HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO.65

(By Delegates Williams, Moye, Butcher, Campbell, D., Craig, Ferro, Hatfield, Longstreth, Manchin, Manypenny, Marshall, Moore, Pethtel, Pino, Poling, D., Stephens, Rowan, Duke, Hamilton, Howell, Sigler, Snuffer and Sumner)

Requesting the Joint Committee on Government and Finance study the state's in-home direct care workforce in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of available in-home direct care workers to ensure a trained and competent workforce exists to care for the state's growing aged population.

    WHEREAS, Currently 15.8% of West Virginians are age 65 or older and this number will rise to 24.8% by 2030 ; and

    WHEREAS, In-home direct care workers are often the primary providers of in-home long-term support and services for older West Virginians, who wish to spend their later years in their own homes; and

    WHEREAS, A large portion of in-home direct care workers are employed through publicly funded programs such as the Medicaid Aged and Disabled Waiver Program, the Lighthouse Program and the Family Alzheimer In-Home Respite (FAIR) program; and

    WHEREAS, In-home direct care workers provide a range of basic but vital support services including grooming, meal preparation, bathing, housekeeping, laundry and dressing that often allow older West Virginians to remain in their homes as they age and avoid more costly institutional care; and

    WHEREAS, Due to contributing factors such as job stress, lack of training, low wages and meager benefits, turnover rates for in-home direct care workers are high and costly and affect the overall consistency of support provided to older West Virginians; and

    WHEREAS, Many in-home direct care workers earn minimum wage and rely on the same federal and state public assistant programs as the individuals for whom they provide care; and

    WHEREAS, No standard training program exists across West Virginia for in-home direct care workers; and 

    WHEREAS, No mechanism exists in West Virginia to comprehensively track the in-home direct care workforce; and    WHEREAS, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, in a 2009 publication, urged states to expand data collection on public long-term care programs to include the tracking and monitoring of key direct care services workforce to help inform policy and program development; and

    WHEREAS, Employers of in-home direct care workers could benefit from being able to consult a database with background information on current and prospective employees to ensure the safety of the vulnerable population they serve; and

    WHEREAS, In order to ensure the development of a quality, trained in-home direct care workforce, a broad group of stakeholders must come together to study the issues and pursue strategies for improvement; and therefore be it

    Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance is hereby requested to conduct a study on the state's in-home direct care workforce; approaches used for in-home care and community care workforce development in surrounding states; Allied health care; potential education pathways, including the development of training programs at vocational schools, community and technical colleges and advanced education and degrees, and explore the creation of a database managed by the Bureau for Senior Services that details qualifications and experience of in-home care workers in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of available in-home direct care workers to ensure a trained and competent workforce exists to care for the state's growing aged population; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the Joint Committee on Government and Finance report to the Legislature, on the first day of the regular session, 2012 on its findings, conclusions and recommendations together with drafts of any legislation to effectuate its recommendations; and, be it

    Further Resolved, That the expenses necessary to conduct this study, to prepare a report and to draft necessary legislation be paid from legislative appropriations to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.