Unlike publicly funded care aide services, there is very limited control over those who seek employment privately in that field.
And according to B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie the incident earlier this week involving a Penticton man in his 80鈥檚 who made an early-morning 911 call to police about his extremely intoxicated care worker, it highlights the need for changes in government policy, specifically the B.C. Care Aide and Community Health Worker Registry.
鈥淢embers of the public don鈥檛 have access to the registry, which I think is a real shortcoming,鈥� said Mackenzie. 鈥淔or families who want to hire their own care aide, we should allow them the same access. To allow them to verify that the person they鈥檙e hiring is a registered care aide or not.
鈥淭his seems to me to be a straight-forward fix.鈥�
Currently licensed care home and publicly funded services are the only ones who can check the registry.
All care aides working for publicly funded employers must be registered, although private aides can voluntarily register and receive a number, which can be checked.
鈥淭hese are becoming increasingly more important issues because we鈥檙e going to see way more cases like the one this gentleman described,鈥� said Mackenzie. 鈥淭hese kinds of incidents, as tragic as they are, are often the impetus for change, and so I鈥檓 actually going to be using this particular incident as an example of if the family had been able to hire a registered care aide and confirm their registration, this situation could potentially have been avoided.
鈥淎nd while it may not have prevented the first time she showed up drunk, it might have prevented the fifth time.鈥�
In the case this week when police arrived they found the woman, who has a history of similar incidents throughout the Okanagan, very drunk and belligerent to the point where she had to be physically restrained before being arrested.
Related: Drunk senior鈥檚 care aide arrested
鈥淲hen I hear stories like this my first response is obviously this is upsetting to the man and it鈥檚 upsetting to his family, and that鈥檚 unfortunate,鈥� said Mackenzie. 鈥淚 hope it hasn鈥檛 shaken him too much because when we鈥檙e older and feeling more vulnerable things like this upset us a little bit more. This is somebody in our home.
鈥淥bviously we recommend criminal record checks for hiring anybody but they鈥檙e not the be all and end all, they don鈥檛 give you the guarantee that some people think they do.鈥�
She added that even if the family, which reportedly did not do reference checks, had done their due diligence, there is no guarantee the incident would not have happened.
鈥淥ne of the problems is a lot of people would not have come forward with the story,鈥� said Mackenzie. 鈥淲e know about this because you鈥檝e brought this story to light but this happens more frequently and people just don鈥檛 talk about it.
鈥淭his potentially helps somebody down the road. You can鈥檛 fix a problem you don鈥檛 know exists and that鈥檚 why coming forward with this is important and often is the catalyst that leads to the change.鈥�
