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.
Iowa’s proposed three-tiered credentialing system is intended to ensure that all direct-care workers are adequately prepared for the job. It also aims to make workers’ duties and qualifications clear to the consumers and family members who hire them, to acknowledge their special skills, and to correct the inequities of the current system, which requires training in some settings but not in others even when the same set of services is delivered in both.
In response to a recent solicitation for comments from the federal government, PHI recommended changes to the three main categories used to track direct-care workers at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The government considers revisions to its Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) categories every ten years.
PHI also asked the government to address the exclusion of direct-care workers who are “independent providers” from federal/state employer surveys, which PHI believes results in a serious undercount of workers counted as Personal and Home Care Aides. Independent providers refer to direct-care workers who are either self-employed or who are directly employed by consumer households.
Workforce data can play a critical role in assessing things like the effectiveness of state initiatives to attract and retain greater numbers of direct-care workers, or the impact of policies designed to improve direct-care worker wages.
We’ve been covering news from our Health Care for Health Care Workers (HCHCW) campaign in PHI’s news stories and Quality Care/Quality Jobs newsletter ever since the campaign started years ago — and we’ll keep on covering the really big stories, since PHI’s beat is whatever affects the direct-care workforce.
But now HCHCW has launched its own free biweekly e-newsletter. The HCHCW newsletter drills deeper than anything else you’ll find into the shortage of affordable, quality health care coverage for direct-care workers. It analyzes the problem, explores solutions, describes the progress of the HCHCW campaign and its partner organizations, provides links to valuable resources, and more.
If you care about this crisis and want to keep up with the latest developments and strategies, you’ll want to add your name to their list.
ANCOR is inviting direct support professionals and their supporters to rally in Washington, D.C. next month to show their support for H.R. 1279 (pdf).
DSPs to DC will convene workers, people with disabilities and their family members, providers, and advocates to “deliver a unified message about the direct support workforce crisis and the need to pass legislation to help stabilize this critical workforce,” according to an ANCOR email. The event will be held on September 8 and 9, in conjunction with ANCOR’s Governmental Activities Seminar.
“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.”
Recommendations for Establishing a Credentialing System for Iowa’s Direct Care Workforce,
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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.
