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When long-term care opinion leaders were surveyed about the challenges facing our long-term care delivery and financing system, the challenge they named most often was the workforce.

The first national survey of what long-term care experts think about the state of long-term care in the U.S.A. and how it can be reformed tallied the responses of 1,147 people (44.5 percent of those polled) to an online questionnaire. According to The Commonwealth Fund Long-Term Care Opinion Leader Survey: Top-Level Findings, (pdf), a one-page summary of its findings, the survey was intended to “help move the LTC reform debate forward,” as we cannot afford to wait any longer to prepare for the coming baby boomer age wave.

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A blog sponsored by the College of Direct Support posts stories for direct support professionals, consumers, and other members of the direct support community, inviting feedback and input.

On the same page, you’ll find a link to the CDS’s podcasts, which will include A Day in the Life of a DSP.

Currently on that page is a video about Patrick Jordan, which shows him in action while his father (pictured above with Patrick) tells his story. The Jordans are participants in a Minnesota residential program that has transformed their lives, allowing Patrick to achieve a new degree of independence.

“He’s not in a fishbowl any more,” says Patrick’s delighted father. “His needs haven’t gone away, but our ability to approach them in a more personal, more respectful fashion has made a huge difference to him.”

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

There is general agreement among policy makers and providers that high turnover rates among direct-care workers hurt care quality and need to be lowered. But we can’t even define the scope of the problem, let alone assess how effective interventions may be, without a consistent method of measuring turnover, according to a study published in The Gerontologist Vol. 48, No. 3.

Measuring Worker Turnover in Long-Term Care: Lessons From the Better Jobs Better Care Demonstration discusses and charts various ways of calculating turnover. Those differences likely account for a significant amount of the wide variation in reported rates, it says. For example Florida’s relatively low turnover rate is probably due to the fact that the state doesn’t count workers until they’ve completed their first three months of employment, when turnover is typically at its highest.

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New Hampshire has created a commission to identify best practices in recruiting and retaining direct-care workers in home- and community-based services (HCBS). The commission will also recommend ways of providing incentives to employers who use those practices.

SB496, which was signed into law on June 30, focuses on HCBS “because we wanted to recognize and support the interest the state has expressed in emphasizing home- and community-based care, and to do more to support those kinds of services in the state,” says Rebecca Hutchinson, a member of the policy staff for the New Hampshire House majority office.

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On June 12, Tracy Lawless and Simone Baer of PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign in Pennsylvania spoke at the Consumers Union’s Cover America Tour press event in Pittsburgh. The two discussed the need for affordable health care for direct-care workers – and all Pennsylvanians.

In a speech that was partially captured on a short video of the event, Lawless spoke about the role health care coverage for direct-care workers plays in providing quality care for America’s greatest generation. “It has been shown before that affordable health care is key to keeping direct-care workers in their jobs,” she says. “This retention is critical to consistency of care.”

Read more, watch the video, read Lawless’s testimony in full, or comment

On May 13, Iowa Governor Chet Culver (pictured) signed HF 2539, a new law that will have a dramatic and lasting impact on the direct-care workforce. The bill, whose intent is to “progress toward achievement of the goal that all Iowans have health care coverage,” includes several clauses specific to direct-care workers.

This dramatic success flows from years of work on the part of Di Findley, the founder and executive director of the Iowa CareGivers Association; extensive advocacy efforts by direct-care workers and their supporters; and the support of PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign.

Read more and comment on the Health Care for Health Care Workers website