”There needs to be a real shift in terms of the values of our society, in how we regard the people who give this care,” says Constance L. (Connie) Coogle, Ph.D., of our nation’s direct-care workers. ”How do you get a whole society to have a revolutionary change of values?”

”I think maybe you do it the way we’ve been doing it: Start at the ground level and get the supervisors, the administrators, the families, everyone who’s directly connected to see the value of what’s being provided. Then gather the data to make the case for better quality care. That’s when the policy pieces start to change.”

Coogle is an associate professor and associate director for research in the Virginia Center on Aging at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Like her colleague Iris A. Parham, Ph.D., a VCU professor emeritus and the former chair of the university’s department of gerontology, she has been conducting health research for decades.

At first, both researchers focused largely on training for health professionals in gerontology and geriatrics, but lately they’ve broadened that group to include direct-care workers. This year, the two worked with the journal’s regular editor, Pearl Mosher-Ashley, Ph.D. to produce a special issue of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education (Volume 28, Number 2) devoted to direct-care worker training and education. Continue Reading