Who are we to judge?
David W. Smith
I”m writing this letter as both a concerned citizen of Lake County and a concerned care provider. Recently our wonderful state of California has made a precedence with new requirements for caregivers within the IHSS program. These requirements are for fingerprint and subsequent background checks on all IHSS caregivers. The idea of this is certainly considered as good, however, something has come to my attention. The criteria that is set for these providers hasn”t been made very clear to everyone involved, both providers and recipients, as well. I”m hoping, with this letter, on assisting with this information, with the help of our local media.
The state sent a letter to all providers and recipients with a vague idea of what the criteria is for screening all providers. What the letter succeeded in accomplishing was scaring the living daylights out of everyone involved. What the letter failed to do was explain the exact criteria for what would keep a provider from being able to do this critical job of keeping someone safe in their home and thusly, keeping our taxes from going up, because these individuals will be staying out of institutions that are paid with those very same taxes. The scary part of this situation is that the state has made it clear that they want to reduce this critical workforce by attempting to weed out people that it feel are undesirable.
The fact is, regardless if someone had a conviction many years ago, that had nothing to do with hurting any individual, such as possession of a controlled substance felony, and this person served their time after that conviction, and this was done well over 10 years ago, they should be allowed to find employment, even if it is taking care of a disabled person who needs this particular person. We, as a society, should be asking ourselves two big questions about this subject: Who are we to judge another human being, especially someone who has paid the price for their indiscretion and should we continue punishing those individuals even after they served the time for that crime?
David W. Smith
Nice
