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Debate Continues on Expanding Background Checks for Home Care Workers

There has been an ongoing debate about conducted more comprehensive background checks for home care workers.  As studies have revealed significant numbers of abuses, there is a greater incentive to screen home care workers who tend to the needs, usually, of older citizens and children.

However, the economic downturn has given some governmental agencies pause.   With the economy lagging, administrators just don’t want to spend the extra money.  An article in the Washington State The News Tribune, reflects the ongoing quandary while calling for expanded background checks for home care workers….”Three years ago, Washington voters overwhelmingly supported federal background checks and increased training for the people who care for our seniors and citizens with disabilities. After the implemen-tation of these needed reforms was postponed, we have seen the risk to our seniors grow…….

………………….I-1163 requires home care workers, who provide the same type of care as nursing home workers but in a more isolated setting, to pass a full federal background check. Our current, state-level check misses crimes committed outside the state of Washington, leaving our seniors and disabled citizens vulnerable to felons from other states. Common sense dictates that we close this background check loophole.”

I would venture while extended background checks for home care workers can be costly, so can lawsuits over liability issues should a home care worker assault and injure or even kill one of his charges.  While it is commonplace for legislators to dismiss the background checks as being too costly and apply what limited funds they have to what they consider greater priorities, in certain cases the dollars spent on extended background checks may prove cost effective.

Look, either way, with limited budgets in a bad economy and state hurting for revenue, this is a very tough call.  It is an honest dilemma and perhaps, besides the obvious threat of theft and injury on the part of home care workers, further study has to be done on whether the bucks spent up front would prove a bargain in the long run.

 

For the complete article and additional information–Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/10/19/1870622/should-broader-checks-be-required.html#ixzz1bGHWx8vS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

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