The Arizona Direct Care Worker Association (ADCWA) will hold its annual fall conference in Tucson on September 29.

“A Celebration of Caring” (pdf) is the theme of the all-day conference, which is being co-sponsored by the Arizona Gerontological Nursing Association.

According to Henry Schemper, the ADCWA’s program director, the conference is intended to “recognize the vital contributions of professional caregivers in the lives of the elders in our state.”

Conference Agenda

The conference will cover a wide variety of topics, including:

• The dangers of bed rest
• Understanding dementia
• Compassionate communication
• Conflict resolution

Attendees will be asked to follow either the “Care Knowledge” track or the “Empowering the Caregiver” track.

Additionally, the award for the 2010 Professional Caregiver will be presented to the most outstanding caregiver of the past year.

Participants are eligible to receive up to six continuing education units (CEUs) for attending the entire conference.

For registration information, contract Henry Schemper at henryschemper@gmail.com.

– by Matthew Ozga

The Arizona Republic cited PHI research in an column about the skyrocketing demand for direct care — especially home care — and the problems that could cause for the aging Baby Boomer generation. Read the full story

Arizona state flag

A court order has been issued in one of the country’s most long-running and high-visibility Medicaid class action law suits affecting home and community-based services. Read the full story

States across the U.S. are suffering from a variety of recession-related budget woes, and, as reported by The New York Times in a front-page story last weekend (“States Slashing Social Programs for Vulnerable,” April 11), many are responding by “slicing into their social safety nets — often crippling preventive efforts that officials say would save money over time.”

At least 34 states have been forced to enact cuts that hurt their vulnerable residents, according to the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (“An Update on State Budget Cuts,” March 18, 2009, pdf). But the Times reports that “Perhaps nowhere have the cuts been more disruptive than in Arizona, where more than 1,000 frail elderly people are struggling without home-care aides to help with bathing, housekeeping and trips to the doctor.” Read the full story

“According to the Department of Labor, direct care is the fourth-fastest-growing job category in the nation but is noted as one of the ‘10 worst jobs in America,’ next to those who clean portable restrooms,” says Judith B. Clinco in an editorial in the Arizona Daily Star. “Most direct-care workers receive inadequate training, inadequate wages, minimal or no benefits, no health-care coverage and face unrealistic job demands. These compassionate, caring workers are simply not honored or valued or respected.”

Neither consumers or employers can afford to pay what workers deserve, says Clinco. “The solution is for the federal government to subsidize wages and benefits for this work force so that regardless of age, illness or economic status, everyone who needs long-term care will have it. A starting wage of $15 per hour is not excessive.”

Clinco is the founder of the Direct CareGiver Association, a Tucson, Arizona-based nonprofit that provides education and support for direct-care workers.

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

If you’re having some doubts about whether public perception of direct-care workers is improving, a recent run of insightful stories in local papers may give you some hope.

Two stories in Vermont papers, one in the April 7 St. Albans Messenger and one in the April 4 Brattleboro Reformer, covered a new study about the state’s growing direct-care worker shortage. Both amplified its message and recommendations, stressing the need for higher reimbursement rates to long-term care providers, so they can increase pay and benefits for direct-care workers. “If employers are having trouble now with hiring and retaining workers, we’re really going to see a shift in the next 10 to 12 years as the baby boomers turn 75 and older,” said Alexandra Olins, PHI’s northern New England regional director, in the Messenger article.

Read the full story