The Home Care Alliance has responded to a Northwestern University report, titled “Hiring and Screening Practices of Agencies Supplying Paid Caregivers to Older Adults” that confuses different models of private pay home care and asserts that most aides are not properly screened or trained. The report, from researchers at the NU Feinberg School of Medicine, appeared in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
The study authors telephoned agencies in Illinois, California, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Indiana, pretending to be looking for home care for a family member. The information provided by the agencies over the telephone was analyzed and some broad and negative conclusions were drawn about the lack of industry standard practices for background checks, training requirements, and supervision. The report was discussed this week in the New York Time’s “New, Old Age” blog in a post called “Who’s Watching Mom?”
Please see the Home Care Alliance’s response to this report and feel free to use this in the event that your agency receive media inquiries.
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