Posted by Leonila Vega on February 16th, 2010 at 6:12 pm | No Comments »
Aaron Pickering
The Direct Care Alliance will welcome another new staff member and boost our presence in the nation’s capitol when Aaron P. Pickering joins us as our full-time director of communications next week.
Aaron comes to us from Equal Justice Works, where he helped promote the work of law students and attorneys providing pro bono representation to low-income and vulnerable individuals and families. As their senior communications specialist, he was part of the team that developed their communications and marketing strategy. Aaron brings the right combination of skills and passion for social justice that will benefit the DCA as we fight for improving the direct care profession. Continue reading »
Posted by Linda Lee on February 16th, 2010 at 6:07 pm | 4 Comments »
Linda Lee
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 »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on February 15th, 2010 at 1:13 am | No Comments »
The New Mexico Direct Caregivers Coalition is seeking its first executive director. The organization, which was founded last year, is headed by a 10-member board of directors all of whom are direct care workers.
To apply, send a cover letter and resume to nmexchange@aol.com by March 3.
Job description (PDF)
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on February 15th, 2010 at 12:45 am | No Comments »
A scholarship for caregivers will be awarded this spring to a professional caregiver for seniors or adults with disabilities in Vermont. The first annual Linda Andersen Caregiver Scholarship, named in honor of a long-time caregiver who passed away suddenly last year, is being presented by Armistead Caregiver Services in conjunction with the Community of Vermont Elders (COVE).
“We want to honor Linda’s dedication to seniors, her teammates and Armistead with this $1,000 scholarship. We also want to honor caregiving as a career by making access to education and training a little easier,” says Rachel Lee Cummings, President of Armistead. COVE will administer the scholarship, collecting and reviewing applications and making the award decision.
Applicants must have at least two years of caregiving experience, be at least 18 years old, and be a legal resident of Vermont. The winner must apply the money toward education or training related to the caregiver field, such as conflict management, gerontology, psychology, nursing, or medical school.
The scholarship will be awarded in April.
Read more and download the application (PDF)
Posted by Helen Hanson on February 11th, 2010 at 4:45 pm | 3 Comments »
Helen Hanson
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 »
Posted by Judy Clinco on January 29th, 2010 at 3:49 pm | 1 Comment »
Judy Clinco
It’s not easy to start up a direct care worker association, but with the right members and allies, you’d be surprised how much you can get done.
Our association, the Arizona Direct Care Worker Association (ADCWA), started last year. We are still in the process of building up our membership, but we already have some really powerful advocates for their profession. And we have a plan for the year, which we’re all working hard to implement.
After the DCA’s Vera Salter did a Power Me workshop for us last summer, we invited all the association members who attended the workshop to become part of a leadership circle. Six of them did, and they’ve gotten a lot done in the last six months. Continue reading »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on January 15th, 2010 at 7:30 pm | 2 Comments »
Theresa Laws
“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.
Posted by Leonila Vega on January 15th, 2010 at 5:12 pm | 4 Comments »
Bob Hudek
I am delighted to announce that Bob Hudek has joined our staff as director of the DCA’s Voices Institute.
Bob is highly experienced at both grassroots organizing and training. He has developed and conducted training programs for unions and citizen organizations on effective organizing, building grass roots power, leadership development and coalition-building.
I met Bob when he was running Citizen Action of Wisconsin, which he revitalized through coalition building and grass roots organizing. He has also served as executive director of the Coalition for Consumer Rights and as national field director of Citizen Action and the Citizen/Labor Energy Coalition.
For the past several years, Bob has also been essential to our Voices Institute, which he was instrumental in developing. Continue reading »
Posted by Elise Nakhnikian on January 15th, 2010 at 1:27 pm | No Comments »
Lori Michael
In another call for putting direct care on the nation’s job creation agenda, a Pennsylvania home care provider appealed to laid-off workers in a January 12 editorial in the Pottsville, Pennsylvania Republican Herald.
Lori Michael, the founder and chair of the Schuylkill County Direct Care Workers Association and owner of Lori’s Angels, a home care agency, urges displaced workers with “patience and understanding” to consider a career in direct care.
Michael describes direct care as “recession-proof” work that can last a lifetime and allow you to “really make a difference in the life of another person.” She also notes that it is one of the fastest-growing job categories in the nation, “playing a vital role in job creation and economic growth.”
Posted by Helen Hanson on January 15th, 2010 at 12:12 pm | No Comments »
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 »
