A new bill, Minnesota HF 2437, has been introduced in the Minnesota state legislature. It requires training on Alzheimer's disease for all long-term care facilities in Minnesota.
The Dementia Training Act is designed to ensure that nurses, nursing assistants, respite care providers, mealtime assistants, and anyone providing hands-on care for a patient in an assisted living or nursing facility or a community care, home care, adult day care, or personal care assistance service has at least eight hours of training before interacting with people in care, and eight additional hours of training on an annual basis.
Facilities will have the option to have an in-person trainer conduct the trainings, or to use an Internet-based curriculum. If a facility uses Internet-based training, a trainer must be available to answer staff questions that arise during the training, including facility-specific and resident-specific questions.
At CPI, we strongly support this bill because we believe that dementia care training can help raise the standard of care for the millions of people affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related illnesses. We’re pleased that the bill lists our
Dementia Capable Care training as an approved program for organizations looking to train staff in best practices in helping people with dementia experience a better quality of life.
If passed into law, Minnesota HF 2437 will go into effect on July 1, 2015. We will continue to monitor the bill’s progress and post updates detailing any amendments to or advancements with the bill.
Read the full text of the bill.
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