New laws proposed to reinforce the rights of residents in residential care facilities

Senate and Assembly committees are in the process of reviewing nine bills intended to reinforce the rights of residents in residential care facilities. The package of bills, introduced earlier this year under the collective title of the RCFE Reform Act of 2014, is sponsored by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. The bills seek to provide better scrutiny of residential care facilities by the State Social Services Department, promote residents' rights through enactment of a bill of rights and of onsite resident and family councils,  enforcement of rule violations and enhanced sanctions, better investigation of complaints, and enhanced training of staff members of facilities.

For more information, go to the CANHR website (www.CANHR.org) and click the Legislation tab.

The bills are:  SB 894 and 895 (Corbett); SB 911 (Block); SB 1153; SB 1218 (Yee); AB 1554 (Skinner), AB 1571 and 1572 (Eggman), and AB 2171 (Wieckowski).