Vulnerable seniors at risk from paid home caregivers

The VOR Weekly News Update from 9/14/12 reports on a national study: Dangerous Caregivers - Agencies place unqualified, possibly criminal caregivers in homes of vulnerable seniors


According to the Northwestern University News Center, July 10, 2012, "A troubling new national study finds many agencies recruit random strangers off Craigslist and place them in the homes of vulnerable elderly people with dementia, don’t do national criminal background checks or drug testing, lie about testing the qualifications of caregivers and don’t require any experience or provide real training."


The study was published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society.

VOR notes that VOR will encourage the study’s authors to consider a similar study of caregivers for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Here is more from the Northwestern University News Center article by Maria Paul:

The author of the study Lee Lindquist, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is quoted in the article:

“It’s a cauldron of potentially serious problems that could really hurt the senior,” Lindquist said. “These agencies are a largely unregulated industry that is growing rapidly with high need as our population ages. This is big business with potentially large profit margins and lots of people are jumping into it.”

Some of the findings from the study:

• Only 55 percent of the agencies did a federal background check.
• Only one-third of agencies interviewed said they did drug testing - "'Considering that seniors often take pain medications, including narcotics, this is risky,' Lindquist said. 'Some of the paid caregivers may be illicit drug users and could easily use or steal the seniors’ drugs to support their own habits.'"
• Few agencies (only one-third) test for caregiver skill competency - "A common method of assessing skill competencies was 'client feedback,' which was explained as expecting the senior or family member to alert the agency that their caregiver was doing a skill incorrectly."
• Inconsistent supervision of the caregiver.

“'The public should demand higher standards, but in the short term, seniors need to be aware what explicitly to look for when hiring a paid caregiver through an agency,' Lindquist said."

Dr. Lindquist's advice on hiring caregivers:

10 QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE HIRING A CAREGIVER

1. How do you recruit caregivers, and what are your hiring requirements?
2. What types of screenings are performed on caregivers before you hire them? Criminal background check—federal or state? Drug screening? Other?
3. Are they certified in CPR or do they have any health-related training?
4. Are the caregivers insured and bonded through your agency?
5. What competencies are expected of the caregiver you send to the home? (These could include lifting and transfers, homemaking skills, personal care skills such as bathing, dressing, toileting, training in behavioral management and cognitive support.)
6. How do you assess what the caregiver is capable of doing?
7. What is your policy on providing a substitute caregiver if a regular caregiver cannot provide the contracted services?
8. If there is dissatisfaction with a particular caregiver, will a substitute be provided?
9. Does the agency provide a supervisor to evaluate the quality of home care on a regular basis? How frequently?
10. Does supervision occur over the telephone, through progress reports or in-person at the home of the older adult?