Tag Archive for 'consumer preference'

VIDEO: ANCOR Announces Video Winners, National DSP Recognition Week

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on August 27, 2008
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ANCOR continues its advocacy work for direct support professionals (DSPs) with two announcements this month: It has selected the winners of its 2008 DSP TV Online video contest, and it has won the unanimous support of the U.S. Senate for its National Direct Support Professionals Week.

The six DSP TV Online winners — all both by and about DSPs and the people they work for – are now available for viewing on ANCOR’s website. (Above, see the winning video.) All six are full of heart. They convey the pride and joy dedicated DSPs take in their profession, the difference they make in the lives of the people they work with, and the mutual respect and affection that develop between workers and clients. They also contain calls for better pay and benefits, along with a lot of singing, dancing, and enthusiastic expressions of gratitude. ANCOR calls them “part of a greater effort to raise awareness of the workforce wage issue and give DSPs the ability to tell their stories in their own words, and as only they can.”

In addition, the U.S. Senate has recognized the week of September 8 as National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week. (pdf) The unanimously approved resolution is timed to coincide with ANCOR’s annual Governmental Activities Seminar and its DSPs to DC event in Washington, D.C.

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

Study Shows Link Between Health Care and Retention

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enakhnikian
on August 22, 2008
in PHI Blog
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“There is now a consistent pattern of data showing that homecare workers receiving benefits have a lower rate of attrition and, therefore, a higher rate of stability,” says the latest report from the Los Angeles County In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program.

Impact of Health Benefits on Retention of Homecare Workers: Analysis of the IHSS Health Benefits Program in LA County (pdf) is a follow-up to four reports from 2003-2006, which showed that offering medical benefits to the IHSS home care workers reduced turnover.

The present study, a five-year longitudinal retention analysis, echoes those findings. It also teases out more detail, comparing work patterns for workers who enrolled in the benefits program with those who did not, identifying traits that predict who will enroll, tracking changes in enrollment over time, and more.

The findings are significant because “The success of any kind of in-home supportive services depends on having an experienced and well-trained and committed workforce - you can’t have people stay out of institutions if there’s no workforce to take care of them at home,” says Joanne Holland, a senior clinical specialist at RTZ Associates Inc. “It’s such important work, but it’s not a high-paying position. And a lot of people are able to stay in the work because of these health care benefits.”

The study found that nearly half (45%) of the workers who enrolled in the plan were still in the workforce at the five-year mark, compared with only about a third (35%) of those who were eligible for benefits but had not enrolled.

“The stability of the workforce means you have better workers because they’re been doing it longer,” adds Holland. “It also makes for better relationships with consumers, so it’s a better experience for them.” RTZ Associates wrote the report.

Comment below, or see PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers blog for more comments.

Elise Nakhnikian, PHI, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

Booklet Helps Consumers Share Vital Health Stats with Caregivers

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on August 19, 2008
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Whether you call it person-centered, person-directed, or just plain quality care, the goal is the same for everyone receiving or regulating long-term care services as it is for all conscientious care providers: Everyone wants care to be tailored to individual preferences and needs. Yet that common-sense goal can be surprisingly hard to achieve in our complex, technology- and medication-oriented, often understaffed health care system.

Many of the barriers that stand in the way are systemic – boulders that no one person can shoulder aside on his or her own. But a self-published, spiral-bound booklet created by an aging services specialist gets long-term care consumers closer to that goal by giving them a way to keep track of their vital information — and share it with direct-care workers and other health care professionals.

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Rising Gas Prices Expose Home Care Fault Line

Published
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enakhnikian
on August 5, 2008
in PHI Blog
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Are rising gas prices making it harder for you to deliver or receive care? Add your comments at the end of this post. 

We all feel the pinch from high gas prices, but for home care workers it’s more of a punch. As PHI President Steven Dawson puts it: “The doubling of gas prices over the past few years has been like a pay cut for many home care workers — particularly those serving clients in rural areas.

“Policy makers like to believe that home care is cheaper than nursing homes, but that’s only true because home care workers are paid less than nursing home workers, often without health benefits,” adds Dawson. “There’s not much good to say about higher gas prices, except perhaps that they will now force policy makers to look more closely at the real costs of shifting toward home-based care, and in response create realistic reimbursement policies that will offer home care workers a true livable wage and benefits.”

When PHI’s Michigan State Director Hollis Turnham wrote about the home care gas crisis in our blog in June, talking about the problems she was already hearing about, anticipating others, and asking what other people were experiencing, the response was swift and impassioned. An employer called rising gas prices “the 500 lb gorilla in the room for home care agencies.” A home care worker talked about seeing turnover increase and “looking for something closer to home myself.” The head of a home care and hospice aide recruitment agency said he planned to do “something very tangible to address this issue,” though he wasn’t ready yet to say just what. 

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Senators Learn About Person-Centered Care and the DCW-Resident Link

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on July 31, 2008
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“I can honestly say that I love being a Shahbaz, and so do my fellow Shahbazim,” Edna Hess told the senators at a July 23 U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing.

Hess worked for years as a CNA at the Lebanon Valley Brethren Home in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, becoming a Shahbaz (the Green House® name for direct-care workers) when the home converted to the Green House® model nine months ago. Since then, she told the committee, not a single Shahbaz has left. “This a big improvement over my facility’s 23 percent annual turnover rate for nursing assistants, and an even bigger improvement over the national turnover rate for nursing assistants, which I understand to be slightly over 70 percent per year.”

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