RESOLUTION CHAPTER _______

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 85—Relative to the Nursing Home Caregiver Professionals and Long Term Care Provider Month.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 85, Hall. Nursing Home Caregiver Professionals and Long Term Care Provider Month.

This measure would recognize the month of November 2015 as the Nursing Home Caregiver Professionals and Long Term Care Provider Month.

WHEREAS, There are 136,000 skilled nursing home professionals in California, of which 47,000 workers deliver quality institutional care to our most vulnerable residents, including seniors, adults, and children with disabilities in California; and

WHEREAS, The number of seniors requiring long term care will drastically increase as the number of Californians who are 65 years of age or older is estimated to grow to nine million people in the next 15 years; and

WHEREAS, All nursing home residents deserve quality care and their direct care professionals merit a safe working environment to help individuals recover from surgery and heal from trauma; and

WHEREAS, Nursing home caregivers provide essential services to residents that maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of the people they serve; and

WHEREAS, A fundamental part of providing quality long-term care is having a sufficient number of direct care staff available to build rapport with consumers and treat consumers in a dignified manner; and

WHEREAS, The work of nursing home caregivers often goes unnoticed, as do the financial struggles caregivers and their families experience in order to provide this lifeline service to those in need; and

WHEREAS, Increasing the number of nursing home caregivers in facilities across the state is an integral part of quality care; and

WHEREAS, Providing long-term care workers with a living wage will generate the demand for goods and services in the local economy, stimulate increased employment opportunities, and drive workers and their families one step closer to getting out of poverty; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes the month of November 2015 as Nursing Home Caregiver Professionals and Long Term Care Provider Month, and that the Legislature stands united with nursing home direct care professionals, acknowledging the essential work and contributions they bring to counties and cities of the state and supporting their efforts to lift themselves and their communities out of poverty; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

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