Plans for Sweeping Change at CA 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.

Most of the bills highlighted by lawmakers on Monday are sponsored by the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, has one of the key bills of the reform package, which requires annual state inspections of assisted-care facilities, compared with the every-five-years model currently in place.

Leno is planning to introduce a bill that bans assisted-living facilities from accepting new residents if serious health or safety violations have not been addressed or if there are unpaid fines. Other lawmakers have plans for bills that increase fines or require caregivers to have 40 hours of training, instead of 10 hours, before working with elderly residents.

Full Article and Source:
Plans for Sweeping Change At Assisted Living Homes

See Also:
CANHR.org