The newest additions to PHI’s National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce:

Culture Change Goes Mainstream — This Provider feature, published in the May 2010 issue, explains how the philosophy of culture change has spread rapidly throughout U.S. long-term care facilities since the mid-2000s. The article profiles several organizations that have worked to promote culture change, including the Eden Alternative, the Green House Project, and the Pioneer Network.

The Battle for Recruiting and Retaining the Best: Are You Up for the Challenge? — This article, from the April 2010 edition of Caring magazine, discusses the retention and recruitment practices employed by Haven Home Health, a home health company based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Feasibility of Internet Training for Care Staff of Residents with Dementia: The CARES Program — This study evaluates the effectiveness of the CARES training module, which focuses on long-term care residents with dementia. It finds that the internet-based CARES program shows great promise as a way to effectively and efficiently provide dementia training and education to aspiring certified nursing assistants. The study was published in the April 2010 edition of the Journal of Gerontological Nursing.

Women Are the Backbone of American Caregiving — Written by PHI President Steven Dawson, this article from the March/April 2010 Aging Today argues that with better training and improved job design, direct-care workers — a third of whom are women over 55 — can provide greater value to the U.S. health care system, helping to meet the needs of elders and others with chronic health conditions.

Fall Prevention Awareness: Enhanced Training Curriculum for Home Health Aides — Uniquely designed for adult learners, the Fall Prevention Awareness training curriculum — developed jointly by PHI and the National Council on Aging (NCOA) — helps home health aides reduce falls and minimize injury to their clients by increasing their awareness of the risk factors for common falls and by enhancing their communication skills.

PHI’s National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce is a national online library for people in search of solutions to the direct-care staffing crisis in long-term care. It houses over 800 articles, reports, issue briefs, and fact sheets on the direct-care workforce.

– by Matthew Ozga