Archive for ‘training and education’

Why Direct Care Workers Must Be Treated as Professionals

Posted by on January 9th, 2012 at 11:59 pm | 4 Comments »

Georgia P. Ameia Yen-Patton

I’ve been a long-term care nurse for over 25 years, most recently as a gerontological nurse practitioner. I started out as a nursing assistant, but it wasn’t until I went to graduate school in 2006 that I realized how many people, including us long-term care nurses, fail to give direct care workers the respect and professional recognition they deserve.

My PhD thesis is on the reciprocal ethical caring values that characterize long-time nursing assistants. Part of my research was on the relationships between nursing assistants and the nurses who manage them, so I talked to about a thousand nurses and nursing assistants at nursing homes in southeastern Massachusetts. (Stay tuned to this blog for more on my thesis, which I’ll write about as soon as it’s been cleared for publication.) Over and over, I heard the nurses say of the nursing assistants: “They do this because they can’t do anything else.”  Continue reading »

DCA to Build on Momentum in 2012

Posted by on January 3rd, 2012 at 1:41 pm | 2 Comments »

DCA Board Chair Tracy Dudzinski

Dear Friends,

Thanks to the hard work of our direct care worker leaders and allies, we made a lot of progress in 2011, and there are many opportunities for continued success in 2012.

As DCA’s board chair, I am incredibly proud of the leadership and vision of DCA’s executive director, Leonila Vega, as well as DCA’s staff, members, volunteers, and allies. 2011 was a year of many milestones for the direct care workforce and the Direct Care Alliance, and I’d like to share some of the highlights with you. They only scratch the surface of what we accomplished in 2011, but they’re proof that our movement is growing stronger and direct care workers’ voices are being heard. I also want to tell you about some of the things we have planned for 2012.

The most exciting developments in 2011 were the responses we got from both the U.S. Department of Labor and Congress to the persistent advocacy of DCA and its allies to extend basic labor protections to home care workers. Just last month, DOL proposed a rule that would extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. And earlier last year, the Direct Care Job Quality Improvement Act was introduced by Senator Casey (PA) in the Senate and Representative Sánchez (CA) in the House. Continue reading »

Home Care Agency Owner Finds Caregiver Training Invaluable

Posted by on December 12th, 2011 at 11:34 pm | No Comments »

Bob Hebert

My wife and I own a non-medical home care agency that provides assistance with activities of daily living. Our clients are all private-pay, and our direct care workers are all caregivers or companions, not certified CNAs or home health aides.

Those caregivers are our business. Young or old, they have to have a passion and a heart for this kind of work. But they also have to be managed and supported and trained.

We offer our caregivers a lot of training, and we find they really appreciate the classes. Arizona is one of 23 states that do not have licensure requirements for home care. There is no federal training requirement for home care workers, and no state requirement either in our state, except a new one that just applies to people who work at agencies that serve Medicare or Medicaid recipients. But of course all home care workers need training, so most companies do it themselves. Continue reading »

Improving Care Quality by Developing Direct Care Worker Leaders

Posted by on November 29th, 2011 at 11:12 am | 2 Comments »

Beverly Faulkner

Developing direct care workers’ leadership skills can be an effective way of improving job and care quality in long-term care, according to early feedback from a collaboration between the Direct Care Alliance and four New York City-area nursing homes. The program is part of a pilot being conducted by DCA, the Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York City, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The project partners developed a new job description for certified nursing assistants (CNAs), creating an intermediary Senior Resident Care Associate position between the traditional CNA position and licensed nurses. The main goal is to develop direct care workers’ leadership skills so they can better advocate for improved working conditions, career advancement, and respect. The new position essentially creates a CNA career track, allowing seasoned nursing assistants to take on more responsibility and earn more pay without having to abandon the profession.

According to sociologist Deborah Little, PhD, the program’s evaluator, 30 CNA leaders—“the cream of the cream of the crop”—will be trained over the next three years. The first ten came from two of Beth Abe’s four homes. Each of the remaining two homes will contribute ten more. Training began for the first group this fall and begins for the last group next spring.

Continue reading »

Demonizing Caregivers No Way to Reduce Elder Abuse, says DCA Issue Brief

Posted by on October 25th, 2011 at 3:37 am | 1 Comment »

“The personal, often intimate nature of caregiving relationships can make it difficult to define, detect, and deter the abuse of elders and people with disabilities by the caregivers they rely on. Nonetheless, there are a number of steps that employers and policymakers can take to support good care and prevent abuse,” says No Excuse for Abuse, the ninth in a series of Direct Care Alliance policy briefs.

Arguing that we cannot reduce abuse until we understand its root causes, the nine-page issue brief looks at what we know—and what we don’t know—about how and why care recipients get abused by their caregivers. Author Elise Nakhnikian notes that the great majority of abuse appears to be committed not by paid professionals but by informal caregivers, usually close family members, and that it is often caused by “complex and stressful dynamics between caregiver and care recipient, with one party’s actions and attitudes affecting the other and creating a ‘reactive pattern or feedback loop.’”

Simply blaming and punishing those who abuse will not solve the problem, she writes. In fact, demonizing caregivers can make things worse, pushing the issue even further underground and tarnishing the reputation of an honorable profession. Continue reading »

Conference Inspires and Informs Florida Caregivers

Posted by on October 25th, 2011 at 3:01 am | 1 Comment »
FPACG 2011 conference attendees

Conference attendees with door prizes

The 16th annual Florida Professional Association of Care Givers (FPACG) conference, which was co-sponsored this year by DCA, was inspirational from the start. After a welcome and invocation by CNA/HHA Rita Andrews and CNA/HHA Nancy Strebel, the Air Force junior ROTC from Lake Brantley High School presented the colors. What a thing that was to witness! Next on the agenda was the presentation of awards by FPACG President Emeritus and Director of Education Terry Bucher to FPACG’s Career Care Giver of the Year and its two Care Givers of the Year. This was the first time in the history of the association that the award was given to two people in one year. Continue reading »

PA Caregivers Invited to Free Training, Board Meet

Posted by on September 16th, 2011 at 3:00 pm | 1 Comment »

PA Direct Care Worker Association logoThe Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association invites all interested direct care workers in Pennsylvania to two free training sessions and a PaDCWA board meeting, to be held at Arden Courts in Allentown on October 27.

The first training will be on the subject of caregiver burnout. It will be conducted during a working lunch (provided at no charge) between 12 and 1 p.m. After the board meeting, which will take place from 1 to 3, a second training will be held on responding to difficult behaviors caused by Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. Human Resources Director Amanda Scholl of Home Instead Senior Care will conduct both sessions.

Certificates will be awarded on completion of training.

Download flyer for more information.

Care, Committment and Coffee Series Concludes with Norman Thomas of New York

Posted by on August 8th, 2011 at 3:02 pm | No Comments »

At the 2011 Voices Institute Leadership Training, DCA communications director, Josh Sabato sat down to speak with direct care worker, Norman Thomas to discuss the most pressing issues facing direct care workers.  Mr. Thomas is a direct care worker at Beth Abraham Family Services in Bronx, New York.

The DCA recently teamed up with Beth Abraham and other home care employers in New York to provide a comprehensive training for direct care workers on job safety, emergency preparedness and other skills training to better equip workers with additional tools to care for elders and persons living with disabilities.  For more information about how other employers and workers can partner with us to help create a stronger more stable direct care workforce contact the DCA today!

Care, Commitment and Coffee with Melva Proctor of Virginia!

Posted by on August 1st, 2011 at 4:04 pm | No Comments »

At the 2011 Voices Institute Leadership Training, DCA communications director, Josh Sabato sat down to speak with direct care worker, Melva Proctor to discuss the most pressing issues facing direct care workers and how other activists can get involved in direct care advocacy in Virginia.


Care, Commitment and Coffee with Joan Leah and June Ortiz of Florida!

Posted by on July 18th, 2011 at 12:44 pm | No Comments »

At the 2011 Voices Institute Leadership Training, DCA communications director, Josh Sabato sat down to speak with direct care workers, Joan and June to discuss the most pressing issues facing direct care workers and how other activists can get involved in direct care advocacy in Florida.


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