A newly awarded federal grant will fund continuing research and analysis on how to strengthen and support the personal assistance services workforce.
The University of California San Francisco’s five-year-old Center for Personal Assistance Services (PAS Center) learned last week that is has been funded for another five years by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In a news release about the grant, Charlene Harrington (pictured), the Center’s director and principal investigator, describes the center’s goal as “providing support so that people with disabilities can live and work independently in their community, as opposed to being institutionalized in a nursing home.”
Starting this October, the center will focus on three areas under the $4.25 million grant: improving access to PAS by individuals with disabilities; improving the workforce to support individuals with disabilities, and understanding the complexities of the economics of PAS. The center has done research documenting low wages, a scarcity of health care benefits, and high turnover rates among PAS workers.
Continue reading ‘PAS Center Grant Funds Continuing Research on Direct-Care Workers’
“If I had only one sentence, this would be it: Direct support work is a highly skilled job,” says Amy Hewitt.
“It’s not viewed that way by society - or, frankly, by many employers - but not everybody can do this job. You have to be smart; you have to be able to problem solve; you have to be flexible and a quick thinker. You also need patience and empathy and creativity. We’re not going to get anywhere in terms of policy advocacy or getting the supports we need in place without clearly articulating that this is a highly skilled job.”
Hewitt is a senior research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. The center’s mission is to support community living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities - and that has led to a focus on strengthening and supporting the direct support workforce.
Continue reading ‘Amy Hewitt: Direct Support Work is a Highly Skilled Job’
When long-term care opinion leaders were surveyed about the challenges facing our long-term care delivery and financing system, the challenge they named most often was the workforce.
The first national survey of what long-term care experts think about the state of long-term care in the U.S.A. and how it can be reformed tallied the responses of 1,147 people (44.5 percent of those polled) to an online questionnaire. According to The Commonwealth Fund Long-Term Care Opinion Leader Survey: Top-Level Findings, (pdf), a one-page summary of its findings, the survey was intended to “help move the LTC reform debate forward,” as we cannot afford to wait any longer to prepare for the coming baby boomer age wave.
Continue reading ‘Opinion Leaders Rank Workforce Top Among LTC Challenges’
A blog sponsored by the College of Direct Support posts stories for direct support professionals, consumers, and other members of the direct support community, inviting feedback and input.
On the same page, you’ll find a link to the CDS’s podcasts, which will include A Day in the Life of a DSP.
Currently on that page is a video about Patrick Jordan, which shows him in action while his father (pictured above with Patrick) tells his story. The Jordans are participants in a Minnesota residential program that has transformed their lives, allowing Patrick to achieve a new degree of independence.
“He’s not in a fishbowl any more,” says Patrick’s delighted father. “His needs haven’t gone away, but our ability to approach them in a more personal, more respectful fashion has made a huge difference to him.”
Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org
“The residents come to know you better and trust you,” says a CNA of the changes a nursing home experienced after implementing consistent assignment.
The new system also benefits the home’s direct-care workers, according to a one-page report (pdf) by the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Iowa. “The staff have ownership and they are loving it,” says Assistant Administrator Deb Pascoe. Staff chose the neighborhoods they wanted to work in and divided resident caseloads.
The report describes an initiative by Wyndcrest Nursing Home in Clinton, Iowa, which piloted the change on one shift for several months before introducing it on others. “It’s important to remember that change takes time,” Pascoe explains. “Pilot testing provided us with an opportunity to work through problems before implementing it facility-wide.”
Continue reading ‘Iowa Residents, CNAs Reap the Benefits of Consistent Assignment’
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