Christine Jordan Sexton
Rep. Dana Trabulsy wants the state to earmark an additional $750,000 for Alzheimer’s Community Care, Inc., a specialty day care center that serves residents in Martin, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie County counties.
The funds would be used to help pay for 62,500 hours of care, budget documents show.
The request is for funding in the fiscal year 2022-2023 budget, which lawmakers will begin working on when the Legislative Session begins in January. While lawmakers consider thousands of bills every Session they are only required to pass one bill: the budget.
Florida requires all adult day care centers to be licensed. The state has a specialty license though for day care centers specializing in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Under the “Specialized Alzheimer’s Services Adult Day Care Act,” a licensed nurse must be at the Alzheimer’s Day Care Center for 75% of an operating day. Moreover, the law requires that 70% of the center’s day must provide and document therapeutic activities.
Rules, meanwhile, require there to be one staff member for every five patients throughout the day.
The nurse consultants and case managers work in tandem to help patients and their caregivers maneuver through the health system in hopes of keeping the patients out of nursing homes.
There are 12 specialty Alzheimer’s day care centers in Florida, according to budget documents.
The documents also show that Legislature earmarked $1.5 million in recurring general revenue to the Alzheimer’s Community Care program in West Palm Beach in the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget.
Former Senate President Ken Pruitt is lobbying the issue.
