Bill to tighten rules for group homes for mentally ill gets hearing

A bill before the Nevada Legislature would require licensing for community-based living arrangements, the group homes which came under fire last year for housing the mentally ill in filthy conditions.

Assembly Bill 131, taken up by the Health Committee on Friday, would allow the state’s Health Care Quality and Compliance unit to oversee licensure and regulation of community-based living arrangements as it does other types of residential facilities.

“You may recall those pictures in the newspaper,” said Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen, D-Henderson, the bill’s sponsor, referring to photos that accompanied a state auditor’s report released in January 2018. The report found the group home operators, funded by taxpayer dollars, were placing residents in houses containing rodents, human waste and mildew, and safety hazards, like broken glass.

The audit and testimony at several subsequent interim committee meetings were “troubling, to say the least,” she said.

Cohen’s bill would require regular inspections of such facilities and mandate that the people caring for residents would have to undergo training, though the details of what that training would entail have yet to be determined.

The bill would also require companies hiring caregivers from outside Nevada to undergo a background check and adhere to state training regulations. That would make it harder for unqualified individuals to slip through the cracks, state Division of Public and Behavioral Health administrator Julie Kotchevar told legislators Friday.

“This bill is another piece of our reform efforts for community-based living arrangements,” Kotchevar said, referencing a companion measure before the state Senate, SB 92. That bill would require licensure for people and agencies who refer the disabled or mentally ill from a hospital setting to a group home.

“This is, we feel, very important for us to continue to regulate these homes and to make sure this never, ever, ever happens again,” she said.

Contact Jessie Bekker at jbekker@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4563. Follow @jessiebekks on Twitter.