Leonila Vega
As we remember direct care icon Evelyn Coke following the fourth anniversary of her landmark Supreme Court decision, the DCA celebrates her legacy by continuing the fight for direct care workers and those they serve. Once again the DCA is taking up the mantle of change, leading the fight to secure minimum wage and overtime protections, ensuring that workers get the respect and dignity they deserve.
Mahatma Gandhi once said what you do will be insignificant. But it is very important that you do it.
David Moreau
I thought of that driving home from Augusta last Wednesday after taking a whole leave day off from work so that I could spend a long afternoon, first waiting and then testifying at the legislative hearing on LD 818, a bill to improve training and retention of direct care workers.
I am a direct care worker. The granite hallways of the state house crowded with suit-coated legislators and lobbyists were a shock to me. All that bustling seemed overwhelming. Everyone else seemed to know where they were going and what they were doing and it all seemed important. Continue reading »
Leonila Vega
In his State of the Union address last Tuesday, President Obama touched on two key issues for the Direct Care Alliance: rebuilding the economy and improving care. I commend him for his leadership and efforts on both these fronts and we are working with our grassroots network, allies and policymakers to demonstrate the key role that direct care workers can play in achieving these goals in 2011 and beyond.
Despite declaring job creation as his top priority for 2010, there is still much work to be done. Unemployment rates are still well over 9% and there is no question the slow economic recovery has taken a toll on most communities. There’s a lot that the Administration can do to help create jobs but very little would do more to strengthen our communities than investments in direct care jobs. Currently, more than 13 million Americans depend on the care and support of direct care workers every day. Direct care jobs:
David Ward
In the wake of a slow economic recovery, state budget deficits are growing as unemployment remains high and state tax revenues continue to shrink. States that have fallen victim to budget shortfalls are being forced consider cuts to human service programs at a time when people need them most.
The deficit crisis is not discriminating between states that are known for its spending and states that are noted for their fiscal restraint. California, Illinois and New York are all facing significant deficits. But so is Texas, which is facing a $25 billion budget deficit. Given its already lean budget, the Texas legislature is considering cutting Medicaid altogether. This is at a time when nearly one in ten Americans are unemployed and more families are relying on safety net programs such as Medicaid.
California, on the other hand, has been battling budget problems for some time and has made multiple attempts to reduce reimbursements to state health care providers, including direct care workers. In 2008, this effort was rebuked by Federal courts and now the Supreme Court is set to hear the case. Many states, health and long-term care consumers and workers will be impacted by this ruling.
States are already taking action and health care and social services are on the chopping block. Continue reading »
It is such an exciting month to be a direct care worker. So many people have stepped forward this month to increase awareness around important issues such as Alzheimer’s care and family caregiving! The day after the New Mexico Direct Care Givers Coalition Conference, we attended the 6th Annual Family Caregiver Conference in Albuquerque. Hundreds of family caregivers and their loved ones gathered with direct care workers and other allies to discuss the joys and challenges of caring for others. A theme throughout the conference was that caregivers often don’t take a pause to care for themselves. One really important thing I took away from the conference is the vital role of direct care workers in helping family caregivers do that. Direct care workers can spend a couple hours per week – or even just per month – providing assistance, giving family caregivers a much-needed reprieve.
(LtoR): Mark Narvaez, Leonila Vega, Ellen Teresa Costilla & Gene Varela
That afternoon, I attended a panel discussion called “Telling Our Story: Caregiver Advocacy & Action.” Panelists Leonila Vega (Direct Care Alliance), Mark Narvaez (New Mexico Alzheimer’s Association), Gene Varela (AARP) and Ellen Teresa Costilla (NM Human Services Department) discussed the importance of organizing at the grassroots to increase public awareness and education for home and community-based care. They also discussed current public policy affecting caregivers and grassroots legislative advocacy opportunities, such as the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act. Continue reading »
Tracy Dudzinski
I have been a direct care worker since 1996. I love my profession and do not want to leave it, but the system is not making it easy to stay.
My family has relied on the Wisconsin health insurance plan for some years now. I got my start in long-term care at a nursing home. I qualified for the health insurance, which was employer sponsored through the union. It was good insurance. I went from the nursing home to home care organization that did not offer health insurance, but my family qualified for Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, Badger Care, which covered all our needs for a relatively low monthly fee. From there I moved to the worker-owned home care agency where I’ve been for the last six years. Cooperative Care offers health insurance, it covers 70% of the monthly premium and I couldn’t afford the other 30%. Fortunately we still qualified for Badger Care.
We were very grateful for the coverage because my husband and two of our four children are Type 1 insulin- dependent diabetics. If we hadn’t had Badger Care, I don’t know what we would have done.
But I am about to find out. Continue reading »
9/16/10 – The National Journal hosted a policy summit at the Newseum in Washington, DC, to discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act (health care reform) on job growth in the health care industry. Nancy-Ann Deparle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform, spoke to the group about why health reform was necessary and described the great need for job creation in the industry. As one of the fastest growing occupations in the country, direct care is a vital part of the national discussion on health reform and the creation of jobs in the health industry. Watch video coverage of the summit, below.
Panelists Ellen-Marie Whelan (Center for American Progress) and Dr. Richard “Chip” Davis (Johns Hopkins Medicine) both spoke to the growing consumer demand for in-home health care. Continue reading »
This is a guest post from Vicki Shabo, Director of Work & Family Programs for the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Every day in the United States, more workers than many of us imagine face an impossible choice: go to work sick, or forgo a paycheck and risk job loss or workplace discipline. More than 40 million private sector workers in this country do not have access to even a single paid sick day. And when it comes to personal care workers—those who tend to the elderly and care for small children—more than half (52%) lack paid sick days.
The need for paid sick days for direct care workers could not be more critical. With pay rates that average about $10 per hour, every cent earned is crucial to direct care workers’ financial stability and the economic security of their families. On the other hand, when direct care workers go to work sick, they risk the fragile health of those they care for—people who are ill, elderly, or medically needy and who are entrusted to their care. Continue reading »
This post was written by Shawn Fremstad, Director of the Inclusive and Sustainable Economy Initiative at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration unveiled plans to develop a “supplemental” poverty measure (SPM) based on recommendations made by the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. The SPM makes important technical improvements on the current outdated poverty measure (although, unfortunately, the current measure would remain the “official” one). However, it doesn’t take the much more important step of providing an accurate measure of what it takes to “make ends meet” and be economically secure in today’s economy.
The official poverty line for a family of four is currently a mere $22,000. We don’t know yet for sure where the supplemental poverty line will fall, but previous Census estimates suggest that it will only be a few thousand dollars higher, at best, than the current poverty line. By comparison, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that a four-person family needs just under $50,000 a year, on average nationwide, to make ends meet at a “modest, but safe” level. Similarly, the Commerce Department recently estimated that a four-person family needed at least $51,000 a year to achieve a minimum “middle-class family budget.”
The pay and benefits of direct care work should be judged primarily by whether it is possible for direct care workers, at a minimum, to live, not just above an extremely low “poverty” line, but at a middle-class level that allows them to be economically secure. Continue reading »
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