Dr. Jack Resnick
While making house calls for the past decade on Roosevelt Island, a small planned community famous for the aerial cable car that connects it to Manhattan, one doctor has come to understand the importance of direct-care workers.
Dr. Jack Resnick believes that home-based care, especially with one doctor, looking out for us throughout our lives, can be done more competently and at a lower cost than institutional care.
“People live longer. They have fewer complications. They’re happier and it costs a lot less…Much better healthcare,” he explained, when we recently caught up to him.
One of the challenges, says Resnick, is the impact direct-care worker turnover has on older patients who need assistance to stay in their homes. He has seen these patients deteriorate when their usual day to day contact is no longer there.
“They’re crucial,” he says of the workers. “They are there every day. They’re more important than me or the nurses, really.”
Resnick says he would like to set up a structure on Roosevelt Island that would mean more responsibility and better pay for direct-care workers, as well as more training and some kind of career ladder.
“We can utilize them much more effectively. By doing that, you create so much savings for the government. Everybody comes out way, way ahead.”
In December, Resnick hosted one of the Obama transition team’s community health care forums where he shared his ideas about home-based care including a short video.
Find out more about Dr. Resnick by reading this recent post at the New Old Age or by visiting his personal website.
Hello Dr. Resnick,
I am Jennifer Hines a 20 year served Georgia State Certified Nursing Assistant and Activity Director. I am currently developing The Respite House,Inc. a business in the city of Atlanta that provides Caregivers Relief to help prevent a person from being institutionalize and help to prevent Caregivers Burnout.
Thank you from a CNA to a Doctor for recognizing the hard and important work a Director Care Worker makes as part of the Health Team. We provide 85% of the care in longterm care facilities and sometimes 90% of the care for In-Home Care. But we can barely afford healthcare for our own children. Our education level is the same as last year. But the care in our hearts for this job grows bigger and stronger each day. I Love my career as a CNA, I have develop a strong sense of direction and have had the pleasure of working with some wonderful RN’s that showed me the way to success even as a CNA.
I am also the Chairperson for Certifed Nursing Assistants on the Move a Chapter in Atlanta, Georgia of the National Network for Career Nursing Assistants’ in Ohio. 2008 Governor Sonny Perdue Proclaimed June 12-19, 2008 as Georgia Nursing Assistant Week. It was present to our Chapter by Fulton County Clerk of Superior Court Cathelene “Tina” Robinson.
We are Building our Team and our Board. We would love to have you as a part of our organization here in Atlanta and invite you to our up coming events.
Please Contact: Jennifer Hines, jenhines2002@yahoo.com
So very right-on! So very imortant! I hope that Dr. Resnick’s messages will gain much national visability – be heard and considered by many of our leaders.
As a current administrator and former direct care worker with both seniors and individuals with disabilities, we need a strong, competent, passionate direct care workforce – both now and in the future. We still have areas in Michigan where our staff are making minimum wage dut to the low reimbursement rates of the CMH’s. Home Care and CLS are most often under-reimbursed so wages provided to staff are not compensating the work they do. Their work requires comittment, energy, self direction, skill, communication skills, and significant problem solving skills. They work in the highest risk situations for low pay. If we are a nation that recognizes that home care and self determined choices are the “rule” and the way of the future, we need to move money from other services to support the home care growth and to support the unique training the staff require and will continue to require.
Yes , I do agree the Doctor is right on , Direct Care Workers are crucial . The question is does our government think so? Their actions thus far prove otherwise.
Tracey you are so right .I totally agree with everything you say . I wish we had a voice to get that across to the right people that could do something about it.