“There has been a lot of paternalism about direct-care staff – the notion that they are not really adults,” says Anna Ortigara. “People wonder: Are they really capable of being in a lead role? Can they be trusted to make good decisions? Are they capable of self-direction?”
Instead of these questions, Ortigara believes, we should ask ourselves: “How can we possibly think we are going to improve long term care without involving frontline workers? We need them at the table in order to achieve cultural transformation - and why wouldn’t we want them at the table?”
A Chicago-area nurse with a master’s degree in gerontological nursing and over a quarter of a century’s experience in long-term care, during which she has created pioneering curricula for training and supporting direct-care workers, Ortigara has a passion for improving job and care quality. She also has a talent for asking Socratic questions about what keeps us from making more progress. Continue reading ‘Anna Ortigara: We Need to Treat Direct-Care Workers Like Adults’
By failing to acknowledge CNAs’ grief, nursing homes often make it harder for workers to deal with their feelings, according to a study of how nursing assistants cope with the death that is part of life in nursing homes. CNAs are often left to deal with their emotions on their own, creating a sense of emotional “disenfranchisement.”
“The Grief Experiences of Certified Nursing Assistants: Personal Growth and Complicated Grief” found that CNAs experienced “greater growth from their grief” when:
- The closeness of their relationships with nursing home residents was recognized by others, including facility administration and family members of residents;
- The deaths of nursing home residents were acknowledged by their friends and families and by the facilities where they worked;
- They were included in grief rituals for deceased nursing home residents;
- Less stigmatization surrounded the deaths of the nursing home residents; and
- The manner in which they expressed their grief fell within societal norms.
Facility-based memorial services for residents or other forms of remembrance, such as pictures or memorial boards, can provide “validation and mutual support,” the authors note.
The article was published in The Journal of Death and Dying, Volume 54, Number 4. Nonsubscribers must pay $25.
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PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Innovative Program “OPENS” Doors for MI Health Care Workers, Employers
OPEN Program Provides Roadmap for Health Care Workers to Keep Jobs and Advance Their Careers
Lansing, MI, February 4, 2008 -Michigan’s innovative Kent County Health Field Collaborative (HFC), through its pilot Opportunity Partnership & Empowerment Network (OPEN) program, offers exciting potential to address the “care gap” - Michigan’s rapidly growing number of elders and people with disabilities and ever-shrinking pool of caregivers. The HFC consists of a group of employers working together - along with partners from government, educational institutions, and other not-for-profits - to solve recruitment and retention challenges in health care. Together they identified the challenges employers face now and in the future with growing the workforce. According to a new case study by PHI, a nonprofit organization that supports quality long-term care by improving the quality of direct-care jobs, the OPEN program has achieved impressive results with employee retention. The OPEN program, which the HFC based on a retention model developed by The Source (a coalition of Grand Rapids area manufacturers dedicated to collaborative approaches to employee retention and advancement), saw among its key results significant drops in the overall turnover rates of direct-care workers - those who provide services and supports to elders and people living with disabilities. Continue reading ‘Innovative Program “OPENS” Doors for MI Health Care Workers, Employers’
If you’re a direct-care worker or you work with direct-care workers, you may want to help spread the word about the earned income tax credit (EITC). Direct-care workers who file a federal tax return this season could be eligible for thousands of dollars in state and federal credits and refunds, mainly through the federal EITC, which will return up to $4,716 per person to eligible low-income taxpayers. But as much as a quarter of all EITC funds go unclaimed each year because so many people don’t know they’re entitled to them.
Direct-care workers who file a federal return may also be eligible for an EITC from their state or for one of the economic stimulus payments being made this year by the federal government. The economic stimulus payments will generally range from $300 to $600 for individuals and from $600 to $1,200 for joint filers, plus $300 for each qualifying child.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website has a useful section on the national EITC. Its online toolkit includes a calculator to estimate how much of a return to expect and tips on how to get taxes prepared free of charge, how to file electronically to get your money back fast, and more.
Another useful website is I-CAN, an online tax filing system that helps low-income taxpayers file their federal forms free of charge and includes information about the EITC. Taxpayers in California, Michigan, Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania can also file their state taxes free through I-CAN.
People who care about issues involving direct-care workers in Vermont can talk to their senator about their concerns on March 1. US Senator Bernie Sanders is holding a special community town meeting on “issues facing direct care workers and how we can improve the quality of care to the elderly and people with disabilities,” according to a flyer (pdf) announcing the event.
Sanders will also announce the findings and recommendations of the Legislative Direct Care Workforce study at the meeting, which is free and open to the public. Contact the senator’s office at 800-339-9834 for more information or to tell them you’re coming. (RSVPs are not required, but they’re requested as lunch will be served.)
The meeting is on Saturday, March 1, at 10:30 am at the Unitarian Church, 130 Main St., Montpelier.
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