Archive for ‘Texas’

Life Without Overtime: I Wish I Could Take Weekends Off

Posted by on November 8th, 2011 at 10:37 am | 1 Comment »

Home care worker Evelyn Coke fought for the right to overtime pay.

The home care worker whose story you are about to read chose to remain anonymous for fear of losing her job.

I receive $7.75 per hour. We home care workers don’t get paid overtime in Texas, so I usually work 50 or 60 hours a week. Sometimes it’s less, but sometimes it’s more. Usually I have to work every day of the week.

I work for two agencies now, one for 20 hours a week and the other for 20 or more, sometimes more than 40. But even when I worked for just one company, I didn’t get time and a half for all that overtime. I don’t get any benefits either.

I got into this work after I started taking care of my mom and my dad in 1987. My friend said, “Do you want to care for old people?” I said “No way! I don’t want to do that kind of job. I just want to take care of my mom and my dad.” Then I didn’t find another job. I told my friend I’d try it, but as soon as I found another job I’ll quit. But I never tried to find another job, because once I started doing this work I found out that I love it. Continue reading »

State Budget Deficits are Causing a Care Crisis

Posted by on January 24th, 2011 at 1:05 pm | No Comments »

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 »

Personal Care: A Job Led By the Heart

Posted by on August 9th, 2010 at 3:11 pm | No Comments »

I recently visited PACT in Austin, Texas, and sat down for a video interview with Elizabeth Castillo.  PACT was created by ADAPT, the national organization that advocates for the right of people living with disabilities to live independently in the community.  Our video interview was recorded in Spanish, so I’ve provided a summary below. It was such a pleasure hearing about what inspires Elizabeth to do the work she loves. Continue reading »

DCA Video Diary: Renee Tillman

Posted by on October 15th, 2009 at 9:31 am | 3 Comments »

Before heading to DC with the DCA this spring, CNA Renee Tillman, the founder and president of the Texas Association of Nurse Assistants, asked her colleagues what they wanted her to tell legislators about direct care work. Here’s what they said.

CNA Renee Tillman Makes News

Posted by on September 19th, 2009 at 3:02 am | No Comments »
Renee Tillman

Renee Tillman

CNA Renee Tillman, a hospice worker and a contributor to this blog, was the subject of a feature story in the August 10 Killeen Daily Herald.

The article, titled “Tillman Makes a Difference in People’s Lives,” outlines the background that led Tillman into her career and the events that kept her working as a nursing assistant, though she periodically made plans to attend nursing school. “Every time I got ready to go to school, it was like our Lord guided me a different way. And I always rose up as a CNA,” she says.

The article also outlined the work Tillman has done to help professionalize direct care work, including her founding of the Texas Association for Nursing Assistants. “This is what I’m supposed to be doing,” she told the paper.

Real Wages Keep Falling for Personal and Home Care Aides

Posted by on September 9th, 2009 at 11:17 am | 1 Comment »

state chartbook coverAs 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

Direct Care Workers in the News

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

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

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.

On the Road With Roy — An Update from the DCA’s National Advocacy Director

Posted by on July 22nd, 2009 at 11:09 am | No Comments »
Across the country, direct care workers are speaking up and being heard by policy makers, long term care consumers, and employers. In my work with the DCA, I’ve traveled far and wide and been fortunate enough to be part of a national movement of direct care workers who are finding their voices, standing up and speaking out.

In the past few weeks, I was invited on a TV talk show here in Maine (see video) to talk about the work I’ve been doing to make health care more affordable for direct care workers. I’ve attended and spoken at direct care worker conferences in Texas — both Houston and Killeen – and in Pennsylvania. I’ve helped organize and participated in more than 50 visits with House and Senate members in Washington DC by direct care workers and their allies. And I’ve met with new DCA partners in New Mexico.

Change is in the wind! To see what I mean, come along while I revisit the highlights of the last two or three months: Continue reading »

DCA Publishes Fact Sheets for Direct Care Worker Advocates and their Allies

Posted by on June 25th, 2009 at 10:56 am | No Comments »

A full set of DCA Direct Care Fact Sheets, one for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, is now available in the Resources section of our website.

The one-page sheets were created as a resource for direct care worker advocates and their allies, legislators, policymakers, members of the media, and others interested in direct care issues. They include key facts such as:

  •   The number of home health aides, nursing assistants, and personal and home care aides in the state in 2006 and the projected numbers of each in 2016
  •   The average hourly wage for the state’s direct care workers
  •   What percentage of direct care workers in that state or region are without health insurance

Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance

Texas to Hire More Direct Care Workers for Troubled State Schools

Posted by on June 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pm | 1 Comment »
Renee Tillman

Renee Tillman

There’s trouble in Texas’s so-called state schools, live-in institutions that provide campus-based long-term care for people with mental disabilities.

State investigators uncovered more than 500 cases of abuse and neglect in the schools between September 2007 and August 2008, and a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation found systemic abuses of the civil rights of the school’s roughly 4,700 residents. The DOJ’s report said many of the problems are due to high turnover rates, staff vacancies, and inadequate staff training and supervision. Late last month, the state reached an agreement with the DOJ intended to improve conditions in the schools. Among other things, the schools will get 1,160 more staff, most of them direct-care workers.

Here’s what CNA/CHPNA Renee Tillman, the founding president of the Texas Association of Nurse Assistants, has to say about this unfortunate situation and the proposed solution.

Hiring more workers should help. Direct care workers employed in mental health also need better initial and ongoing training. We have to have yearly in-services on Alzheimer’s and dementia care, but the kinds of mental health issues these kids have are completely different

I think Governor Perry feels he needs medical professionals monitoring the care in these schools. Two very close friends of mine were working in one of the schools that was shut down, and from what I’ve heard, some of the people who worked there were acting more like guards than caregivers or teachers, treating the kids almost like felons. They were also trying to impose discipline without much training, and there wasn’t much of a monitoring system in place to oversee what they were doing.

The kids who are in these institutions often come from pretty tough circumstances. If we’re not careful, they can easily be neglected inside the schools. We need to make sure the people who work there get the training they need. There should also be a special committee to oversee the program, to prevent the physical and sexual abuse that has been happening to these kids.