HF 952 Summary

• Amends Minnesota Statutes section 144A.4796 to allow home care provider orientation to optionally include training on providing services to clients with hearing loss, effective January 1, 2018.

• Hearing loss training must be high-quality and research-based and may include online training, covering age-related hearing loss manifestation, prevalence, and communication challenges.

• Hearing loss training must address health impacts of untreated age-related hearing loss, including increased dementia, falls, hospitalizations, isolation, and depression.

• Hearing loss training must cover strategies and technology to enhance communication and involvement, including communication strategies, assistive listening devices, hearing aids, visual and tactile alerting devices, real-time communication access, and closed captions.

• Amends the annual training requirements for home care staff to allow optional hearing loss training using the same high-quality, research-based standards as orientation training, effective January 1, 2018.