PHI is a major subcontractor to the Personal Assistance Services Center, a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) of NIDRR, the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. NIDRR is part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS). The PAS Center is dedicated to the study of issues regarding the availability and quality of services provided by formal and informal caregivers to 15 million people nationwide who need help performing activities of daily living.

As part of a 5-year, $4.25 million grant that began in October 2008, PHI will conduct three major workforce-related projects for the PAS Center:

1. Registries and Intermediaries. Create and disseminate a state-by-state database on registries and other consumer/worker intermediaries, and evaluate their effectiveness from the perspective of consumers, workers, and state officials.
2. Wages and Benefits for PAS Workers. Evaluate the effectiveness of state efforts to improve PAS wages and benefits and increase the number of PAS workers. Monitor state trends in the number and diversity of PAS workers, their pay, and turnover and vacancy rates. In 2011, PHI prepared a 50-state chart book on PAS worker wages (pdf).
3. Training for PAS Workers. Evaluate the status of PAS training state by state, analyze promising initiatives, and identify the components of effective PAS training programs.