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“I can honestly say that I love being a Shahbaz, and so do my fellow Shahbazim,” Edna Hess told the senators at a July 23 U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing. Hess worked for years as a CNA at the Lebanon Valley Brethren Home in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, becoming a Shahbaz (the Green House® name [...]

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Judging by a couple of recent articles in Canadian papers, the issues affecting direct-care workers don’t change much when you cross the border. A July 25 article in the Prince George Citizen describes a British Columbia public relations campaign that aims to generate interest in direct-care work as a career, which was spurred by “a [...]

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According to a recent Swedish study, violence against caregivers is often underreported in nursing homes because the caregivers accept attacks as excusable and an unavoidable part of the job. At the same time, violent acts may sometimes be overreported. The problem is that “violence is in the eye of the beholder,” making it hard for [...]

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Four $2,000 scholarships will be awarded this fall to family, professional, or paraprofessional caregivers who are “seeking training or education in specific skills, procedures and strategies that lead to more effective care at the same time that they serve to protect the health and well-being of the caregiver.” The Mattie J. T. Stepanek Caregiving Scholarship [...]

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A recent “listening session” on the direct-care workforce for Wisconsin legislators demonstrated the power — and the limitations — of capturing lawmakers’ attention with personal testimonials. Family members attested to the importance of paid caregivers, employers discussed the increasing difficulty of recruiting enough workers, and direct-care workers talked about the difficulty of surviving on their [...]

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“Just yesterday my son’s caregiver quit…she couldn’t provide care for my son because she didn’t have care for her own children. It’s a vicious cycle,” says one of the long-term care stakeholders interviewed for a report from the Texas Direct Service Workforce (DSW) Initiative. Stakeholder Recommendations to Improve Recruitment, Retention, and the Perceived Status of [...]

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