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Abstract: 

Most elders and persons with disabilities greatly prefer remaining at home to entering a nursing home. The best-case scenario is that an affordable plan can be implemented, providing various skilled and non-skilled services in a home setting to prevent, or at least defer, institutionalization. However, the worst case is that the home care workers themselves physically abuse or economically exploit the vulnerable people in their care. There is consensus that workers should be screened before being allowed in the homes of vulnerable people. Much more difficult questions are how to predict who will be dangerous — and how to perform screening that is cost- effective, as agencies face multiple rounds of budget cuts. A recent report from the AARP Public Policy Institute examines methods of effective screening of home care workers, e.g., via criminal background checks. There is a brief sidebar summarizing the conditions, depending on the state, under which a person can be disqualified as a home care worker.

Keywords: screening home-care workers; AARP Public Policy Institute; abuse registries; opposition to background checks; AARP recommendations; disqualification as home care worker

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