Ensuring quality care for those with Alzheimer’s and dementia

SPRINGFIELD - Elderly care facilities along with community programs may soon be required to have staffs that are adequately trained to deal with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Under new legislation proposed by State Senator Dave Koehler (D-Peoria), elderly care facility and community program staff persons will undergo special training if the staff person cares for patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

There is an expected 25 percent increase in dementia patients in the next decade because of aging Boomers. This has created the need for reforms in care. With SB 2301, Sen. Koehler has answered the call to ensure these facilities have trained professional staffs to deal with these increases.

“Over 200 thousand Illinois residents are affected by Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia,” Koehler said. “My plan will make sure elderly care facilities along with community programs’ staffs are trained to properly take care of our most vulnerable elderly.”

The measure, Senate Bill 2301, sets a standard of a minimum of 6 hours of initial training within 3 months of the law’s effective date for staff with direct access to clients with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Senate Bill 2301 passed out of the Illinois Senate today. It now goes to the Illinois House for approval.

Among the deadlock, Koehler still finds savings for the vulnerable

SPRINGFIELD – Seniors and disabled property owners in supportive living facilities will soon be able to keep their property tax savings thanks to successful legislation from Senator Dave Koehler (D – Peoria).

The measure updates current law to allow a taxpayer moving into a supportive living facility to keep their homestead exemption. Currently, homestead exemptions apply to specific nursing facilities, not including supportive living facilities.

“Seniors and disabled property owners should not have to pay more in property taxes because their health or family situations have forced them into a nursing facility,” said Sen. Koehler. “And we cannot allow some facility residents to keep their benefits, while residents in other similar facilities cannot.”

Supportive living facilities are a newer type of nursing home care option officially defined in 2006 as an alternative, more independent-living option for low-income seniors and disabled persons under Medicaid.

“Even in these trying times, we can still find substantive solutions to protect the well-being of our state’s most vulnerable,” Koehler said.

The legislation, Senate Bill 2934, passed the Senate and now heads to the House for further action.

Koehler meets with OSF HealthCare at Capitol

Senator Koehler met with representatives from OSF Healthcare at the Capitol during The Illinois Health and Hospital Association's Quality Improvement Showcase. OSF Healthcare is a not-for-profit Catholic health care corporation headquartered in Peoria that operates a medical group, hospital system and other health care facilities.

Koehler on education funding proposal: When some lose, we all lose

SPRINGFIELD – This week, Governor Rauner released an education funding proposal that, according to critics, does not go far enough in helping Illinois students across the state. Even though the governor’s plan fully funds education at the current foundation level, it still leaves 35 percent of districts as financial “losers” for the upcoming fiscal year. In response, state Senator Dave Koehler (D – Peoria) released the following statement.

“The governor’s education funding proposal fully funds the current foundational level, and it also fully embraces an unfair education system that abandons the very students that need the most financial help.

“Wealthier, growing schools stand to gain money from the governor’s proposal, while poorer, shrinking schools throughout the Peoria area would see stark decreases in funding in the hundreds of thousands of dollars when they can ill afford it.

“Providing a little more funding for some schools, while completely disregarding the disparity in property tax revenue for the poorest districts, is a travesty and must be reformed immediately. This is why Sen. Manar’s need-based education reform plan that would dole out more state money to the districts with lower-income families is so crucial. The well-being of every student, every school and every district must be taken into account, or as a state, we all suffer.”

Sen. Manar has been working on education reform and has yet to receive any numbers on the effect of his reform after repeated inquires to the Illinois State Board of Education.