President Ronald Reagan described his policy on dealing with the Soviet Union on arms treaties this way: “Trust, but verify.” That’s not a bad position to take when you’re considering hiring someone to provide elder care for your parents.
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the largest senior advocacy organization in the United States, has gone on record supporting a bill sponsored by Senators Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Pete Domenici (R-NM) that would establish a national criminal background check system for employees whose jobs involve one-on-one contact with patients in long-term care.
Normally, I get my back up a bit when the government has got yet one more idea of how to tell people or businesses what to do, but I’m in favor of this idea. That’s because the world has changed.
When society and communities were more closely knit, the people we picked to help us care for our older parents or young children were people we knew. We either knew them personally or we knew people who knew them. And we may have known them for their whole life.
So, when we admitted them to a position of trust, we had a basis for it. No more.
Today the people who may wind up caring for our fragile parents or vulnerable children are people we’ve just met. And those care positions are positions of great trust. We trust those people with the lives and well-being of those we love.
That’s why I’m in favor of mandatory background checks for anyone that you’re going to admit to a position of immediate trust. That means someone who’s going to care for your parents or children. It means someone with access to your house and treasures. If you’re going to trust them, you need to check them out first. Trust, but verify.