“Every day, my family and countless others trust direct care staff to care for our loved ones. Yet we pay them less than we pay many of the college students brewing skinny lattes at Starbucks. Meager staff pay and benefits are the shameful back story of the generally positive effort to move intellectually-disabled people out of state institutions into the community. Starting hourly wages for direct care workers are typically a dollar or two above minimum wage,” says a piece in the widely read Huffington Post. The posting calls for paying direct-care workers “a living wage.”
In Think You Need a Raise? Caregivers for the Disabled Need One More Than You Do, Harold Pollack talks about Rayshawn, a direct-care worker at his brother’s group home in Chicago who, he says, his brother is “crazy about.”
Rayshawn and most of his colleagues, Pollack points out, are paid through Medicaid, “a program that bleeds red ink in just about every state. Our Governor’s proposed FY2009 budget again includes no cost of living adjustment for these workers. Nothing new or surprising there. Politicians are rewarded by powerful constituencies for good provided…. Direct care workers are not a powerful constituency, and they are pretty invisible to most voters.”
Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org
I am so tempted to reply to every complaint I get by saying: “You get the level of service you pay for.”
Of course I don’t actually say this, but it’s true.
I have been asked to do things that are well beyond the normal routine of care by family members and consumers. For the most part, I do try and do what I can. On the rare occasion that my shift ends and I don’t get to these tasks, I relay the request to the next staff and go home. It’s pretty common for the other staff to ignore these requests, saying “Sorry. That’s not in my job description.” When I return the next shift, I have to deal with irate parents and consumers. It seems to me that some people have unrealistic expectations of just what a direct care worker’s job actually involves. I can tell them that I do not get paid to repair computers, shop for personal items, or give haircuts – but that doesn’t seem to matter. I am EXPECTED to do these things, along with the huge list of daily cares/tasks, and without so much as a “thank you” either.
Lately I have been just doing the routine tasks and strictly sticking to the written care plans. It has resulted in much grumbling, but the stress level has gone down by a huge margin. No more running to get thigns done so I can squeeze in a quick “favor” to one of the consumers who needs a haircut or hard drive installed in their PC. I go in, perform my job, and leave on time. Exactly what I am paid for and nothing more.