Stop SB 503 - A Deadly Shift in Nursing Home Care

Using a late-hour legislative maneuver called “gut and amend,” the California Department of Public Health (DPH) has introduced SB 503 (Hernandez), a bill that would permit nursing homes to chemically restrain and make end-of-life decisions for residents alleged to be incapacitated. The Alameda County Superior Court recently found the law on which SB 503 is based to be unconstitutional. Rather than re-write the law to comply with the constitutional rights of nursing home residents, DPH is doubling down on its illegal features, expanding the law’s scope to include dangerous chemical restraints and irreversible end-of-life decisions. The bill radically shifts American law by forcing the residents whose rights are being violated to go to court rather than the nursing homes that are pushing intrusive, involuntary “care.”

The following (in a Word document) is a sample letter to fax to the Assembly Health Committee, where SB 503 will be heard on August 9, 2016. The bill was introduced late in the legislative session and there is very little time to kill it.

Click for more, including the sample letter