Vitale Bill to Establish Caregiver Support Task Force Advances

BODY WOULD EVALUATE, MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SUPPORT SERVICES

TRENTON – A bill sponsored by Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizen Committee Chair Joseph F. Vitale that would establish a task force to evaluate caregiver support services in the state and provide recommendations for the improvement and expansion of such services was approved by the Senator’s committee today.

The task force would consist of 11 members: the Commissioner of Human Services, the President of the New Jersey chapter of the AARP, the Executive Director of Caregivers of New Jersey, the Executive Director of The Arc of New Jersey, the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness New Jersey, the President of the Home Care and Hospice Association of New Jersey, the President of LeadingAge New Jersey, and the President of the Alzheimer’s Association Greater New Jersey Chapter, or their designees; and three public members appointed by the Governor.  The public members would include one person who is a caregiver for a person with a disability, one person who is a caregiver for a person with mental illness, and one person who is a caregiver for an elderly person.

The task force would be required to meet within 30 days of the appointment of its members and elect a chairperson from among the members. The task force would hold at least one meeting in each of the northern, central, and southern regions of the State. The task force would be able to conduct business without a quorum but only vote when a quorum is present.

The task force would furthermore be authorized to solicit, receive, and expend any grant moneys or other funds that may be made available for the task force’s purposes. The Department of Human Services would provide professional and clerical staff to the task force.

The bill defines “caregiver support services” to mean any type of support or assistance made available to caregivers in the State, including but not limited to: financial support or assistance from any source, as well as any other type of support or assistance provided by public or private employers, hospitals, health care providers or organizations, or government agencies.  The term “caregiver” means any person, regardless of age, who assists an elderly or functionally impaired individual perform daily tasks, in a non-medical setting and without compensation.

The task force would be required to:

1. identify existing caregiver support services available in the State;
2. survey caregivers in the State in order to develop a summary of caregiver characteristics, including the numbers of caregivers in the State, their ages and geographic locations, the amount of time spent engaged in caregiving activities, the number of work absences due to caretaker activities, the nature of illnesses or conditions suffered by the persons being cared for, and existing support services most commonly utilized by caregivers; and
3. receive testimony from caregivers regarding the type and frequency of tasks performed, feasibility of delegating tasks to other caregivers or to medical personnel, sufficiency of caregiver training programs, caregiving costs, sufficiency of financial support services and respite care services, experiences of caregivers in relation to support services, caregiver experiences interacting with entities in relation to caregiving, use of medical leave, and any other topic relevant to the task force’s responsibilities.

The task force would be required to prepare and submit a report to the Governor and legislature no later than 12 months after the task force is organized. The report would include:

1. an abstract of caregiver characteristics;
2. a list of caregiver support services that are currently made available from all sources, including the federal government, federal and state agencies, and public and private employers;
3. a description of caregiver concerns; and
4. recommendations for legislation, or regulatory or programmatic changes, that would be necessary to supplement, expand, or improve the existing caregiver support services available in the State.

The task force would dissolve 30 days after the report is submitted.

Background & Discussion

There are an estimated 1.75 million people in New Jersey that provide varying degrees of unreimbursed care to persons who are elderly or disabled and limited in their daily activities. These caregivers are often the immediate family members of the person being cared for, but may also be friends or community members. Although caregivers may assist an individual with the basic activities associated with daily living, including walking, eating, and dressing, they may also be expected to perform more complex daily tasks, such as administering multiple medications, providing wound care, and operating medical equipment.

The act of caregiving can take a serious emotional and physical toll on the caregiver, and caregivers generally experience more physical and mental health complications, higher mortality risks, and suffer from an increased risk of depression, anxiety disorders, diminished immune response, slower wound healing, and a greater incidence of hospitalization than non-caregivers. Because of a lack of sufficient caregiver support services, many caregivers either miss work or are forced to quit their jobs in order to effectively provide caregiving services, and a caregiver who provides intense personal care can lose as much as $659,000 in wages, pensions, and Social Security over the course of their caregiving career. By 2020, the number of adults in the State who need assistance with daily living activities is expected to double.

Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Maryland, Mississippi, and New Mexico have passed legislation that established task forces to study issues faced by caregivers. Virginia established a joint subcommittee to study caregiver issues, which consisted of members of the legislature and non-legislator citizens in 2017. Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, and Missouri have established task forces to focus on specific topics such as Alzheimer’s disease, medical marijuana, and grandparents raising their grandchildren.

Today’s 8-0 vote advances the bill to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for further consideration.