Your passion. Your job. Your future!
At the 2011 Voices Institute Leadership Training, DCA communications director, Josh Sabato sat down for conversations with workers and direct care advocates from around the country, discussing the most pressing issues facing direct care workers and how anyone can join the movement in their home state. This week we invite you to meet Noel Mendez, from the DCA’s Pennsylvania chapter! Watch Video
Helen Hanson in front of the U.S. Capitol buidling
This letter was contributed by Helen Hanson
In 2011, the Direct Care Alliance rolled out the Personal Care and Support Credential. This credential provides direct care workers an opportunity to demonstrate their work readiness, knowledge, judgment and other critical skills necessary for providing personal care and support to people who are chronically ill, disabled, or dying.
To keep the exam fair, comprehensive and up-to-date, the Direct Care Alliance is creating a committee of experienced direct care workers to review the existing questions and discuss changes to the exam.
Joan Leah
Join Florida CNA Joan Leah on her journey to this year’s Voices Institute Training
My colleagues and I just completed the 2011 Voices Institute Leadership Training Program! It was a very intense, yet rewarding learning experience and I am honored to have graduated with some of the finest people I have ever met.
The investment that has been made by the DCA in this 2011 class is significant and it is now our responsibility to take the next steps to ensure our collective voices are being heard across the country. I have been armed with the tools necessary to advocate for the desperately needed changes to our long term care system, and I am fully focused on stepping up to the challenge of helping to create a more stable direct care workforce throughout Florida.
Tracy Dudzinski
This letter was contributed by DCA Board Chair, Tracy Dudzinski.
Another VI class has come and gone and what a week it was! First off, I would like to thank all the workers who took the time to come to Wisconsin and develop their leadership skills. It was a wonderfully diverse group filled with the talented and inspiring people our movement needs to be successful in the coming weeks, months and years.
The 2011 Voices Institute was a full circle moment for me. I attended in 2008 as a worker and was privileged to come back this year and have the opportunity to expand my leadership skills as a facilitator. When I arrived on Saturday and walked in the front door of Taylor Hall the memories overtook me. It was like I was back in 2008 arriving as a student and I couldn’t wait to get started! It was an exciting week and I enjoyed watching the new class find their voice. Although some of our attendees were quiet at the beginning of our training, by the end of the week they blossomed like the magnolia tree in the garden, turning into the leaders who will expand this movement in all corners of the country.
Guest blog from Brandon Walecka
I have limited experience with direct care workers in the community-based setting. But in the nursing home (NH) setting I have much more a familiarity. Through the ombudsman program I have been trained to spot issues and concerns of residents in NH facilities. I have been trained on how to address and resolve concerns of residents. A NH is a place residents call “home.” The NH has become a place where someone may live the remaining days of their lives or come in for a brief period of rehabilitation and recovery until they may return to their home. Continue reading »
Vera Salter
I am thrilled to announce the launch of the Direct Care Alliance Personal Care and Support Professional Credential, a competency-based test that will help improve the quality of long-term care for the elderly and people living with disabilities who depend on personal assistance workers to maintain their autonomy and quality of life.
The credential comes at a pivotal time, as more than 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age each day. But while the demand for direct care continues to rise, there aren’t enough qualified workers to meet the need.
The credential for personal assistance workers will help professionalize the direct care workforce by: 1) providing elders, people with disabilities and their families with a reliable way to assess the knowledge of those they hire; 2) giving agency employers a customer-centered assessment tool; 3) establishing a national standard for state policy makers; and 4) allowing workers in this field to demonstrate their professionalism and skill.
“Employees of Home Care for Maine go through rigorous training and the state’s mandated curriculum. But there’s no national recognition for their expertise. This credential demonstrates that our staff is qualified, knowledgeable and meets industry standards – giving great benefit to people we serve and our agency a competitive advantage,” said registered nurse Mollie Baldwin, CEO of Home Care for Maine. Continue reading »
The Direct Care Alliance is launching a pioneering professional development initiative for direct care workers and we’re looking for a few committed volunteers to oversee the program.
The DCA’s Personal Care and Support Credential is the first stage of a planned DCA career lattice for direct care workers who provide supports and services to elders and people living with disabilities. The career lattice will ultimately include credentials for various areas of specialization.
The new credential tests for the skills, aptitude, and knowledge personal assistance workers need to provide high-quality, non-specialized care to elders and people living with disabilities. Developed in accordance with Institute for Credentialing Excellence standards, it was based on criteria created in focus groups nationwide by employers, workers, and people who use personal assistance services.
The Personal Care and Support Credential creates a new gold standard for personal and home care work, giving caregivers a way to prove their competence and increase their potential market value and career opportunities. It also provides peace of mind to employers and to the elders and people with disabilities who rely on these workers, offering them a consistent national standard for judging a worker’s professionalism. “This credential is a way for direct care employers and the people needing direct care services to know when they have a highly skilled and knowledgeable worker,” says DCA Professional Development Manager Helen Hanson.
Dennis Fitzgibbons
Dennis Fitzgibbons (left), M.Ed., a co-chair of the commission that oversees the Personal Care and Support Credential, says it will be particularly useful for consumers and employers recruiting personal assistance workers. “It will be very helpful for the consumer recruiting a direct care worker to know that a potential worker has demonstrated the knowledge and skills needed to be a good personal assistance worker,” he says. Continue reading »
Timothy Doe (left) and Judy Clinco discuss direct care issues with the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona
The Arizona Direct Care Worker Association has had an exciting couple of months. Before the election, several colleagues and I made visits to the offices of Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jon Kyl to seek support for the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act. We explained our interest in the legislation and how it needs to be bipartisan and widely supported. We also visited Rep. Raul Grijalva to thank him for co-signing the bill and for his understanding of the conditions for direct care workers in Arizona and the entire country. The biggest surprise was finding out how many people in their offices knew someone – a family member or friend – who relied on the care and support of a direct care worker. We spoke about the dire need for better training, wages and benefits for workers and discussed the poor working conditions for direct care workers and how it impacts those we serve.
In September, we hosted our annual conference, “A Celebration of Caring”, which was a wonderful success. It was so great to see everyone together in one place, celebrating their jobs and inspiring each other. We are busy planning next year’s conference already but several attendees mentioned that we could have most of the same speakers back and it would be fine. We will have an all new line-up next September of 2011 but it was great to hear such praise for our first annual conference. We honored several individual care workers for outstanding work in our profession. However, everyone walked away a winner and collected prizes donated from a supportive business community in Tucson. In November, members of the ADCWA sponsored a team at the Alzheimer Memory Walk in honor of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. Our association has decided to focus more resources next year reaching out to the community and creating a buzz of public awareness. Continue reading »
This is a guest post from Sheila Caldwell, in response to the policy brief, “Better Jobs for In-Home Direct Care Workers”, which cites isolation as a major problem for many workers. Sheila is a family caregiver in Maine and is a member of Maine PASA/DCA-Maine. She lives in Windham.
According to the latest DCA policy brief, isolation is a major challenge for in-home direct care workers. Personally, I have not faced a lot of isolation in my job – I take care of my mom, who lives with me. However, the flip side of that is that it is hard to find workers to go in for a few hours of respite care when I need a break. When I have someone new coming in, I first have them shadow me so that they can learn the ropes and see if they will be compatible with mom.
I strongly feel that a job shadow is one way that employers can help workers get used to the job, and get used to their client. Many times, workers may be fearful when going into a home for the first time. A job shadow would help greatly before a worker is left alone with a client. With a job shadow, be it for a new hire or a seasoned worker, you learn more about your client than you do just by reading the care plan. You also know what to expect on the other side of the door, and you won’t be going in blind. Continue reading »
Sharon Brothers
You might not be currently experiencing a workforce crisis in your company or community. With the current economy, many people are worried about job security. They’re not looking at the want ads so much as being thankful for the jobs they have. But even today we have unfilled caregiving positions nationwide. And the gap between trained, prepared workers and the positions we need filled is only projected to widen in the coming years.
By 2030, the number of older adults will nearly double from the 2005 count, and will increase from 12 percent of the US population to nearly 20%. Some employers are thinking – great! No more vacancies! We can even build more communities, and they will come! But what about the staff? Who will be around to provide care in our very full communities? Continue reading »
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