By If submitting electronically, please copy the text below, and we encourage you to add your personal stories and perspective to it. If submitting by mail you can DOWNLOAD A WORD FILE to edit and print out. Your support letter can be sent via email to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov Honorable Governor Gavin Newsom1021 O Street, Suite 9000Sacramento, California 95814 sent via email to leg.unit@gov.ca.gov RE: AB 48 (Aguiar-Curry) – Request for Signature Dear Governor Newsom: Please sign AB 48, a very important bill to protect nursing facility residents from the excessive use of psychotropic drugs. Despite dangerous side effects, condemnation by care providers, and a decade-long national and state campaign to reduce the inappropriate use of psychotropic drugs in nursing homes, well over half of California nursing home residents are being given psychotropic drugs. The rate of psychotropic drug use in nursing homes has alarmingly increased since the pandemic, as more facilities have turned to sedating drugs to control and manage residents. Ten years after a California Department of Public Health initiative found that 63% of surveyed facilities violated residents’ informed consent rights, informed consent violations remain routine and pervasive.
Support AB-48: Honorable Governor Gavin Newsom
Despite dangerous side effects, condemnation by care providers, and a decade-long national and state campaign to reduce the inappropriate use of psychotropic drugs in nursing homes, the U.S. Office of Inspector General recently found that 80% of long-stay nursing home residents are receiving psychotropic drugs. A big reason why so many residents are drugged is that they are never given information about the risks, benefits, and alternatives to psychotropic drugs and the choice to refuse them.