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

August 20, 2004 – A federal district judge has ruled that Arizona must raise wages for attendant care workers and personal care workers in order to ensure that Medicaid beneficiaries receive the home- and community-based services they are entitled to. The Court’s decision in Ball v. Biedess follows four and a half years of litigation in a statewide class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients. The suit was brought against the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), which administers the state’s Medicaid programs, by lawyers from the Arizona Center for Disability Law, AARP Foundation Litigation, and DNA Peoples Legal Services….to read more click here