance works to advance the development of high-quality and cost-effective policies and programs for caregivers in every state in the country. The National Center is a central source of information and technical assistance on family caregiving for policymakers, health and service providers, program developers, funders, media and families. For questions or further information about the National Center on Caregiving, contact PolicyDigest@caregiver.org or visit the Family Caregiver Alliance website at www.caregiver.org.
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Caregiving PolicyDigest is a publication of the National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance, 180 Montgomery Street, Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94104.
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