September 9th, 2008

The Pennsylvania Assisted Living Consumer Alliance (PALCA) has issued a press release detailing why it believes that the proposed regulations for assisted living facilities are inadequate; driving home their point by comparing the proposed training requirements for assisted living employees (there are none) to those for professions such as hair braiding and dog grooming.

PALCA: Assisted living staff will need less training than make-up artists and hair braiders.

Text of Sept. 8 press release.

Consumer coalition calls for quality standards to protect Pennsylvania families from inadequate regulations

PHILADELPHIA, PA—(September 2008)—Pennsylvania’s proposed training requirements for direct care workers at an assisted living facility are considerably less stringent than those for several other occupations that don’t require a college degree. For instance, a natural hair braider must log 300 more training hours than would be required of a direct care worker under the Department of Public Welfare’s new proposed Assisted Living regulations.

Direct care staff members have a wide range of responsibilities in the care of frail elderly and persons with disabilities. They need to understand how to care for people with cognitive impairments, to understand nutrition and food handling, and use universal precautions. They need to know how to provide recreation and socialization activities and help residents with their daily needs such as feeding, dressing and bathing.

“The care of our frail elderly and persons with complex care needs requires many skills, from properly knowing how to lift residents to understanding infection control,” said Alissa Halperin, Senior Attorney and Deputy Director of Policy Advocacy at the Pennsylvania Health Law Project, the organization leading the efforts of the PA Assisted Living Consumer Alliance (PALCA). “They also need to know how to identify a problem and what to do in emergency. We think they should be competent and qualified.”

PALCA formed this year to ensure that new licensing rules will protect elderly and consumers with disabilities residents. About 50,000 people in Pennsylvania currently live in facilities that may call themselves assisted living facilities. Assisted living has emerged in the past generation to house people who are not so sick that they require a nursing home. But they generally need more help with bathing, dressing, medication management and other basic care needs.

Consider, for example, a recent Pennsylvania bill to certify dog groomers. Had it passed, the bill would have required at least 80 hours of training for someone who wants a job to bathe and brush a dog. A basic groomer would need to have completed 300 hours of training before licensure. A master groomer would have needed 600 hours of training.

Under the draft regulations, staff training is the same as at personal care homes where residents are typically healthier and more mobile. Assisted Living direct care staff need not complete a minimum amount of training; by contrast, the state has minimum training hour requirements and licenses many other jobs. Several examples of jobs where individuals must meet minimum hours of training and receive a license by the state are listed below.

“SEIU strongly supports the regulation of assisted living facilities and wants to see regulations enacted now,” said Kevin Hefty, Vice President for Long Term Care of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. “But we are not happy with the rules as proposed. We had hoped that the assisted living regulations would raise the training standard above what is currently required for personal care homes. Every day, direct care workers tell us what expert research confirms: that their training is too little, too hasty, and too unfocused to be effective. As a result, they are overwhelmed by the demands of their jobs.”

Hefty, who also co-chaired Pennsylvania’s Direct Care Workforce Workgroup, convened by the Pennsylvania Center for Health Careers and the Governor’s Office of Healthcare Reform, added: “Under-training is a key driver of the rampant turnover in our long-term care system. Such turnover undermines quality and wastes precious public resources. We have to address it if we want to create a first-rate system of supports for seniors and people with disabilities.”

PALCA is urging the state to adopt minimum training hours and to require all direct care staff to be trained in 1st Aid and CPR. Training is just one weakness in the draft regulations identified by PALCA. Other areas of concern include ensuring adequate staffing levels, access to one’s own doctor, a responsive appeals’ process and sufficient dwelling space. The regulations were released for public comment on August 8. Public Comments are due on September 15. For more information on the regulations and how to submit comments, go to:

http://www.paassistedlivingconsumeralliance.org/index.php/assistedlivingregs.org

Contact: Barbara Beck 215.209.3076