AARP 2014 Annual Report Download - page 14

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 14 of the 2014 AARP annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 40

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40

12 2014 AARP ANNUAL REPORT
SOCIAL IMPACT: CAREGIVING ADVOCACY
>Updated “scorecards” prepared by AARP’s Public Policy Institute ranked all 50
states on a range of long-term care services and supports.
>Twenty states shifted greater support away from institutional care toward services
provided for older Americans at home, with AARP’s support.
>Nurse practitioners and other advanced practice registered nurses will be allowed
to serve as the primary or acute care provider of record in four more states (Con-
necticut, Kentucky, Louisiana and Minnesota).
FIGHTING TO SUPPORT CAREGIVERS
When her dad was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, Kristin
Mitchem, 37, left her job as a pastry chef in North Carolina to help
her parents in Oklahoma City.
After her father came home from the hos-
pital, Kristin and her mother, Cheryl, did
their best to perform complex medical tasks:
cleaning feeding tubes, capping catheter
lines and giving injections.
The Mitchems are far from alone. Nearly
half of family caregivers perform tasks once
limited to trained nurses, according to a
2014 AARP survey.
With help from the Mitchems and many
others, AARP persuaded Oklahoma to
become the first state to pass the Caregiver
Advise, Report, Enable (CARE) Act, which is
designed to reduce hospital readmissions
by requiring hospitals to ask each patient to
identify a caregiver. The law requires hospi-
tals to teach caregivers how to do follow-up
procedures at home, and to notify care-
givers if their loved one is to be moved or
discharged. New Jersey became the second
state to enact this commonsense law.
“This experience has been so eye
opening and has given me the
chance to see and learn that AARP
not only advocates for seniors, but
for their family members as well.
So thank YOU and the ENTIRE
AARP family for all that you do. I
am glad to know that there are
individuals out there fighting to
help people who are almost always
forgotten.” — Kristin Mitchem
Kristin Mitchem
(far right), was
among the
advocates who
saw Oklahoma
Governor Mary
Fallin (seated)
sign the CARE
Act into law.