PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
June 24, 2009

Contact: Steve Edelstein
National Policy Director
Phone: 718-402-7413
Email: sedelstein@phinational.org

PHI Launches PolicyWorks
National Strategy Center for the Direct-Care Workforce Promotes Information, Innovation and Action

New York— By 2016, the United States will need 4 million direct-care workers to care for America’s elders and people with disabilities—more than the number of teachers needed to educate our youth in grades K-12.

Yet America is unprepared to meet this growing demand. Public policies have created a delivery system for paid care that relies on a low-skilled, low-wage workforce to provide essential supports. Committed, caring workers bypass these occupations or leave them when better opportunities are available. The result is a system plagued by high turnover and vacancies, poorly equipped for supporting the quality of life of millions of Americans of all ages with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

PHI PolicyWorks, an online strategy center, provides users with innovative policy tools to address this historic challenge. The goal of PolicyWorks is to promote national and state policy solutions that strengthen the direct-care workforce and prepare our nation to care for growing numbers of elders and people with disabilities.

PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein notes that “the time is right for a coordinated effort to transform the public policies that shape this vital workforce. We need to develop healthcare and workforce policies that can bear the weight of our nation’s growing need for eldercare/disability services.”

Improving the quality of direct-care jobs is key to three issues of critical importance for all Americans:

• Economic development: Direct-care workers constitute arguably the largest workforce in the country, and creating quality jobs for these workers will sustain families and communities, and help restore our economy.
• Access to care: Addressing the high rates of direct-care worker vacancies and turnover is essential to ensuring that American families have access to sufficient numbers of well-trained and supported paid caregivers to provide needed services.
• Quality of care: Direct-care workers provide 70 to 80 percent of the paid hands-on daily care and support received by elders and people with disabilities. Policymakers cannot ensure the quality of these services without addressing the quality of these jobs.

PHI President Steven L. Dawson noted, “As the nation gears up to reform its health care system, PolicyWorks will be an important resource. PHI’s PolicyWorks staff will use their expertise to analyze reform proposals and make recommendations to ensure that America has a health care system that adequately provides for the needs of increasing numbers of people with chronic care needs.”

PHI PolicyWorks gives users access to up-to-date statistics, timely research and analysis, strategic legislative and regulatory recommendations, and advocacy tools and resources. Staffed by PHI’s national and state policy experts, the site features:

• Strategic areas: Frameworks for understanding the leading policy issues affecting direct-care workforce policy and the quality of eldercare/disability services.
• Workforce Facts: An introduction to the demographics, size, and economic impact of the direct-care workforce.
• PHI Policy Recommendations: Strategic recommendations on national health care reform efforts and other critical issues affecting direct-care workers.
• Guide to Accessing Federal Recovery Act Funds: Tools for tapping into unprecedented new public employment and training monies for programs to recruit, train and support direct-care workers.
• Health Reform Resource Center: Information and resources regarding how to achieve quality, affordable health care coverage for all Americans, including elders and people with disabilities and those who care for them.
• PHI Chart Gallery: Easily downloadable charts that visually summarize key data on the direct-care workforce.

PolicyWorks complements PHI’s National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce, an on-line library which houses nearly 1000 research papers and other documents supporting quality care through quality jobs.

PHI works to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care—and the lives of the workers who provide that care.