A History of CAHF 2000
50+ Years of Service
Before Valdivia, before OBRA, before Medicare and Medi-Cal and the other developments that make long-term care what it is today, the California Association of Health Facilities already was making history, with victories and defeats and its own internal tensions and reconciliations.
CAHF began in January 1950 as the California Association of Nursing Homes, Sanitariums, Rest Homes, and Homes for the Aged, or CANH, pronounced “can.” It was an era of long-term care virtually unrecognizable to modern caregivers. But from the earliest “mom and pop” nursing homes – and in the beginning they literally were homes – one theme has remained constant.
“There had to be caring,” said Louise Broderick, who began her long-term career in 1946 and went on to be president of CANH from 1962-1964. “If you care for people, you have to care from the heart every day. You take care of people and develop a reputation for quality.”
The movement toward a professional organization of long-term care providers began before World War II, with the formation of regional groups. By mid-1949 providers in the San Francisco area were staging rummage sales, card parties and similar events to pay the costs of organizing statewide. After preliminary meetings, 29 delegates from around the state gathered Aug. 14, 1950, in San Francisco to agree on articles of incorporation for the California Association of Nursing Homes, Sanitariums, Rest Homes, and Homes for the Aged Inc.
The cumbersome name and the inevitable acronym, CANH, lasted until the organization became the California Association of Health Facilities in November 1972.
In retrospect, CANH’s early years seem incredibly modest. The Association continued to rely on rummage sales to raise operating funds, and the "office" consisted of a corner of a facility administrator's desk. But there were growth and activity. In the mid-1950's the Association added new chapters, began its first news publication and starting issuing membership directories. In 1957, after compiling data on actual expenses of nursing facilities, CANH gained long-overdue increases in the payments from the state Bureau of Old Age Security. The increases, the first since 1949, ran from $25 to $45 per month – about 20 percent.
In 1960, CANH reluctantly decided on its first increase in annual dues – from $1 to $2 per bed – enabling the Association to hire its first executive director, C. Robert Harberson, who stayed in that post for nearly 10 years.
Then in a setback to statewide unity, the Los Angeles Chapter dropped its membership in 1961, partly because the Association had decided to establish headquarters in Sacramento rather than in Southern California. But with the growing role of the federal government in health-care regulation, providers needed a solid political front, and in 1966 the Los Angeles County facilities rejoined CANH.
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