Leonila Vega
A room full of economists and researchers.
That’s what you wish you for when you’re an advocate for low-income women who are in dire need of supports: A room full of economists who can help you explain to President Obama, his cabinet, and our national and state legislators why they need to stop ignoring direct care workers. Maybe “ignore” is too strong a word, but it’s frustrating to see no mention of direct care workers in the plans being made to stimulate the economy or fund Medicaid, when direct care workers who are being paid a family-sustaining wage are just what our economy needs.
Every night, I read and watch news about powerful banks getting billions of dollars to bail them out, car company execs landing in DC in their private jets to collect billions, and nearly another trillion from the treasury being allocated for other projects. I wonder, what about the direct care workers who toil daily to prepare meals, give showers, perform transfers, drive people to the doctor and church, and otherwise keep families together in their communities?
What about the direct care workers – most of them women — who have to decide whether to pay the telephone bill, the rent or the doctor’s bill to make sure their families can make it one more month without losing basics such as housing? Never mind health care, which so many can’t afford.
L to R: Roy Gedat, Janet Gornick, Peggie Smith and Candace Howes
Direct care workers are often reminded that they are “the backbone” or “the linchpin” of our health care system — yet it is like talking to an empty room when you try to make policy makers support them. Our three million or so direct care workers are a key to our national economic and social renewal: If we increased their earnings so they made a living wage, they would put the additional money right back into our economy, purchasing basic products and services. They sit at the crossroads between health care delivery, management of chronic conditions, safety, and community integration for our elders and people with disabilities.
We are talking about workers who do whatever it takes to deliver essential services. When the nurse, the doctor, the psychiatrist and others have moved on to other clients, the direct care workers are there to make it all happen — client by client, directly, privately and with love and commitment. They make it all work! People like these are the answer to our prayers about what kind of economy and society we want to nurture.
On January 29, the Russell Sage foundation gave us great hope by sponsoring a roundtable talk between the Direct Care Alliance and top economists and researchers from all over the country who focus on care work and/or the work of low-wage women. Dr. Nancy Folbre organized the meeting, which the Direct Care Alliance was delighted to cosponsor.
I met Dr. Folbre last year at a conference about care work at New York University. She is among a select group of economists and researchers who have been thinking about the direct care sector. After hearing her talk and reading her blog, I was determined to find a way to tap into her thinking about direct care work.
Our January meeting was exciting, full of bright ideas and strategies. The 20 or so around the table – who included people like Randy Albelda of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Candace Howes of Connecticut College, Peggie Smith of the University of Iowa, Laura Dresser of Center on Wisconsin Strategies, and David Kieffer of the Service Employees International Union – kept reminding ourselves that we need to think boldly, freeing our minds from the molds we have grown accustomed to for the last eight years or so, as we accepted the fact that the federal government was not going to do anything for direct care workers.
That day, we started imaging the legal and economic structures we would need to allow direct care workers to independent lives, getting affordable health coverage and other benefits and earning enough to sustain their families. We talked about new legislative and regulatory frameworks that would reward the generous and perpetually undervalued contributions of professional direct care workers. And we talked about policy briefs we might write together to help change the way we think about and reward direct care work.
The Direct Care Alliance will be collaborating with these researchers in the coming months, as they help us help direct workers advocate for the changes they need – changes that will benefit all of us.
Leonila Vega
Executive Director
Direct Care Alliance
Keep up the good work! I am rooting for you! Nice to see your lovely faces! Say, “Hi!”, to Roy and Vera for me, too!
I very much like Dr. Folbre’s blog. Thank you for directing my attention towards it!
I think you better include MEN in this field also or you may have a problem with discrimination on your hands.
This isn’t the first time I have run into this. I once had a problem at an area meeting of my company when the speaker kept saying “My girls” and everyone in the room was looking at me…. You people seem to forget that their are men that work in this field also and have been for many years. Health care is a profession not related to sex. I pushed for the union to obtain equality for all, and I do not like gender being used as a division.
I was once told by an 85-year-old women that when she was employed in her line of work, which was insurance, there was a glass ceiling and a woman would never get ahead. She furthered that by saying: “That’s what you’re up against in this field.” She is right.
I would expect that you will heed this message and rectify your mistake.
Thank you for your attention
Mr. Jean A. Dupuis
Thank you Jean. A wonderful reminder! I am trying to highlight a statistical fact that most of this workforce is indeed women. But I appreciate the point, and we will ensure we give equal value to our good men and women working as direct care professionals.
We, as an organization, want to ensure that this work is valued in such a way that many people from a diverse background are attracted to it as a profession and the current professionals are valued as such. And we practice our values. Our members include men who are direct care workers, including our board chair. If you spend a little time on our website, you’ll see that both men and women direct care professionals are equally represented.
Thank you for the reminder and keep posting our comments. I look forward to future contributions.
I commend the Direct Care Alliance for being visionaries in this area- collaborating with researchers and economists to make the case for why it makes sense fiscally to invest in the direct care workforce. I believe strongly that researchers and economists can lend much credibility, in part by supplying data, to the arguments that the Direct Care Alliance is making about the importance of empowering direct care workers. I am very excited about the potential for great things to come!!
I want to thank DCA for exploring all avenues and collaborating with those who also think we need to pay attention to the Health Care Providers, to get help in getting the nation to take our mission and make it one of many priorties. I think we all have to go back to the ways Martin Luther King strategic plan to make people , the nation listen. As we all have been trying so hard to have folks do just that. Great job D.C.A.
Great Job D.C.A.
I think it is wonderful that Direct Care Alliance is working with the economists and the research experts to hopefully expose health care information that would not be common to the average person and possibly our congress who control where the money is being spent. For example, just the Baby Boomer generation alone is a growing mushroom of crisis for our society, if we do not prepare for there long-term healthcare needs of these people. Using census information, there are 78.2 million Baby Boomers, which are those born between 1946 and 1964. They are turning 60 at a rate of 330 per hour; 50.9% are women. In this population alone is the potential issue of Alzheimers and dementia, which are major illnesses that can require 24 hour care. If the researchers and economists can find out how many people caregivers care for, as well as possibly the statistics of those caregivers who are also caring for disabled family members it would be an important piece of information for society to know.
When and if the statistics are revealed, I do hope this information is revealed to the masses, pointing out the need for bright, talented, and gifted caregivers. The only way to ensure that there is a workforce available is to pay well, provide vacations, insurance benefits, continuing educations and classes in self-care to rejuvenate themselves to stay in the profession a long time, and not burn out.
This discussion is exciting news. It seems to me like we have been continually banging our heads on the same wall, knowing that in the current system of reimbursement there is no way to fund the changes that need to be made to provide a livable wage for Direct Care Workers.
New ideas and a new approach is needed!