Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - December 10, 1999
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Locke unveils domestic violence, home care proposals

OLYMPIA — Gov. Gary Locke today announced his second supplemental budget proposal for the 2000 legislative session, an initiative to strengthen the state's response to domestic violence and improve the quality of care vulnerable adults receive in their homes.

"Whether violence happens between a husband and wife, or between other family members, or between a caregiver and a vulnerable adult, domestic violence is not a private matter within the family," Locke said. "Whether we are neighbors, friends, parents, employers, co-workers, public officials, or just plain citizens, domestic violence is everybody's business."

Earlier this year the governor formed a Domestic Violence Action Group — 12 experts in domestic violence, criminal justice, and social services — to recommend additional steps to reduce domestic violence and help assure the safety of home care for elderly and disabled citizens. Locke also asked the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) to provide its own recommendations on home care quality and safety.

Based on those recommendations, Locke proposes to:

To help stop domestic violence:

* Launch a public information campaign to make every citizen aware of domestic violence and how it can be stopped.
* Improve training for law enforcement officers, state agency workers, and domestic violence service providers.
* Strengthen penalties for violating court orders that protect victims.
* Improve services to victims in populations with special needs, such as the disabled, elderly, children, or ethnic and sexual minorities.
* Conduct inter-agency reviews of domestic-violence-related deaths to help prevent future tragedies.
* Improve monitoring and enforcement of quality standards for treatment of batterers.
* Impose a mandatory $500 penalty assessment on those convicted of domestic violence crimes in the district and municipal courts. This will raise more than $1.5 million next year to pay for prevention, services to victims and improvements in law enforcement.

To improve the quality of in-home care:

* Require interstate criminal background checks for in-home care workers.
* Provide better training for home care aides.
* Establish an adult abuse registry of persons found to have abused a vulnerable adult.
* Establish adult protection teams composed of experts in each community to consult with DSHS on difficult adult protection cases.
* Computerize Adult Protective Services case records to better track and report cases of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.
* Increase Adult Protective Services staff to keep up with the increase in reports of abuse and neglect.
* Develop a pilot "client as employer" project to train disabled clients on hiring, firing and supervising home care aides.

"Government's responsibility to improve public safety does not stop at the front door of anybody's home, but government cannot do it alone — domestic violence is everyone's business and everyone's responsibility," Locke said.

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