Better Jobs Better Care was a 4-year $15.5 million research and demonstration program, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Staffed by the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, the program, which focused on improving the recruitment and retention of direct-care workers, supported five state demonstrations and several research projects. PHI acted as the national technical assistance provider for BJBC and also authored numerous publications relevant to long-term care stakeholders.

All BJBC issue briefs and reports are available at: http://www.bjbc.org/issue_briefs.asp. The project and research findings are summarized in the July 2008 Gerontologist and March/April 2007 FutureAge magazine.

PHI authored the following issue briefs and reports:

Respectful Relationships: The Heart of Better Jobs Better Care (pdf)
Building a foundation of respect in the long-term care workplace can increase direct care worker satisfaction and retention and help providers embrace the growing racial and cultural diversity of their frontline staff.

Engaging the Public Workforce Development System: Strategies for Investing in the Direct Care Workforce (pdf)
Partnerships between long-term care providers and the workforce development network can improve quality of care, increase the supply of direct care workers and promote greater workforce stability.

Family Care and Paid Care: Separate Worlds or Common Ground? (pdf)
Family and paid caregiving are typically treated as separate worlds, yet they often intersect. The brief explains the demographic and economic trends that affect caregiving and suggests ways to strengthen the bond between family and paid care.

Quality Improvement of Organizations: Recognizing Direct-Care Workers’ Role in Nursing Home Quality Improvement (pdf)
Quality improvement organizations (QIOs) are changing their approach in nursing homes, focusing on direct care workers and other caregiving staff in their efforts to improve care.

Health Insurance Coverage for Direct Care Workers: Riding Out the Storm (pdf)
Direct care workers face numerous challenges in finding health care coverage. There are realistic strategies for making health coverage more available and more affordable to them and their families.

Direct-Care Workers Speaking Out On Their Own Behalf (pdf)
Direct care workers play a critical role in improving the quality of long-term care services. They are enhancing their role by getting involved in workplace change initiatives, worker associations and unions.

Multi-Stakeholder Coalitions: Promoting Improvements in the Long-Term Care Workforce (pdf)
Partnerships among long-term care providers, consumers and workers can strenthen the long-term care workforce and create fundamental changes that improve the jobs and work environments for direct care workers.

The Cost of Frontline Turnover in Long-Term Care (2004)
The report offers recommendations for providers, policy makers, and researchers that are designed to improve overall understanding of the costs related to turnover and the effectiveness of various strategies intended to reduce those costs.

In addition, two BJBC state demonstration projects drew extensively on PHI expertise:

North Carolina: North Carolina’s coalition developed a state licensing designation called NC NOVA. The program encourages positive workplace practices that support employees and strong relationships between caregivers and consumers and their families. One of the requirements of NC NOVA is to implement the PHI coaching supervision training. PHI has trained trainers throughout the state to deliver coaching training to long-term care supervisors.

Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania’s BJBC project focused on developing a cross-setting entry-level curriculum for direct-care workers. Following the completion of the project, PHI built on the core curriculum developed by the state coalition and helped to launch a statewide model curriculum for personal service workers.