The majority of home and community based long-term care workers - who provide life-sustaining care for our State's vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities - are required to have 34 hours of training and no certification. Compare these low training standards with Washington State's standards for hairdressers, manicurists and dog masseurs - 1,000, 500 and 300 hours of training and certification respectively.
Washington has achieved national recognition as a leader in consumer-centered care. Our system gives Washington's seniors and people with disabilities a choice to remain in their home or community and receive care instead of going into an institution. This means that our long-term care workers don't just provide traditional chore services but highly complex care in home and community based settings. But our approach to training hasn't kept pace. Long-term care workers need better training to provide for increasingly complex care needs in home and community based settings.
• On July 3, Supporters of I-1029 turned in over 300,000 signatures backing our initiative for quality long-term care. I-1029 is now qualified for the November ballot!
• Governor Christine Gregoire supports I-1029, along with a growing list of endorsers.
• Read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer op-ed supporting better training!
