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Arkansas athletic director urges committee to back bill
Atheletic director Frank Broyles tells Congress how he cared for his wife before she died of complications with Alzheimer's disease and urges them to endorse a bill expanding training for nurses aides.
The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 24 -- Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles brought members of a legislative committee to tears as he testified about caring for his wife as she died of complications from Alzheimer's disease last year.
Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles, seen above in a file photo from the University of Arkansas, recently urged the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee to back a bill that would expand training for certified nurses aides.The former Razorbacks coach urged the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on Thursday to endorse a bill expanding training for certified nurses aides. The bill, by Rep. Sandra Prater, D-Jacksonville, would require an additional 15 hours of training specifically focusing on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
The committee approved the bill on a voice vote. It next goes to the House floor.
Broyles, 80, told the committee about helping his wife Barbara find peace in the seven years she lived with the disease.
"All we tried to do was give her love and keep her in her world," he said. "When she entered my world, she would cry. She had her own world that she had to be in."
Broyles said helping find ways to treat Alzheimer's disease has become his passion and he will do whatever he can for the cause.
"I'll be available anywhere, anytime, to help. This is my mission," he said.
Nurses aides are currently required to attend 75 hours of general training before taking a certification test. Prater, a registered nurse, said the aides often do not understand the disease and are frustrated when patients lash out at them in their confused states.
Prater said her legislation is designed to avoid incidents of nursing home abuse.
Broyles shared a poem with the group written from the perspective of Alzheimer's patient asking their loved ones to be patient with their many needs. He said he taped the poem to bathroom mirror and read it every day while he was caring for his wife.
Broyles also talked about the early days of the disease and going to restaurants with his wife.
"We would return home to the home we had lived in for 30 years and she would say that that wasn't her home and she wanted to leave and go to her home," Broyles said.
Rep. Tommy Roebuck, D-Arkadelphia, thanked Broyles for sharing what Roebuck called "a beautiful love story."
Story Produced by: Brian Clay
