PHI and the Direct Care Alliance (DCA) have renewed their commitment to collaborate more closely to achieve their common goal to improve the quality of eldercare and disability services by improving the quality of direct-care jobs.

The national nonprofit organizations’ advocacy efforts complement one another: PHI’s advocacy efforts are rooted in its policy research and its work with a network of affiliated service providers, while the DCA’s are grassroots-based and worker-led.

The groups plan to strengthen the coordination of their advocacy actions to improve direct-care workers’ wages, health care benefits, training, and career advancement opportunities.

“PHI is proud to have been the original sponsor of the Direct Care Alliance — I have always believed that direct-care workers should be ‘at the table’ in any discussions about quality care and quality jobs,” said PHI President Steven Dawson. “There is still so much work to do, but with the DCA and PHI working hard, together, there is nothing that can stop us.”

“The Direct Care Alliance and PHI serve vital roles in advocating for improvements to the direct care profession, including DCA’s grassroots, worker-led advocacy and PHI’s policy/research-based advocacy,” said DCA Executive Director Leonila Vega. “I’m proud of our achievements thus far and look forward to our ongoing collaboration.”

Both organizations have been working side-by-side to wage a campaign to extend protections to home care workers that are afforded by the Fair Labor Standards Act, and were heartened by the recent news that the Department of Labor will review the FLSA companionship exemption this fall.

Future Projects Planned

With the passage of nationwide health care reform, PHI and DCA see new opportunities unfolding that will benefit all direct-care workers and the elders and people with disabilities whom they serve.

The organizations plan to work together to help ensure broader health coverage of health care workers and shape the CLASS Act, the historic new social insurance model for long-term care services.

Dawson and Vega are both founding members of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, a group of 28 national organizations, joined together to address the immediate and future workforce crisis in caring for an aging America.

– by Deane Beebe