Business View Magazine | April 2019

217 mon goal of providing excellent service, care, and support to their residents. In keeping with this goal, the extensive training requirements established for staff and administrators—in- cluding initial and ongoing education and testing—ensure that they are well-trained to meet the needs of residents. In 2014, CALA sponsored and supported leg- islation that greatly increased the training required for California’s RCFE employees. As sponsor of AB 1570 (Chapter 698, Statutes of 2014) and supporter of SB 911 (Chapter 705, Statutes of 2014), CALA fought for a doubling of the training hours required to become certi- fied as an administrator, as well as an increase in the length of the administrator exam and the integrity of the exam questions them- selves. In addition to working with stakehold- ers on legislation to quadruple the training required to be an RCFE caregiver and signifi- cantly increase the training required for staff assisting residents with medications, CALA also joined with the Alzheimer’s Association to increase dementia care staff training and expand the training to all RCFEs, not just those that advertise dementia care (AB 1570 (Chap- ter 698, Statutes of 2014)). Emergency Preparedness Always a high priority for CALA members, emergency preparedness has become even more crucial in the past few years as California has faced wildfires, floods, and other natu- ral disasters. While many providers routinely go above and beyond, it was recognized that existing emergency preparedness laws and regulations were lacking. Therefore, with sup- port and active involvement from members, CALA sponsored AB 3098 (Friedman) in 2018 to help strengthen emergency preparedness for all RCFEs. In addition, CALA formed a task force to learn from members who experienced disasters. The result was a suite of resources our members can use to strengthen their training and plan- ning. These can now be found on CALA’s Emer- gency Preparedness webpage, and include a guide for developing or revising an emergency and disaster plan, a list of web resources for things such as emergency alerts and recovery services, and an index of types of emergencies providers may face.