Roy Gedat
The Partnership is a coalition of organizations and individuals who recognize the urgent need to improve long-term care by improving direct care jobs. Since we started late last year we’ve gained close to 50 members, including 25 national, state and regional organizations. Our members (PDF) include worker associations, long term care coalitions, employers, consumer, family groups, and others.
In recent conference calls, we’ve heard excellent presentations on the following policies and proposed bills, which we will soon consider supporting:
- The Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement/Quality of Care Act, presented by Janet Wells, director of public policy for NCCNHR. This bill would require disclosure of nursing home staffing levels and retention rates as a step towards establishing staffing ratios. The number one issue of nursing home workers!
- Federal minimum wage and overtime protection for home care workers, presented by Vera Salter, chair of the DCA’s advocacy committee. One of the DCA’s priority issues!
- The Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act, presented by ANCOR Executive Director Renee Pietrangelo. This wage bill would ensure that a significant sector of direct care workers get the same pay as their counterparts in other settings.
- The Healthy Families Act, presented by Karen Minatelli, director of the Work and Family Programs of the National Partnership of Women and Families. This bill would require paid sick leave for all workers.
- HCAN Health Care Reform platform, presented by Doneg McDonough, legislative and policy director of Health Care for America Now! We learned about universal health care principles and legislation being proposed and developed through HCAN.
- Policies, current bills, and proposals affecting direct care worker training, presented by the DCA’s Vera Salter.
On April 22, the Partnership will vote on what positions/action steps to take on the above. We will then schedule another round of meetings to hear presentations on additional legislation and policy proposals we may want to add to our advocacy agenda. Issues in the pipeline include the CLASS Act, the Community Choice Act, and more.
Please join us, or leave a comment below about what you’d like to see us do.
Roy Gedat
National Advocacy Director
Direct Care Alliance
Roy, great work!
Who is the Kennebec Valley Group in the DCA Partnership?
Warm regards,
Mark
Great to hear from you Mark. KVO is a terrific grass roots group operating out of Waterville that has really taken on the direct care worker issue and are effective and well run. Here’s their website: http://www.kvorg.org.