As we all enjoy the last few weeks of summer it is hard to remember the very beginning of this year. Think back: what were we all looking forward too? Warmer weather, right? Well we all got what we wanted…hot, muggy warmer weather! Are we all happy now? No – now we are to hot and are looking forward to cooler weather again. I’m looking forward to the fall for more than just cooler temperatures – it’s time for the Pennsylvania Direct Care Workers Association conference! It’s time to get out your favorite sweater, plan a day trip to Valley Forge and treat yourself to an exciting and inspiring conference that will reinvigorate your passion for direct care work.
On September 16, 2010, The Sky’s The Limit at the National Christian Conference Center – a beautiful, peaceful and restful location that will have you feeling like you have stepped back in time. Continue reading »
More than 50 percent of people with chronic conditions don’t take their medications properly, which affects their well-being and the ability for direct care workers to provide the highest quality care. To help remedy this problem, the Direct Care Alliance is proud to be a committed partner in the National Consumers League’s Medical Adherence Campaign, an initiative aimed at raising awareness of the importance of good medical adherence. The campaign targets consumers and health care practitioners nationwide, and will be rolled out in early 2011.
On July 20, I joined a committed group of public and private organizations at AARP in support of the campaign. Continue reading »
July 28, 2010, was a remarkable day for direct care workers across the country as Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) announced the introduction of the Direct Care Workforce Empowerment Act.
Rep. Sanchez has been a champion for direct care workers. Last year, she led an effort along with DCA to call on the Department of Labor to fix the companionship exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act. While we do applaud the Department of Labor for adding this issue to the 2010 regulatory agenda, a legislative change would solidify protections for home care workers in the law, not leaving this issue to the “whims of any one administration.” As someone who has worked for less-than-minimum wage in my lifetime, I can say that this change is long overdue. Too many direct care workers struggle to support themselves and their families, working long hours doing backbreaking labor not because they have to, but because they love helping others. They are professionals and should have the same protections as all other workers in this country. Continue reading »
Former National Advocacy Director Roy Gedat will re-join the DCA staff as State Advocacy Director to lead the development of its membership program, focusing on recruiting and developing direct care worker leaders and connecting with supporters and advocates across the country. Roy will also support the implementation of the Langeloth Foundation grant to provide worker leadership training in New York and Maine. His work was instrumental to the DCA’s early success, and we’re thrilled to have him back! Roy has over 35 years in human services including 20 as the Executive Director of a child health agency. He was the founding director of Maine’s direct care worker organization Maine PASA, a direct care worker and a political activist who has run for office, and is currently the Treasurer of Oxford County, Maine. Roy has recently been focusing his energies on starting a private duty home care agency, raising money for several local and state-wide organizations and political campaign
Helen Hanson
Helen Hanson, a great friend of the DCA and a strong advocate for direct care workers in Maine, is joining our staff as a Worker Advocate to assist in grassroots organizing and strengthen our advocacy efforts in Maine and across the country. Helen is a graduate of the DCA’s Voices Institute and has excelled so much since! She is a Certified Nursing Assistant and works with elders in their homes as a Personal Care Attendant. She’s been a direct care worker for eight years and has been an active advocate for change, leading Maine PASA and serving on a committee established to advise the Department of Health and Human Services on how to improve its long-term care system. She is currently running for the Maine House of Representatives.
Helen and Roy are huge assets to DCA and will be key to our continued growth. Please join me in welcoming them aboard!
The staff from Practical Life Skills keeps
a pretty tight lid on Thursday’s music group
in the big cafeteria. No one’s allowed past the tape
three feet in front of the sound system.
The guys from our room don’t get to use
the microphone and because of fire regulations
they insist we have to have a staff person
for every participant who’s in a wheelchair.
Freddie always sings YMCA and Tony Who Let the Dogs Out? Then Gracie belts Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy, in that order. Continue reading »
People know me as a direct care worker – a C.N.A. working as a personal care assistant in Maine’s home-based care system. But now I want to be known as an elected official. I am running for Maine’s House of Representatives from House District 55. That includes the towns of Albion, Benton (part), China and the unorganized territory of Unity Plantation.
I am running because I want to keep the work on streamlining Maine’s home-based care system moving forward. I am also running because I am a direct care worker who deals with the problems and pitfalls of our work each and every day.
I know what it is like to live off low wages, have no health benefits, have no safety net whatsoever, and support a family. I’m very thankful that my husband has a job that provides our health coverage, has a better wage than mine, and has paid overtime when he works over time. If my husband’s job did not provide those things, I would not be working as a PCA, providing essential care to a lady that is paralyzed and living in her home. I’d be just another of those horrible direct care workforce statistics, a skilled worker who had to leave because she could not make it on her low wages.
How did I get involved in politics, you ask? I trace it back to the Direct Care Alliance, a wonderful national organization that is working hard improve working conditions for direct care workers. Continue reading »
This month, we join direct care workers and their allies across the country in remembering Evelyn Coke, the heroic woman who has inspired the Direct Care Alliance’s advocacy efforts on behalf of direct care workers struggling to make ends meet and support themselves and their families.
Artist rendering of Long Island Care at Home, Ltd. v. Evelyn Coke, Supreme Court. Courtesy of Art Lien.
Evelyn Coke – a courageous Jamaican immigrant from Queens – passed away a year ago at the age of 74. For over twenty years she provided care to dozens of people and assisted them with tasks like getting in and out of bed, dressing and undressing, cooking and eating, toileting and bathing. At times, Evelyn worked three consecutive 24-hour periods, providing essential care to the elderly but receiving a mere $7 an hour – with no health benefits or overtime pay. Her situation is emblematic of the plight of home care workers. But her passion and drive to gain respect, dignity, and fair pay and benefits lives on in the Direct Care Alliance and in the direct care workers who are making their voices heard in the fight for change. 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 »
It is with a sad heart that we write these words about Joyce Gagnon, a founder of the Maine Personal Assistance Services Association and one of the most tireless and committed direct care leaders we’ve ever known. Joyce passed away on June 14, 2010, after a long bout with cancer.
Joyce was a strong and tenacious advocate for direct care workers in Maine. She worked tirelessly building the Maine Personal Assistance Services Association (PASA), Maine’s association for direct care workers of all kinds. Joyce worked on PASA’s annual conventions, lobbying at the State House, PASA’s fundraising and membership recruitment. Her hard work and sacrifice made it possible for DCA to develop a powerful model for state-based worker associations and worker-led advocacy.
Just this past year, Joyce was an active member of the Direct Care Worker Taskforce, a group set up through Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services to address many of the problems the workforce faces.
Joyce also had and hand in crafting legislation, twice, trying to bring health insurance to Maine’s direct care workers. She met and talked with many leaders in the Maine Legislature about what it is like to be a caregiver, helping someone maintain their independence in their home, and not have health coverage themselves through their work. 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 »
