In our effort to tell the story of direct care workers, we did some filming during our April trip to Washington to talk to legislators about direct care worker issues.
Here’s the first one:
Archive for May, 2009
Video Highlights from the DCA’s Trip to DC
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 27th, 2009 at 6:21 pm | 1 Comment »Gerontologist Reports on CNA Characteristics and What Causes Turnover
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 27th, 2009 at 6:01 pm | No Comments »
The April issue of The Gerontologist reports on several important studies about direct care workers, starting with the long-anticipated National Nursing Assistant Survey (NNAS).
A paper about the survey, which is based on data from 2004, says it represents “a major advance in the data available about CNAs in nursing homes.” The report lists some of the survey’s major findings and suggests that the data be used for “evidence-based policy, practice, and applied research initiatives to address the CNA workforce shortage and to improve recruitment and retention efforts.”
Among the findings of the NNAS:
• Almost half of all CNAs are members of a minority group;
• Their median hourly wage was $10.04, and almost two-thirds lived on an annual family income of less than $30,000; and
• More than 40% did not participate in their employer’s health insurance plan because they couldn’t afford the premiums.
The April Gerontologist also looks at the causes of high CNA turnover rates from two different angles.
Celebrate National Nursing Assistants Week June 11-18
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 27th, 2009 at 2:56 pm | No Comments »
The 32nd annual National Nursing Assistants Week will be held this year from June 11-18.
For a detailed description of the purpose and elements of this year’s celebration and information on how to participate, visit the National Network of Career Nursing Assistants website.
A planning guide and PR kit can be downloaded from the website for a fee.
HHS Secretary Sebelius: “It is Our Goal to Improve the Attractiveness of Caregiving Jobs”
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 27th, 2009 at 2:40 pm | No Comments »
Kathleen Sebelius
The new head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expresses her appreciation for direct care workers and pledges her determination to improve their jobs in a May 18 letter to the Washington Post.
In her letter, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius calls direct care workers “the backbone of our long-term care system,” adding: “Their compassion and work is invaluable to individuals, their families and our society.”
“The Department of Health and Human Services is deeply concerned about the needs of long-term care workers and maintaining an adequate and high-quality workforce,” Sebelius writes. “It is our goal to improve the attractiveness of caregiving jobs and reduce worker turnover. Ultimately, this will result in improvements in the quality of life and care of disabled and older Americans.”
The letter was published in response to “Marilyn Daniel’s Reward,” the May 10 cover story of the Washington Post magazine.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance
DCA Asks Senate Finance Committee to Support Direct Care Worker Health Care Reform Priorities
Posted by Leonila Vega on May 27th, 2009 at 1:49 pm | No Comments »
Leonila Vega
The Direct Care Alliance is working hard to ensure that the voices of workers and their allies are heard in the debate on health care reform.
As you already know if you’ve been reading our newsletter or blog, we went to Washington last month to talk to legislators and key committee staff. We asked them to make sure their health care reform bill includes health care coverage for all direct care workers. We also told them that we can’t have true health care reform without labor protections, training, career advancement opportunities and other job improvements for direct care workers.
We’ve also sent letters to President Obama (PDF) and U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, (PDF) asking them to support direct care workers and improve direct care jobs.
Our latest letter (PDF) went out to the Senate Finance Committee on May 15. It was a response to a call for comments from the committee, which wants input on the health care reform legislation it is working on. The committee wanted input on two documents describing policy options: Expanding Health Care Coverage: Proposals to Provide Affordable Coverage to All Americans (PDF) and Transforming the Health Care Delivery System: Proposals to Improve Patient Care and Reduce Health Care Costs (PDF).
Direct Care Workers Help Get 37 Congressional Signatures on Letter to Labor Secretary Solis
Posted by Jenn Craigue on May 26th, 2009 at 8:50 pm | 1 Comment »
- Jenn Craigue
Last month I visited Washington, DC, along with other members of the Direct Care Alliance board, graduates of the DCA’s first Voices Institute class, and other DCA staff and allies. We introduced ourselves to legislators and their staff and to asked for two things– and one of them has already happened.
One of our two main “asks” was that the legislators sign a Dear Colleague letter. The DCA worked with the House Labor and Working Families Caucus to circulate the letter, which asked U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to change the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to include home care workers.
The Dear Colleague letter was sponsored by the three co-chairs of the Caucus: Representatives Linda Sánchez, Michael Michaud, and Stephen Lynch. They sent it to their colleagues in the House just before we got there, asking them to sign it. In our visits, we also urged members of Congress to sign. The final letter (PDF) went to Secretary Solis last week.
Lieutenant Governor Thanks Oklahoma Personal Care Attendants
Posted by Kelli Davidson on May 22nd, 2009 at 5:06 pm | 2 Comments »
From left: Tana Parrott, Program Supervisor, OKDHS; Lance Robertson, Aging Service Division Director, OKDHS; Michelle Volpe, PCA of the year; and me.
The lieutenant governor of Oklahoma spoke about the importance of personal care attendants, PCAs told their stories on tape for an upcoming video documentary, and Michelle Volpe, Oklahoma’s Personal Care Assistant of the Year, was honored for her dedication, charity work, and heroism. It all happened on April 30 at Oklahoma’s second annual personal care conference.
This is the second year our state has sponsored the event, which was held in Norman. It’s a joint effort between the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) and Medicaid home care agencies, intended to honor the best of Oklahoma’s caregivers.
I’ve led the team that creates the event both years. We see the conference as an opportunity to show our appreciation for the PCAs’ hard work. We also hope it helps remind home care agencies how important their PCAs are in delivering high-quality care.
Personal Care Assistant of the Year
Michelle Volpe was honored in part for what she did when she found a bedridden client in a locked bedroom having set her mattress on fire with a cigarette: With no time to call the fire department, she knocked down the door and carried the woman to safety.
EWA Endorses Extending Federal Labor Protections to Home Care Aides
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 13th, 2009 at 4:02 pm | 1 Comment »
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA) has written to U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, asking her to correct a Department of Labor ruling that leaves home care workers without protection under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
Twenty-five of the group’s 28 members endorsed the request. It was the first policy matter EWA has supported, other than endorsing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations inRetooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce and in S245, the Senate bill of the same name, which was drafted to enact recommendations made by the report.
In the Alliance’s press release about the letter, EWA co-convener Nancy Lundebjerg says: “The Alliance believes that an important part of improving the quality of care is ensuring the recruitment and retention of a quality workforce, which includes paying adequate wages to home care and other eldercare workers. Strengthening home care occupations can also drive long-term economic growth, particularly within low-income communities.”
“It is gratifying to see the variety and depth of support for fixing the overtime and minimum wage exclusion for home care workers coming from so many of the Elder Workforce Alliance members,” says Direct Care Alliance National Advocacy Director Roy Gedat. “The Direct Care Alliance is thankful for the support of the EWA for an issue that is our number one priority.”
Washington Post Cover Story Asks Why Home Care Workers Stay
Posted by Direct Care Alliance on May 11th, 2009 at 11:56 pm | 3 Comments »
Marilyn Daniel (R) helps Classie Morant prepare for her sister's funeral. Ms. Daniel had helped Ms. Morant care for her sister.
“Marilyn Daniel’s Reward,” the cover story of Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine, gives readers an up close and personal view of one compassionate home health aide and her work.
Author Paula Span makes clear the skills and sensitivity that make Marilyn Daniel good at her work, as well as the many services she provides. Span also interviews some of Daniel’s clients, her employer, and a variety of experts and advocates to answer the central question posed in the story’s subhed: “She works long hours for low wages as a home health aide — a job so demanding and underappreciated that others leave in droves. So why hasn’t she?”
DCA Executive Director Leonila Vega amplifies that question with her quote: “You can be a home care worker for 20 or 30 years and never receive a meaningful wage increase, never get a promotion. You could become an expert in working with people with physical disabilities or Alzheimer’s; yet you never receive any recognition for your increased learning and experience.”
Span, who has a book on the subject coming out next month, notes that “finding reliable, compassionate caregivers to help keep seniors in their homes isn’t easy, even in these miserable economic times,” in part because of poor pay and benefits. But her detailed and insightful portrait also makes it clear why caring people like Daniel find home care work so rewarding.
To voice your support for home care workers like Marilyn Daniel, take a moment to visit the DCA’s Legislative Action Center and ask U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to include them in the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance
DCW Helps Fight Proposed Cuts to Critical Disability and Aging Services in Minnesota
Posted by Bridget Siljander on May 11th, 2009 at 11:05 pm | 2 Comments »
Bridget Siljander
“Bridget Siljander calls them the ‘invisible workforce.’ Without them, though, the fallout will be starkly clear,” begins a story that ran last week in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, one of the biggest papers in my state.
The advocacy work that led to my being quoted was fueled by my participation in the Voices Institute National Leadership Program, so it seemed appropriate that I was en route to New York City to meet with the rest of the program’s training team when I received a call from the Star Tribune’s Gail Rosenblum. She was writing a story about the personal care attendance program, and when she told two of Minnesota’s strongest advocates for people with disabilities – Anne Henry of the Minnesota Disability Law Center and Anni Simons of The Arc of Minnesota — that she wanted to talk to a personal care attendant, they sent her to me.
I was more than happy to share the positive side of personal care work, a profession that has been denigrated in recent months in my state of Minnesota. I told Gail that the contribution of personal care attendants to society is tremendous, and she clearly understood what I and the others she had talked to were saying. Her article provided a balance to very negative press for personal care attendants that has run rampant this year.
