231.62  Alzheimer’s disease services and training.
  1.  The department shall regularly review trends and initiatives to address the long-term living needs of Iowans to determine how the needs of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and similar forms of irreversible dementia can be appropriately met.
  2.  The department shall act within the funding available to the department to expand and improve training and education of persons who regularly deal with persons with Alzheimer’s disease and similar forms of irreversible dementia. Such persons shall include but are not limited to law enforcement personnel, long-term care resident’s advocates, state employees with responsibilities for oversight or monitoring of agencies providing long-term care services, and workers and managers in services providing direct care to such persons, such as nursing facilities and other long-term care settings, assisted living programs, elder group homes, residential care facilities, adult day facilities, and home health care services. The actions shall include but are not limited to adopting rules.
  3.  The department shall adopt rules to implement all of the following training and education provisions:
  a.  Standards for initial hours of training for direct care staff, which shall require at least eight hours of classroom instruction and at least eight hours of supervised interactive experiences.
  b.  Standards for continuing and in-service education for direct care staff, which shall require at least eight hours annually.
  c.  Standards which provide for assessing the competency of those who have received training.
  d.  A standard curriculum model for the training and education. The curriculum model shall include but is not limited to the diagnosis process; progression of the disease; skills for communicating with persons with the disease, family members and friends, and caregivers; daily life skills; caregiver stress; the importance of building relationships and understanding personal histories; expected challenging behaviors; nonpharmacologic interventions; and medication management.
  e.  A certification process which shall be implemented for the trainers and educators who use the standard curriculum model.
  4.  The department shall conduct a statewide campaign to educate health care providers regarding tools and techniques for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and similar forms of irreversible dementia so that patients and their families will better understand the progression of such disease.
  5.  Within the funding available, the department shall provide funding for public awareness efforts and educational efforts for agencies providing long-term care services, direct care workers, caregivers, and state employees with responsibilities for providing oversight or monitoring of agencies providing long-term care services. The department shall work with local Alzheimer’s disease association chapters and other stakeholders in providing the funding.
2008 Acts, ch 1140, §2; 2011 Acts, ch 34, §57
Subsection 3, unnumbered paragraph 1 amended