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The Direct Care Alliance (DCA) has launched a credentialing program for personal care and support professionals, with the goal of helping to professionalize the direct-care workforce.

Direct-care workers can earn the credential by passing a two-part exam, which includes a 50-question multiple choice test and a “situational judgment test.”

The exam is designed to test workers’ knowledge on topics such as interpersonal skills, health-related knowledge, nutrition, and the proper responses to an emergency situation.

Once earned, the credential — which was developed with support from the Ford Foundation — is good for three years.

Professionalizing the Workforce

A DCA fact sheet (pdf) about the new credential says that it was created to give direct-care workers a “way to demonstrate their professionalism and skill.”

“This credential program — the first of its kind — gives direct-care workers the opportunity to prove their knowledge and ability to providers and consumers,” said Helen Hanson, the DCA’s professional development manager and a certified nursing assistant. “By helping to professionalize the workforce, the DCA’s credential will elevate the quality of care across the board.”

The test was developed with the input of personal assistance workers, people with disabilities, and direct-care providers. It is designed to complement, but not replace, the existing training and certification requirements for direct-care workers, which vary by state.

Eventually, the DCA reports, the credentialing program will be developed into a career lattice, in which workers can earn additional specialty credentials in areas such as dementia care and geriatrics.

To register for the exam, visit the DCA website.

– by Matthew Ozga

A policy brief published by the Direct Care Alliance explains how direct-care workers can help lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) elders live with dignity and independence.

Nancy F. McKenzie, Ph.D., the author of Supporting Direct Care Workers in Caring for Aging Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Individuals (pdf), notes that LGBT elders face numerous difficulties in obtaining quality long-term care: inequitable laws, social stigma, and institutional and personal prejudice.

Because of those obstacles, LGBT elders are more likely to face unnecessary complications related to aging. They are also more likely to die alone.

Promoting Equitable Care

McKenzie recommends several steps that policymakers and administrators of long-term care facilities can take to promote high-quality long-term care to their LGBT clients.

One recommendation is for administrators to develop LGBT programs and training for direct-care workers, aimed at eliminating any prejudices that those workers might have in dealing with LGBT elders.

McKenzie also suggests that administrators should ensure that their facilities are in compliance with state anti-discrimination laws, and that policymakers should advocate for LGBT-friendly legislation.

In a guest blog post at the Direct Care Alliance website, Michael Adams, executive director of Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE), praises the policy brief for “tackling these issues head-on and making a commitment to improving the lives of LGBT older adults.”

In October, SAGE, in partnership with 10 other LGBT-oriented organizations, launched the first-ever National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Administration on Aging.

PHI is collaborating with SAGE and the other organizations involved with the resource center to create training curricula for LGBT and aging service providers.

An ‘Inherent Solidarity’

Throughout the paper, McKenzie argues that the direct-care workers and LGBT elders share an “inherent solidarity.”

She says that both groups are under-valued, under-resourced, and under-represented in mainstream society, and both are fighting to improve the conditions in which they work and live.

“As direct-care workers advocate for their own acknowledgment and legal and monetary protections, they can be stronger advocates for [LGBT] clients that are burdened with the same ‘invisibility,’” McKenzie writes.

– by Matthew Ozga

PHI and the Direct Care Alliance (DCA) have renewed their commitment to collaborate more closely to achieve their common goal to improve the quality of eldercare and disability services by improving the quality of direct-care jobs. Read the full story