Kentucky's new Caregiver Misconduct Registry is gearing up. Legislation establishing the new effort, aimed at protecting vulnerable adults, went into effect two weeks ago. Governor Beshear participated in a ceremonial bill signing Monday at Lexington's Christian Care Adult Day Center.
Cabinet for Health and Family Services Deputy Secretary Eric Friedlander says it will take a while to build up a list of red flagged caregivers. "It starts now so somebody would have to have been accused of abuse and neglect from when the bill was signed. That's how they would get on the register, so there's nobody on there yet, but folks should start checking," said Friedlander.
Gail Reece serves on the Commonwealth Institute for Aging. She says many people are hesitant to take abuse or neglect cases to court. "People really won't press charges against their family members, even though that the police know that it's happened, so this gives them a way to have a registry of people who have adult protective services histories of incidents," said Reece.
Cabinet for Health and Family Services Deputy Commissioner Eric Friedlander says information about other state registries can be attained through the state inspector general's office. According to Governor Beshear, in 2013, there were 86 hundred state reported cases of abuse and neglect involving adults 60 and over.?
