Protect funding for Home and Community Based Programs
Over 178,000 Connecticut residents are providing unpaid care to loved ones with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia thus enabling a large portion of the 80,000 people living with dementia in Connecticut to live in the community, instead of moving into more costly residential long-term care. Respite care provides a much-needed break for family caregivers. In cases where finances are tight, Connecticut's state-funded Alzheimer’s Respite Care Program steps in with limited but critical support. The Program funds can help provide occasional adult day care services or a personal care aide in the home a few times a month allowing the family caregiver to take care of their personal medical issues, complete tasks outside of the home, or simply enjoy time off from the demands of caregiving. Without these funds, many caregivers risk worsening their own health. Additionally, the Connecticut Home Care Program for Elders (CHCPE) serves thousands of people age 65 + who are at risk for nurs
Address COVID-19 Challenges in the Long-Term Care Setting
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to create additional challenges for people living with dementia, their families and caregivers. These challenges are particularly being felt in long-term care settings. Indeed, nursing homes and assisted living communities are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, where 48% of nursing home residents are living with dementia, and 42% of residents in residential care facilities, including assisted living communities, have Alzheimer’s or another dementia. We are urging state policymakers to continue to prioritize policy solutions to address the immediate and long term issues impacting care facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, we are supporting recommendations from the recent Mathematica report studying the state's response in long-term care settings as well as the Nursing Home and Assisted Living Oversight working group who is addressing the structural challenges in the operation and infrastructure of nursing homes
Connecticut State Plan Overview
In 2013, Connecticut's legislature passed Special Act 13-11, creating the state's Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. The Task Force met six times between September and December of 2013 and published a list of recommendations in December 2013 in the Report of the Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia. The state plan focuses on short-term goals meant be completed over the course of three to five years. In January 2020, the Task Force published an update to the state plan, focusing on progress made, updating recommendations, and expanding the role for the Connecticut Department of Public Health.
Connecticut State Advocacy Day
April 13, 2021
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Virtual CT Advocacy Day on April 13th, 2021.
