Belt supports measures to raise wages for Direct Support Personnel

SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Christopher Belt (D-Swansea) is supporting measures to ensure that Direct Support Personnel are fairly compensated for the assistance they provide to individuals with developmental disabilities.

“Support workers are essential workers,” Belt said. “These individuals care for residents who rely on them to do basic day-to-day tasks that many of us do without thinking. It’s vital that these workers are taken care of and paid a fair wage.”

DSPs are vital in community residential settings, where they help residents with daily personal care like eating and hygiene as well as teaching life skills and attending to complex medical needs. While funding for these services has increased over recent years, starting wages remain barely above minimum wage, and vacancies remain high. This disparity is because the state does not always require community agencies to pass wage increases through to the workers.

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Turner commemorates March as Kidney Disease Awareness Month

SPRINGFIELD – To bring greater awareness and education for kidney health, State Senator Doris Turner (D-Springfield) commemorated March 2022 as Kidney Disease Awareness Month and March 10, 2022 as Kidney Day through the passage of a Senate resolution.

“Across the state, people are silently suffering with the pain and hardship that comes with kidney disease,” Turner said. “We are showing those with kidney disease we see them and we understand the struggles they continue to face.”

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Bush: Opioid education will save lives

SPRINGFIELD – People who are prescribed opioid drugs would be educated on the addictive – and sometimes deadly – consequences of the medication by a pharmacist under a measure spearheaded by State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake).

“Opioid overdoses have been occurring at alarming rates in Illinois,” Bush said. “Opioid education will save lives.”

The measure would require pharmacists to inform the patient that opioids are addictive and offer to give the patient naloxone – a common opioid reversal medication. Further, under the legislation, if a patient is discharged from the hospital after overdose of a controlled substance, they would be provided with naloxone. 

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Pacione-Zayas introduces resolution to affirm the Prairie Band Potawatomi tribe

SPRINGFIELD – In a Wednesday press conference, State Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas (D-Chicago) joined members of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation to introduce a resolution urging the U.S. Congress to recognize the illegal selling of the Shab-eh-nay reservation in 1849.

“As U.S. inhabitants, it’s important to recognize the indigenous communities who called this land home before us and continue to call it home,” Pacione-Zayas said. “The land of Chief Shab-eh-nay and his band was illegally sold, and recognition of this act of injustice by the federal government will begin to repair the harm and ensure that the land is recognized as reserved for the Potawatomi people in northern Illinois.”

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