If you’re having some doubts about whether public perception of direct-care workers is improving, a recent run of insightful stories in local papers may give you some hope.
Two stories in Vermont papers, one in the April 7 St. Albans Messenger and one in the April 4 Brattleboro Reformer, covered a new study about the state’s growing direct-care worker shortage. Both amplified its message and recommendations, stressing the need for higher reimbursement rates to long-term care providers, so they can increase pay and benefits for direct-care workers. “If employers are having trouble now with hiring and retaining workers, we’re really going to see a shift in the next 10 to 12 years as the baby boomers turn 75 and older,” said Alexandra Olins, PHI’s northern New England regional director, in the Messenger article.
Advocates for people with disabilities have made consumer-directed personal assistance services a priority, but CD-PAS are not for everyone. And a big part of the reason is the difficulty many consumers have in finding the workers they need, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“CD-PAS participants face challenges recruiting direct care workers because they lack the infrastructure and economy of scale that agencies use to recruit workers,” says Consumer Direction of Personal Assistance Services in Medicaid: A review of four state programs. Authors Henry Claypool and Molly O’Malley also note that it is often difficult for consumers to arrange back-up service on short notice when needed.
“As CD-PAS programs grow, states and beneficiaries will face challenges in maintaining a steady work force of care workers for these programs and enhancing the programs’ quality and support structure,” they write. Before starting or augmenting a Medicaid-funded CD-PAS program, they recommend that states study and understand “the issues that affect direct care workers, such as wages and benefits.”
One step toward alleviating the geriatric caregiver shortage that was the subject of a recent Institute of Medicine report and Senate hearing would be to pass a bill that Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced into the Senate last month.
The Caring for an Aging America Act of 2008 (S. 2708) would expand career ladder programs for direct-care workers and other caregivers, funding $4 million worth of additional training per year in fiscal years 2009 through 2012 and $3.5 million in 2013. It would also create a loan repayment program for physicians, psychologists, physician assistants, clinical nurse specialists, nurse practitioners and social workers who agree to work for two years in a long-term care setting and an advisory panel to recommend more ways of strengthening the health and long-term care workforce.
The bill is endorsed by a number of powerful associations, including the American Geriatrics Society, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Council on Aging, Alzheimer’s Association.
Martha Stewart segued from living to assisted living today at a U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing today, talking about her experiences as a caregiver for her mother.
The hearing explored the growing shortage of geriatric care workers and the need to better support family caregivers, which was the subject of an Institute of Medicine report released two days ago.
“It is clear that a change in culture is needed - that both health care workers and health care organizations need to change the way they think about direct-care workers and, in particular, that the direct-care workers need to be seen as a vital part of the health care team,” says Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The institute is part of the National Academy of Sciences.
The report, from the IOM’s Committee on the Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans, also calls for concrete improvements in the quality of direct-care jobs. It advocates a three-pronged approach:
More, and more effective, education and training;
Increased wages and benefits; and
Improvements to the work environment, such as empowerment strategies and culture change.
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