Plans for sweeping change at assisted-living homes

A bipartisan group of California legislators is calling for widespread changes in how the state licenses assisted-living homes, from increasing the public's ability to review complaints made against facilities to quadrupling the number of training hours required of caregivers.

With more than a dozen bills making up a residential-care-facility reform package - their costs not yet determined - advocates calling for greater transparency and accountability say they feel confident the money needed to fix the Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division will be there.

Those efforts will be aided by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who control the purse strings in each house as budget chairs. Both are authoring bills addressing residential-care concerns borne from last year's faulty closure of Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley.

More than a dozen residents were left behind at the assisted- living facility after the state ordered the care home to be closed but did little to ensure that its elderly residents were transferred or cared for.

A cook and a janitor with no training in caring for the elderly stayed with the residents after caregivers and managers left. The two, working without pay, repeatedly called 911, saying the residents needed help. The owner of the facility had previous violations at a facility in Oakland.

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Plans for sweeping change at assisted-living homes

See Also:
Castro Valley care home patients abandoned

Cooks, Caregivers Struggled to Aid Abandoned Care Home Patients

Alameda County: Assisted living reform advocates hope new director will overhaul state's licensing agency