Archive for ‘Iowa’

Iowa Caregivers Association Increases Awareness of Direct Care Workforce Issues

Posted by Leonila Vega on June 21st, 2010 at 1:51 pm | No Comments »

Leonila Vega

Last month, a Des Moines Register editorial called for more support for those caring for the elderly.

According to the Register, “Iowa has one of the highest rates in the country of admissions to nursing facilities. Going forward, more and more Iowans will want to live in their own homes as long as they can. This state must do more to help people do that successfully – with help from paid professionals and family and friends who volunteer.” “If you hire someone to cut your hair or massage your back, the state licenses the worker, who must have minimum training. But if you hire someone to go to your mother’s house to fix her meals or bathe her, the person may not even be known to the state, let alone have any experience or training.”

Last week, the Iowa Caregivers Association and the Iowa Department of Public Health weighed in, joining the call for more support. President of the Iowa Caregivers Association, Betty Grandquist, wrote, “Each of us is one accident or illness away from a disability. Each of us is aging. We need to ask the basic questions: Who will care for us? Will there be enough qualified workers to provide that care? What quality of care will we receive? People who do [direct care] work are typically referred to as “family” by those they serve. Their work is often called “priceless.” Yet it is greatly undervalued by society as a whole. Continue reading »

NCCNHR Conference Attendees Learn about Direct Care Workforce, DCA

Posted by Roy Gedat on November 11th, 2009 at 3:40 pm | No Comments »

Roy with Di Findley (L) and Diane Frerichs at the conference

The DCA was front and center at “Quality Care, No Matter Where,” the 34th annual conference of NCCNHR – The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care.

In my last week as the DCA’s national advocacy director last month, I presented a workshop titled Improving the Direct Care Workforce: A Job for Consumers and Workers with Iowa Caregivers Association leaders Di Findley and Diane Frerichs.

I talked about the DCA’s advocacy agenda, initiatives with consumers and direct care workers, and our priority focus of empowering workers as activist leaders. I also talked about the need to address teh egregious conditions that direct care workers often endure when providing long-term care services. I told attendees that the DCA’s main advocacy priorities are to secure living wages, health benefits, and safer working conditions. Continue reading »

Voices Institute NLP Graduates New Crop of Direct Care Worker Leaders

Posted by Leonila Vega on October 15th, 2009 at 9:05 am | 3 Comments »

DCA board chair Vera Salter teaching members of the 2009 class

“Let the root thrive” was the birthing motto of the Voices Institute inaugural class, inspired by the lakeside location of the DeKoven Center in Wisconsin, where the first graduates launched DCA’s signature National Leadership Program (NLP) to turbo-charge direct care worker leadership and activism.

When I wrote, after the first class graduated, that the inaugural program was one “historic and successful step forward for the movement to empower direct care workers and to fix our broken long-term care system,” I was dreaming of the possibilities. From September 27 through October 3 of this year, direct care workers once again proved their capacity to make the seemingly impossible happen, and to claim the respect they deserve as professionals. The roots are thriving at the state and national level, and the new class of graduates have a place from where to build national policy success. Continue reading »

Bankrupted by Health Care Costs, CNA Cindy Ramer Shares Her Story

Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on September 19th, 2009 at 3:16 am | 3 Comments »

Cindy Ramer with a photo of herself and her husband

A moving story in the September 7 issue of Iowa’s WCR Courier traces the troubles experienced by long-time CNA Cindy Ramer because she and her husband could not afford health insurance.

Rising medical costs forced the Ramers to file bankruptcy in 2003. Two years later, Cindy tells the paper, she lost her husband to a heart attack – and she still can’t afford to buy him a tombstone.

“It’s really a very, very sad commentary on our society when the very people that are providing care don’t have access to care themselves,” says Iowa CareGivers Association President Di Findley.

Ramer is a graduate of the 2009 Voices Institute National Leadership Program.

Voices Institute Welcomes Another Remarkable Class

Posted by Bridget Siljander on September 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pm | 8 Comments »

Angel Saylor (R) with home care aide Kelvin Jefferson at a DCA focus group

The Direct Care Alliance’s signature program, the Voices Institute, is about to hold its second National Leadership Program. The week-long retreat is an intensive learning journey, and this year’s class is another remarkable group, which will surely join the pioneers from the VI inaugural class to leave its mark on the direct care worker movement. We are returning to the DeKoven Center, where the roots that were planted at the first Voices Institute National Leadership Program will again thrive.

This year, we are welcoming men and women who care for people of all ages in a variety of settings, including nursing homes, hospice, group homes, day programs, assisted living, and home- and community-based programs. Consistent with the DCA’s objectives to build a broadly inclusive movement of empowered direct care workers, the class of 2009 represents a wide spectrum of direct care workers. Continue reading »

Real Wages Keep Falling for Personal and Home Care Aides

Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on September 9th, 2009 at 11:17 am | No Comments »

As every direct care worker advocate knows, personal and home care aides earn far too little for the important work they do. And now an updated version of PHI’s State Chart Book on Wages for Personal and Home Care Aides (PDF) gives advocates a valuable tool, proving that real wages are actually getting worse.

The chart book analyzes data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, adjusting last year’s wages for inflation to see how their earning power compares to average wages in 1999.

Nationwide, these inflation-adjusted rates, which the chartbook calls “real wages,” have decreased by 3 percent over the past nine years, dropping from $7.50 an hour to just $7.31. Real wages increased in more than half the states during that period, but not enough to make up for their decline in the other 21.

Median wages in 2008 ranged from $7.05 an hour in Texas to $12.55 in Alaska in 2008, or real wages of $5.61 to $9.90. “Wages for personal and home care aides are so low,” says PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey, “that about 20 percent of these workers received a raise on July 24 when the minimum wage increased to $7.25/hour.”

The chartbook also compares wages to federal poverty level wages for a one-person household.

Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance

Worker Associations Plan Fall Conferences

Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on September 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm | No Comments »

The Iowa CareGivers Association (ICA), the Florida Professional Association of Care Givers (FPACG), and the New Mexico Direct Caregivers Coalition are all hosting their annual conferences this fall.

Iowa CareGivers Association

The ICA’s event, Cracking the Caregiver Code, will be held on October 9 in Des Moines. It will feature educational sessions on caregiving topics, like “The Top 10 Things to Know About Autism” and “A Crash Course in Preventing and Managing Conflict,” as well as sessions aimed at honing attendees’ self-care and leadership skills. Attendees can get free bone density, blood pressure, and body mass index screenings, and blood lipids and glucose screenings will be offered for a minimal fee. Continue reading »

Direct Care Workers in the News

Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on August 25th, 2009 at 6:53 pm | 2 Comments »

Faye Miller

Faye Miller Honored as South Dakota’s DSP of the Year

A special issue of The DSP Chronicles is devoted to Faye Miller, South Dakota’s Direct Support Professional of the Year. Miller was honored by ANCOR (the American Network of Community Options and Resources) for her dedication to the people she assists, who have an array of disabilities, including mild intellectual disabilities, autism, cerebral palsy, defiant disorders and traumatic brain injury. “Faye is the total package of a DSP — talented, very professional. Kind,” says Gigi Healy, the supervisor who recommended her for the award. “She’s never in a hurry or too busy to listen. She brainstorms things with the people she supports and always has creative thoughts. She loves them and they love her.”

Healy says Miller helped one of the people she works with get meaningful employment and helped another publish a book he had written. “My work is about the relationships, getting to know everyone I support as an individual,” Miller says. “Sometimes they are shy. I take them to lunch, I listen to them and their stories and their lives. It’s an investment of time, finding out where they want to shine. I network in town, and assist individuals in integrating into the community. It’s about having a one-on-one relationship with every person I support. Learning to know someone in depth is a gift.”

CNA Eileen Alig Receives National Award

“Family members of residents comment that Eileen is never rushed when working with residents,” says Dana Reese, administrator of the Good Samaritan Center in Manson, Iowa. “Her beaming smile and contagious laughter help her to communicate with residents regardless of their cognitive state.” Reese is talking about Eileen Alig, 81, the Good Samaritan Society’s 2009 Certified Nursing Assistant of the Year. According to an article in the August 10 Fort Dodge, Iowa, Messenger, Alig started working as a CNA 44 years ago. She still works three days a week and alternating weekends.

Alig was chosen for the national award from a pool of more than 7,000 CNAs who work for Good Samaritan at more than 230 locations. “She is definitely the moral compass of the Alig clan and her priorities are always in order,” said her granddaughter, Sara Martin. “She treats everyone with respect because she expects the same respect in return. Her faith carries her, and the rest of us every day and I can only hope to mimic her poise, service and character as I try to raise my own grounded family.”

Joseph Kearney Jr. (L) with his father

Chronicle of a Young Man’s Journey to Caregiving

An article in the August 11 Des Moines Register describes the “passion for nursing” 18-year-old Joseph Kearney Jr. discovered five years ago, when he began caring for his father after he was paralyzed in a car crash. “The crash put Joseph Jr. on a fast track to adulthood,” says the article.

Graduating early from high school, Kearney enrolled in a summer nursing assistant program. People who read about him in another newspaper article donated money toward the cost of the classes, giving him added confidence as well as needed funding to help with tuition. Kearney recently passed his final clinical exam to become a CNA and hopes to start work at a nursing home soon.

We Need to Take Control of Our Health Care

Posted by Ray Erickson on August 25th, 2009 at 12:02 pm | 1 Comment »

Ray Erickson

I have been thinking about health care reform for over a month now, wondering how to write about it without offending anyone. But no matter what I write, I’m sure it will offend someone. For this I apologize in advance.

I also want to thank all my instructors at last year’s Voices Institute. Without them, I would not be writing this now. They convinced me that one voice can make a difference, and that speaking up about what I believe may help others use their own voices to make a difference.

Some of you reading this know me personally and know that I have had quite an extensive medical history over the last 11 years. I have been one of the fortunate ones, since I can afford health insurance through my employer. Without that insurance, my wife and I would probably be medically bankrupt several times over. But a lot of our coworkers are not so lucky.

About a third care of all direct care workers can’t afford insurance, due to high premium rates and low wages. (Those low wages are a whole other issue.) How many of us go to work sick because we cannot afford to miss a day due to illness? We can’t take proper care of you or your loved ones if we’re sick ourselves – or if we’ve let a chronic condition go untreated so long that it’s gotten too back to let us work. If you want to know more about this, PHI just published a new fact sheet (PDF) about it. Continue reading »

No Health Care Without Health Care Workers, Warns Iowa Editorial

Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on July 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm | No Comments »

“It’s a simple fact: Access to coverage does not equal access to care. Ask the many Iowans who already have trouble finding and keeping a health-care professional,” writes John Hale, the policy director for the Iowa CareGivers Association, in the July 14 Des Moines Register.

In “Health Care Won’t Improve Without Enough Workers,” Hale says Iowa is ahead of most states in documenting and addressing the growing health care worker shortage. However, he argues, the state can’t fix the problem on its own: The federal government needs to help.

Hale’s editorial lists several things the federal government can do. The most important, he says, to “give this looming crisis the sense of urgency it deserves and provide funds to the states to allow them to act.” The health care reform bills currently being considered in Congress, he adds, provide “an opportunity to deal proactively with the health- and long-term-care work force that each of us depends on.”