Mark Cerna
On August 1, 2010, the New Mexico Caregiver Coalition hosted a multi-stakeholder meeting with the Direct Care Alliance. Leonila Vega, DCA’s Executive Director, met with employers, advocates, staff and New Mexico Caregiver Coalition members. We learned a lot about national trends, workforce development and policy objectives of DCA.
For us, it was an opportunity to share updates on our local work with DCA, the national advocacy voice for workers in long-term care. We discussed the needs of New Mexicans to reform our long-term care system and address the needs of workers in this state. Trends show that New Mexico has and continues to attract many retirees and that the demand for direct care continues to increase. The New Mexico Caregiver Coalition is the leading voice to develop and support caregivers so our elders have a well-trained, ample, qualified caregiver workforce to meet their needs.
We had a very productive meeting with Matt Pole, Executive Director of Great Living, who employs caregivers in New Mexico. We discussed the shared mission and objectives and pledged to work together on advocacy, training and policy reform. These are ideas that we will continue to develop at our summit on November 5. Read more about the New Mexico Direct Caregivers 2010 Summit and register.
Mark keep up the good work.