Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on state lawmakers to enact legislation that would prevent violent felons from caring for ailing residents in California home health care programs.
Schwarzenegger said in his letter to Senate and Assembly leaders that current rules that keep the department from rejecting caregiver candidates with criminal records represent a grave threat to the safety of home care recipients.
"Choosing to protect these felons over the vulnerable beneficiaries in this program is akin to releasing violent felons from prison and sending them straight into a nursing home on a work-release program," the governor wrote.
"We are allowing these people into the homes of vulnerable individuals without supervision," said John Wagner, director of the state Department of Social Services. "It is dangerous. These are serious convictions."
State and county investigators have not reported violent crime backgrounds because program rules allow felons to work as home care aides. They can only be disqualified if there's a history of specific types of child abuse, elder abuse or defrauding of public assistance programs.
Privacy laws prevent warning elderly, infirm and disabled residents that caregivers are felons.
Some 996 convicted felons have been identified as working or seeking jobs in the program since background checks started last year. Some 786 of them were removed or declared ineligible, but the rest are expected to be employed in the program, state Social Services said.
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Calif. Gov Wants New Home Health Hiring Laws
Get it done, Gov. your citizens are counting on you!
ReplyDeleteIt's something most people don't think about. We assume those allowed to be in the healthcare business for homecare have been checked out.
ReplyDeleteGood heads up,NASGA. Thanks.
It just floors me that violent felons would be allowed in the first place. Good grief, what kind of a world are we living in?
ReplyDeleteThis scared me to pieces!
ReplyDelete