Inadequate training.
Seniors and people with disabilities are choosing to stay at home or in their community and receive long-term care. In other states these home and community based consumers would be cared for in nursing homes by Certified Nursing Assistants who have 75 hours of federally mandated training and certification. This means that in Washington long-term care workers who get only 34 hours of training and no certification are providing nursing home level care with less than half the needed training.

Background check loopholes.
While Washington conducts state background checks on long-term care workers, they only do FBI background checks for long-term care workers who have lived in the state for less than three years. This serious loophole means that people convicted of disqualifying crimes (e.g. rape) in other states are allowed to care for vulnerable Washington residents.

Lack of workforce development.
Current training standards provide no opportunity for job mobility across long-term care and healthcare settings. For too many workers, long-term care is a "dead-end job" with no pathway to higher-skill and higher-paid jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, long-term care workers rank among the top 10 highest job growth occupations. With better job portability, long-term care workers could provide a critical pipeline into nursing and other high demand healthcare occupations.

Initiative 1029: Certification, Improved Training, and Background Checks for Long-Term Care Workers

Closes the background check loophole:
Starting in 2010, the initiative requires Federal FBI criminal background checks for all home and community-based long-term care workers.

Increases training standards:
Starting in 2010, the initiative sets a 75-hour training and certification standard for long-term care workers. This is consistent with the Federal standard for Certified Nursing Assistants in nursing homes.

Enhances elective advanced training:
Starting in 2011, the initiative provides for additional advanced training that supports job mobility through apprenticeship programs.

Addresses concerns raised by family and intermittent caregivers:
The initiative does not require certification for State paid long-term care workers who are hired to care for a son, daughter, or parent or who are hired on an intermittent basis.

The initiative covers long-term care workers in home care agencies, adult family homes, boarding homes, developmental disabilities services, and other home care community-based settings regulated by the state. It does not cover workers in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, adult day, and adult health. These workers are already covered under similar or more stringent training requirements.

Why are we doing this by initiative?

In 2006, SEIU Healthcare 775NW commissioned national experts on the long-term care workforce - the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute PHI) - to analyze Washington's training system, as well as to develop a blueprint for a 21st century training system. Following the development of the blueprint, SEIU supported legislation based on PHI recommendations for a 150-hour training and certification standard for long-term care workers. During the 2007 session, the state legislature established an interim workgroup to consider a new training standard. A majority of the workgroup members recommended an 85-hour training and certification standard. However, the legislature again failed to pass any new training standard in 2008.