BILL WOULD OFFER SAFETY NET FOR ELDERLY

Registry will list those who provide in-home care.

Older Georgians who want to age in place were given a safety net from state legislators during the 2016 General Assembly.

One of the bills approved by lawmakers will allow for state investigation of abuse complaints made against certified nurse assistants who come into the home to take care of the elderly.

It would also make it easier to find out if the nurse assistant you want to hire has had previous abuse charges that don’t show up on a criminal background check.

Allegations of abuse, which include neglect and exploitation such as theft, can always be reported to the police or adult protective services. But many times, the complaint never gets a full investigation and “falls through the cracks,” said Kathy Floyd, Georgia Council on Aging director.

Complaints made to the state’s aging agency do get a full investigation, with the results brought before a panel. If warranted, the incident and nurse assistant are listed on a statewide abuse registry, which is accessible to public inspection on the Georgia Department of Community Health website, http://dch.georgia.gov/.

Georgia has for many years investigated abuse complaints against certified nurse assistants who work in licensed facilities, such as nursing homes, assisted living communities and personal care homes.

The new legislation, which is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal, would broaden the abuse registry to include certified nurse assistants who work in the home setting.

Providers know about the abuse registry and use it when making hires, but it has been a “very best-kept secret” among the public at large, Floyd said. Having it more prominently displayed on the website is also part of the bill.

“It’s a win-win all the way around,” Floyd said. “People will now have the ability to make a complaint in a home setting.”

Research shows that the vast majority of seniors nationwide want to grow old in their own homes, even when they begin to need daily assistance or ongoing health care, according to the AARP.

In Georgia, the fast-growing home care service industry can’t keep up with demand.

“There’s definitely a need. It’s a more cost-effective way of taking care of seniors,” said Judy Adams, executive director of the Georgia Association for Home Health Agencies Inc.

Adams said that while the demand for home health services keeps growing, paperwork and strict regulations required for Medicare reimbursements limit the field of companies entering the market.

To save money, seniors or their loved ones will often try to find help on their own. But hiring the cheapest possible can cause a lot of problems, Floyd said. Background checks and multiple referrals won’t always give you the assurances you need when bringing a stranger into the home to take care of someone who has dementia.

Floyd experienced this personally when making those decisions for her mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease.

Knowing they couldn’t control everything that went on in the house, the family took preventative steps against theft. “We went through all of her jewelry and only left the costume stuff,” Floyd said.

Aging advocates hope to expand the registry to include other types of home care workers, such as those who come in for light housekeeping and meal preparation. Both the House and Senate Health and Human Services Committee chairmen, Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, and Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, will hold hearings during the off session on creating a broader registry.

Other nearby states — such as Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Mississippi — have a more comprehensive elder abuse registry, Floyd said.

Lawmakers also gave aging services $7 million in new funds, of which $2 million will be used to take 1,000 seniors off a waiting list for home care services. Another $1 million will move 167 seniors out of nursing homes and allow them to get care at home and through community services.