Virginia’s media have been covering the need for better direct-care wages more than usual lately, mostly because of a proposed budget amendment that would increase wages for personal care attendants (PCAs) by 10 percent.

At hearings across the state last week, PCAs and the people they assist testified in favor of the amendment – and their testimony made it into many print and electronic news stories. “We had great turnout at the budget hearings,” State Director David Broder of the Virginia Association of Personal Care Assistants told Quality Care/Quality Jobs. “All told, over 100 PCAs and their consumers attended 5 hearings across the state.”

Coverage included:

• A January 9 story in Southwest Virginia Today
• A January 4 feature in the Bristol Herald Courier
• A January 4 story in the Lynchburg News and Advance