Bill aims to help educate caregivers

You or someone you know is caring for an aging parent or loved one.
The numbers back that up, as AARP estimates there are 660,000 people in Louisiana who are doing so.
Tracette Hillman of Abbeville is one of them. For the past three years, she has been the caregiver for her 75-year-old father, who has had multiple brain surgeries.
Hillman’s effort to properly care for her father has been one of her own learning, as there is not much information provided to caregivers when they bring their family member or loved one home from the hospital.
“I had to learn a lot of these tasks on my own,” Hillman said.
That included paying close attention when hospital staff would clean and handle the tube that goes into her father’s throat.
Caregivers may soon have all the information they need, thanks to Senate Bill 376 which is making its way through the current Legislative Session. The bill, authored by Sen. Yvonne Colomb (D-Baton Rouge) would create the Louisiana Family Caregiver Act. The bill provides requirements for hospitals to give a patient the opportunity to identify a caregiver upon discharge planning. Provides for notice to the designated caregiver and provides for hospital instructions to the caregiver and patient record documentation.
The Senate voted 36-0 in favor of the bill last Tuesday. It was then sent to the House of Representatives.
Hillman has worked to help the bill become law, meeting with many of those who voted in favor of the bill.
“I had contacted AARP to see what they were working on and what I could do to get involved with because I have been a caregiver for three years,” Hillman said. “They said they were having a meeting in Lafayette. I attended and I met Andrew Muhl, advocacy director for AARP Louisiana.”
Muhl told Melinda Deslatte of the Associated Press that what Hillman and others in similar situations are taking on is something that is by means easy.
“They’re performing very complicated tasks for folks with chronic illness, and these include managing
medication, preparing food for special diets, dealing with monitors and other special equipment,” Muhl said.
Muhl invited Hillman to join the effort in pushing for the new caregiver act.
“It just so happened that this bill was being introduced,” Hillman said. “He asked me to come to Baton Rouge and meet with some senators and see where we could go with it.”
Hillman is honored to be part of the process because of the impact it can have for so many in the future.
“It is a very important bill,” she said. “It doesn’t really affect me now, because I have done three years of it. When I first became a caregiver, this would have been really important to me. For people going forward, this can be really big.
“It is going to relieve a lot of guess work.”
That guess work can lead to stress.
“I have been doing this for three years now,” Hillman said. “I can do a wide range of things, but for someone just taking this on, it is a stressful event.
“Whatever help they can get is important and even more important to get that help out of the gate.”