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Everywhere I go, people are talking about how the high price of gas is affecting home care workers and agencies. Organizations are contacting me and my colleagues for ideas on how to deal with it, so I’d be very interested to hear from people in other parts of the country. How are employers and workers [...]

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New York state has been “a national leader” in expanding health care coverage for home care aides and other workers, yet 30 percent of its home care workers lack insurance, according to a fact sheet from PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign. Caregivers Without Health Care focuses on home care workers because they are the [...]

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“Higher wages, training and benefits would make being a direct support worker a respected profession and a viable career choice,” notes Kathleen Bates in The True Costs and Benefits of Self-Directed Care: Living with Independence, Freedom, and Equality (LIFE) Account Feasibility Study & Implementation Plan. (pdf) Bates describes her own circumstances and those of several [...]

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“According to the Department of Labor, direct care is the fourth-fastest-growing job category in the nation but is noted as one of the ‘10 worst jobs in America,’ next to those who clean portable restrooms,” says Judith B. Clinco in an editorial in the Arizona Daily Star. “Most direct-care workers receive inadequate training, inadequate wages, [...]

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For an unusually detailed look at the effects of staff empowerment and other “culture change” interventions on quality of care and quality of life in nursing homes, visit the Commonwealth Fund’s website. The website links to a selective and rich list of resources, including the survey from which the data was culled, which looked at how [...]

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The Direct Care Alliance is looking for a staff member and a consultant to help it grow. The fulltime position is for an administrative coordinator for the national, New-York based advocacy group. This person will have “a broad range of responsibilities that involve working directly with the Executive and the National Advocacy Directors of the Direct Care [...]

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