The Washington state legislature is finally starting to support the work we home care workers and our allies have been doing to establish a professional career path for direct care workers in long-term care. On Saturday, a bill to allow home care workers to more easily become nursing assistants was passed out of committee. It will soon be voted on by the state Senate.
The House bill, HB 2766, and the Senate’s, SB 6582, are nearly identical. A third bill, SB 6662, is slightly different and more inclusive of other types of workers. None of the three have funding attached, so they will only be effective if my union, SEIU 775, can negotiate money for our joint Training Trust.
The cynical part of me says it’s about time the legislature recognized the work we home care aides have been doing to improve the quality of care we provide, but the optimistic part is happy for this good news. Continue reading »
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 »
In my seven years as a direct care worker, my profession has brought fulfillment and satisfaction to my life.
These are my rewards:
Purpose. Helping people in need is a great reason for getting out of bed each day.
Opportunity. Being in a position to make a difference by working and advocating for improved care is a privilege.
Gratitude. I am showered with thanks and appreciation from the people I support, their families and friends, and my employer.
Respect. I get treated with utmost esteem and courtesy for what I do by the people I support, their family and friends, my employer, my co-workers, healthcare professionals, my community and my family and friends. No office politics here!
Knowledge. I constantly learn new things from the people I support and their environment.
Training. My employers always make training opportunities available; some required, some not. I take advantage of every offering possible, as well as self-instruction online.
Job Security. Since direct care work is among the fastest growing occupations and since there is such a shortage of workers, good direct care workers enjoy job security.
Flexibility. I can work as many or as few hours as I want, when I want.
Fair Wages. I receive fair compensation, consistent with that received by other direct care workers and health care industry professionals.
How could I reasonably ask for more?
See my next blog post for the answer – or tell me what you think by commenting below.
Bob Stevens
Direct Support Professional/Senior Caregiver
Graduate, 2009 Voices Institute National Leadership Program
In his State of the Union Address last Tuesday, President Obama reiterated that his Administration’s #1 priority is to create more jobs and get our economy back on track. He also challenged Congress: “Don’t walk away from health care reform.”
The DCA applauds the President’s call to action. With more than a quarter of all direct care workers lacking health insurance, making quality health care affordable for all Americans remains our top priority. We’re also working to get direct care on the job creation agenda, so some of that funding will go to improve the quality of direct care jobs, ensuring that we can satisfy consumer demand for a stable, well-qualified workforce.
Direct care jobs are expected to be among the fastest growing occupations in the USA over the next decade. That means our nation is facing a crucial choice. We can continue to tolerate low-paying, poor-quality jobs that swell the ranks of the working poor and lead to poor care. Or we can invest in the direct care workforce. Continue reading »
The DCA’s battle for justice for home care workers got a powerful assist on January 29 when a New York Times editorial called on President Obama to right the wrong that leaves home care workers without minimum wage and overtime protections under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. If he does not do so, the editorial urges the Congress to pass a bill named for Evelyn Coke, the home care aide whose challenge to that injustice made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Lilly and Evelyn” points out that the first bill President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which overturned a Supreme Court decision denying a woman restitution for having been paid her less than her male colleagues for years. “It is past time for Mr. Obama to see that similar justice is done for Evelyn Coke,” the editorial states. Continue reading »
“I have recommended this field to others and will continue to do so. I feel as though this can be a very rewarding field — as long as you measure it by the happiness of the people you serve,” says Theresa Laws.
Laws is the latest direct support professional to be profiled by the College of Direct Support in its DSP Chronicles. (PDF)
A Health Support Specialist/Direct Support Professional for the Rensselaer County ARC in Troy, New York, where she helps support six women in a group home, she is also an advocate for her professional. Law is a founding member of the Direct Support Professional Alliance of New York State, and she has testified before the New York State Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means Committee about te need for better DSP benefits and salaries.
“It was exhilarating and a little nerve-wracking to say the least to testify but I was honored to be asked to do it and it’s such an important set of issues for DSPs, for those we support and for their families,” she says.
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 »
Embarrassed. Less than. Not worthy. Angry. Unimportant.
These are a few of the words that describe how I feel about having to rely on a state-sponsored health insurance plan for my family’s insurance coverage, though I work full time for a home care agency. I just can’t afford my employer’s health insurance plan on a direct care worker’s wages.
If I am helping care for our nation’s most vulnerable, why can’t I afford to buy into my employer’s health insurance plan for my family?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m very grateful for the state-sponsored insurance. I have three insulin-dependent diabetics in my family, so without the help of Wisconsin’s Medicaid plan, we’d have to choose between medication and food or gas. And who knows how we’d pay for doctor visits and hospital stays?
We pay a monthly premium and have co-pays for services, but I can afford BadgerCare’s rates. I just can’t afford my employer’s. That means I’m stuck in a vicious cycle: I can’t afford to get much of a raise, because if I made a little more than I’m making now, we wouldn’t qualify for the state health care plan. I’d have to buy into my employer’s plan, but a few dollars more a week wouldn’t be enough to make it affordable. So I’d be stuck with that awful choice — medicine or food? I might even have to join the millions of people who have gone bankrupt because of high medical bills. Continue reading »
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!
Maizie Ramkisson, a graduate of the Direct Care Alliance’s Voices Institute National Leadership Program, interviews fellow direct care workers about the need for better pay and benefits. She shot the video at the annual conference of her professional association, the Florida Professional Association of Care Givers, Inc., in October 2009.
