Inland Caregiver Resource Center

* * * *EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT * * * *

GOVERNOR PROPOSES ELIMINATION OF
FAMILY CAREGIVER ALLIANCE AND OTHER
CAREGIVER SUPPORTS
Budget Item 444-111-0001

Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed revisions to the CaliforniaState Budget will dramatically affect family caregivers. Families rely on critical support services to help keep loved ones with debilitating health conditions at home, out of expensive nursing homes. Those services will be eliminated. We need your help now.

Particularly devastated will be families dealing with Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, and other disabling conditions requiring long-term care.

Eighty percent of long-term care is provided at home, not in facilities. If families are unable to serve as the volunteer healthcare workforce, nursing homes will be flooded with patients unable to remain at home, and Medi-Cal, already under attack, will be pushed beyond capacity. Caregivers who work outside the home will be at greater risk of losing their jobs--and their health insurance--as they struggle to provide care.

The proposed cuts are short-sighted and ill-conceived. Slated for elimination are ALL of the Caregiver Resource Centers in California, along with support services including Adult Day Health Centers, Alzheimer's Research Centers, certain In-Home Support Services, Linkages Programs, PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly), and more.

We need to work together to tell the Governor and our legislators that:

These cuts are unacceptable and unconscionable.
That proven support services such as FCA's delay nursing home placement by six to nine months, saving the state millions of dollars.
That California's families cannot be left without support in providing care to a very frail elderly and disabled population.

On Wednesday morning, June 3, a budget hearing will determine the fate of crucial caregiver support services. Please contact the Governor and our legislators NOW to make your voice heard. Tell how these services are important to you and to all Californians. Ask other caregivers, friends and colleagues to do the same.

Using the format below, prepare a brief letter in your own words (and on your letterhead if appropriate), to ask the Legislature to protect you, the caregiver, and your relative. Describe your situation and the help you receive from Family Caregiver Alliance and what would happen if you did not have us as a resource. Request that funding be restored in the budget for 2009-2010. Some important points are highlighted below.

Fax your letters to the Budget Committee Chairs and Sub-Committee chairs and Senate by June 2, 2009. Send a copy of your fax to FCA and to your local California Senator and Assembly Member(s). A table of Senate and Assembly fax numbers is below. Refer to Budget Item 4440-111-0001.

You can find your legislator on the web at www.legislature.ca.gov.

Also contact Governor Schwarzenegger at: (916) 445-2841 (phone) or fax (916) 445-4633 or email gov.ca.gov.

There's no time to waste. Please act today!

To print a copy of a letter you can fax to your Senator or Assembly Member, please click on the pdf. below. Be sure to include a cover page.

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