Long-Term Care - Illinois General Assembly

documented the assaults, but nobody reported them to Public Health, or to the
police. Public Health finally found out, and the abuse finally stopped, only
because an outsider witnessed one assault. The Illinois Department of
Professional Regulation’s (IDPR) response was to suspend the license of the
Director of Nursing for one month. No other employee was disciplined. Nobody
was prosecuted for facilitating the assaults, or even for failing to report them.
It sounds absurd to say that the Department of Professional Regulation should be doing its job.
We don't know what else to say. Public Health and the Attorney General should be training
state's attorneys, sheriffs, and local police departments about criminal laws relevant to
protecting nursing home residents, including the accountability provisions of the Criminal Code,
and mandatory reporting requirements. Public Health should be working with the Hospital
Association to train and retrain hospital employees (especially emergency room personnel)
about mandatory abuse/neglect reporting laws.
Steve Pittman
Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans
Long-term care should be one complete system, regardless of how much or how little care a
person needs, or from what kind of site care is provided. As folks get older, some people need
a lot of care for a little bit of time. Some people need a little bit of care for a long time. Some
need combinations in between. Folks should be able to receive the kinds of care that they
need, when they need it, for as long as they need it. Care should be high quality. Whoever is
providing care needs to be accountable. There should be oversight and quality assurance.
If the long-term care system is going to treat seniors with respect, workers and caregivers have
to be treated with respect. Workers should be able to make a living providing care, and should
be provided basic employee benefits, including health insurance.
The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Council now connected to the Ombudsman office will go a
long way in creating greater independence and more effectiveness for that program.
Raising the community care program asset limit is also a priority.
The Health Care Justice Act would help the long-term care system, if we had universal health
care in this country and in this state. The House has passed that legislation and it's sitting in the
Senate.
Shirley Kellom
Steward SEIU – Service Employees International Union
House Bill 1179 was much needed. It granted personal assistants a two-dollar raise [Note: This
bill was Vetoed and died during the 2003 Fall Veto Session of the Illinois General Assembly.].
House Bill 2221 was also supported by SEIU, which granted 2100 personal assistants collective
bargaining rights with the State of Illinois. SEIU hopes to be soon signing a contract that will
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