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| Flickr CC via Susan NYC |
Nursing assistants are a growing profession as more of the
population grows older and needs living assistance. These caregivers are often responsible for
bathing, cooking, feeding, cleaning or other tasks related to helping those
that have hindered mobility. There is,
however, a more frequent that expected rate of abusing patients. The California Department of Public Health, which licenses nursing assistants, has been
dealing with an alarming backlog of abuse complaints since the new director
took over the department in 2011.
Two years ago, the CDPH was over 900 complaints from the
last several years in backlog. The
director vowed to resolve them, but several employees said the aggressive push
to clear up the complaints forced them to make compromises. One retired official said that most
complaints were solved in a single phone call.
Few visits to facilities were made and little physical assessment was
done on each situation.
In 2009, over a quarter of nursing assistants received disciplinary
action when a complaint was processed against them. Today it is less than ten percent. The complaints are being handled, but fewer
abusers are losing their privileges to work.
In the last seven years, over thirty deaths from abuse per year were
reported to the attorney general’s office in California. The last two years, since the backlog was
being addressed, less than five deaths were passed on for prosecution.
Frustrated families say that the department of health rarely
returns phone calls or emails. Currently
advocates in Napa County are pushing for more regulations required to obtain a caregivers
license, to avoid allowing those with a criminal background to have the job.
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