An interview in Long-Term Living (formerly Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management) describes what Online Editor John Oberlin calls “a cooperative, flexible, and resourceful program that would directly address … barriers to sustained employment.”

Employees of two of the participating organizations discuss how the Opportunity Partnership & Empowerment Network (OPEN) program, a collaboration by eight providers in Kent County, Michigan, has improved direct-care worker retention. A coordinator whose salary is shared by the employers helps workers identify and overcome barriers that are reducing their ability to be effective at work.

The program saves his organization three or four times what it costs, says one of the providers. “And that doesn’t even talk about the quality. When you retain employees, then your quality of care has gone up tremendously.”

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org