Posted by Helen Hanson on February 11th, 2010 at 4:45 pm | 3 Comments »
Helen Hanson
Well, our report is complete, but it has not yet been presented to the Legislature.
As you know if you’ve been reading this blog, I am part of a team that was appointed by the state of Maine to recommend ways that the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee could streamline long-term care service delivery, address equalities in the services provided, and hopefully gain some cost savings, which can be passed on to workers in the form of livable wages and benefits such as paid time off and health care coverage. We finished our work in early January, and the report was supposed to be released later that month.
But I just learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has put it on the back burner instead. Continue reading »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on January 31st, 2010 at 10:35 pm | 1 Comment »
As part of its annual Best Nursing Homes issue this month, U.S. News and World Report includes a feature on how culture change can transform a nursing home into a good place to live by respecting residents and fitting care plans and schedules to their individual needs – and by empowering caregivers and nurturing their relationships with the residents.
The feature begins with an anecdote about a man who loves to visit his mother at the home, Evergreen Retirement Community in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, because of “the easy warmth of the nurses and aides,” who he says are like “kid sisters” or his own daughters.” Continue reading »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on January 31st, 2010 at 9:14 pm | 1 Comment »
Martha Stewart
“Whether or not you care about older people, you will, if you’re lucky, be one of them. It’s not just a demographic. It’s personal — it’s you, your parents, your aunts, uncles, friends and children. We need to do a better job caring for this population — and supporting those who care for them,” writes Martha Stewart in a January 20 post in the Huffington Post.
Stewart notes the absence of any discussion about that fast-growing population in the coverage of the health care bill, saying “We, as a nation, are utterly unprepared for this rapidly approaching ‘silver tsunami.’” She calls for better geriatric training for medical professionals and better support for family caregivers.
Stewart also endorses the CLASS Act, noting that it would provide people with cash for home care, adult day programs, assisted living, or nursing homes. “We must not lose sight of a pressing need for solutions that will offer older adults and their families some financial protection,” she writes.
Stewart is the founder of the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mt. Sinai.
Posted by David Moreau on January 31st, 2010 at 3:33 pm | 2 Comments »
David Moreau
In Social Awareness Sophie’s asked
If you could change any part of yourself
what would it be? and she thinks very carefully.
The staff are good at this one.
Each participant’s annual meeting
starts with Strengths, which we skip
over quickly and Needs, which we use
to make hab plans, such as, Donnie will refrain
from talking to people he doesn’t know
on ninety percent of recorded occasions
for three consecutive months, or,
Sophie will report to group on time…. Continue reading »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on January 31st, 2010 at 3:06 pm | No Comments »
Marilyn Daniel helps Classie Morant (L) prepare for her sister's funeral.
In two moving multimedia presentations that meld photos and captions with spoken memories, the Washington Post has fleshed out the story of the elderly sisters introduced in an earlier feature. Marilyn Daniel’s Reward brought to life the importance of direct care work through telling the story of Daniel, a compassionate home health aide. One of her clients was Rozzie Laney, who passed away at the age of 92. Rozzie’s primary caregiver was her 104-year-old sister, Clarice “Classie” Morant.
No Greater Love shows how Classie took care of her sister during her last days. Sweet Dreams is about Rozzie’s death, on New Year’s Eve 2008.
Posted by Judy Clinco on January 29th, 2010 at 3:49 pm | 1 Comment »
Judy Clinco
It’s not easy to start up a direct care worker association, but with the right members and allies, you’d be surprised how much you can get done.
Our association, the Arizona Direct Care Worker Association (ADCWA), started last year. We are still in the process of building up our membership, but we already have some really powerful advocates for their profession. And we have a plan for the year, which we’re all working hard to implement.
After the DCA’s Vera Salter did a Power Me workshop for us last summer, we invited all the association members who attended the workshop to become part of a leadership circle. Six of them did, and they’ve gotten a lot done in the last six months. Continue reading »
Posted by Paul Tripoli on January 15th, 2010 at 1:43 pm | No Comments »
Paul Tripoli
On the surface, the work performed by direct care workers can be viewed as providing consumers with basic needs: bathing, grooming and other activities of daily living. However, at the deepest level, direct care workers touch the heart of the human being. The emotional component and impact of their work can be profound, as the people they care for — like the caregivers themselves – have a need for self-expression and a need to relate to others.
Transference
In a counseling therapy setting, therapists and their clients often experience what is known as transference and counter-transference, when one of them projects feelings from past relationships onto the other. Transference can lead to a client having romantic feelings for a therapist.
The same process can happen between a direct care worker and someone he or she assists. As Lisa Marie Hilz writes in Transference and Counter-Transference, transference “evolves from unresolved or unsatisfactory…experiences in relationships with parents or other important figures…. This may precipitate behavioral and thought patterns in subsequent relationships, even though certain actions and attitudes may be inappropriate for the current interaction…. As nurses generally have the most consistent and frequent contact with patients as compared with other disciplines, the potential for nurses to be objects of transference is significant.” Continue reading »
Posted by Helen Hanson on January 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm | No Comments »
A planning session with (L to R) Vicki Purgavie of Home Care & Hospice Alliance, Diana Scully and Doreen McDaniel from DHHS, me, Leo Delicata of Legal Services for the Elderly, and Louise Olsen from the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School
As I explained in an earlier blog post, Maine is putting four pieces of legislation that would affect the home- and community-based part of Maine’s long-term care system — including its direct care workers – through a LEAN process. The aim of the process is to make service delivery more efficient, address inequalities in the services provided, and hopefully gain some cost savings, which can be passed on to workers in the form of livable wages and benefits such as paid time off and health care coverage. We’ve made a lot of progress toward that goal in the last few weeks.
Two direct care workers, Julie Moulton and I, were appointed to the core team that will lead the process of coming up with a plan for a streamlined system. Another direct care worker, Cathy Bouchard, became an alternate, stepping up when Julie was unable to stay on the team. I am also part of a Direct Care Workers’ Task Force that was put together to recommend changes for the issues directly affecting home care workers. This is the first time workers have been involved at this high a level of working on system change in Maine. Continue reading »
Posted by Tracy Dudzinski on January 7th, 2010 at 3:58 pm | No Comments »
Application form and details
This spring, the DCA’s Voices Institute will introduce a state-level training program for people who want to improve the lives of direct support workers and the people they support. If you’re a direct support worker or a long-term care recipient in Wisconsin who has a passion for that cause, we’d love to see you there!
Advocacy Voices Together is sponsored by the Direct Care Alliance, the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities (WBPDD), and the Wisconsin Direct Caregiver Alliance (WIDCA). The program teams direct support workers with people who receive long-term care services. Together, they will learn how to build support for better direct care worker wages, benefits and working conditions. Continue reading »
