The legislation deals with public health education outreaches.
Annapolis, Md (KM) Frederick County Delegate Karen Lewis Young is working with the family of the late Paul Gordon to add an amendment to a bill in the General Assembly dealing with public health education outreach programs.. She says the legislation would require the Maryland Department of Health, when doing outreach programs on Alzheimer’s Disease, dementia and cognitive impairment, also include information for prescribers about the dangers of anti-psychotic drugs.
“The family believes their father was administered anti-psychotic drugs which happens too frequently on patients with dementia,” Young says. She also says these medications cause people to fall, and Mr. Gordon had multiple falls.
Paul Gordon served as Mayor of Frederick from 1990-1994. He died in December, 2019 at the age of 92.
Delegate Young says she’s one of the co-sponsors of this bill, and is working with the sponsor, Delegate Sherry Sample-Hughes, to make some changes to this legislation. “And I have had a number of conversations with her about trying to amend the bill to include education on this antiquate prescribing practice,” she says.
Delegate Sample-Hughes is the Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Delegates.
The bill has been assigned to the Health and Government Operations Committee in the House of Delegate. A hearing was held on Wednesday, February 12th. .
By Kevin McManus