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Direct-care workers in training

The Michigan Office of Services to the Aging (OSA), Michigan State University-College of Human Medicine, and PHI have partnered to address the training needs of personal care aides (PCAs) who serve clients in MI Choice, the state’s Medicaid home and community-based waiver program.

Michigan’s Building Training…Building Quality (BTBQ) project will build and operate a sustainable “gold standard” training program and provide education to over 1,500 new and working PCAs.

PHCAST Award

The training project is made possible by a three-year, $2.03 million Personal and Home Care Aide State Training Program (PHCAST) demonstration grant awarded to OSA on September 29 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through Affordable Care Act funds.

Michigan is one of six states to receive PHCAST funding.

“Currently, there are no mandatory training requirements in Michigan for PCAs,” says OSA Deputy Director Peggy Brey. “This grant provides the opportunity to develop curricula and mobilize the aging and disability networks to increase and improve the skills of the long-term care workforce.”

Project Goals

The BTBQ project’s goals are to:

• Create a core curriculum that is based on competencies needed by newly hired PCAs to serve MI Choice clients.
• Build the state’s capacity to deliver adult learner-centered training for the entire PCA workforce, starting with 400 PCAs serving MI Choice clients during the grant period.
• Train PCA peer mentors to support the PCAs in the first six months of employment.
• Offer additional in-service training to PCAs on dementia, home management skills, and prevention of adult abuse and neglect.

The project will be evaluated by Michigan State’s Clare Luz, Ph.D., a gerontologist with clinical experience, who has worked closely with OSA to evaluate previous statewide training programs related to long-term care.

Rapid and Large Growth of Home Health Jobs

“This project also speaks to the huge number of home health aide jobs that the state projects will be created in Michigan in the coming years,” says PHI Midwest Policy Director Hollis Turnham. “Caregiving jobs in long-term care are growing at rates faster and larger than almost all other employment sectors in the state.”

More information on PCAs and the projected growth of Michigan’s direct-care workforce is available at PHI State Facts: Michigan’s Direct-Care Workforce (pdf).

– by Deane Beebe

PHI received the Health Care Association of Michigan (HCAM) and Michigan Center for Assisted Living’s (MCAL) first Michigan Associate Partner of the Year Award at the organizations’ annual convention and business meeting on September 20.

Purpose of Award

The award was created to “recognize and honor Associate Partners who have a profound impact on the long-term care community,” according to HCAM and MCAL.

PHI has been a member of the HCAM and MCAL Associate Partnership program since its recent inauguration in 2009. The organizations describe Associate Partners as being

• dedicated to the success of the profession;
• proud to support programs and services that advance long-term care; and
• able to offer solutions for a variety of industry-related issues.

“This recognition from the Health Care Association of Michigan (HCAM) and Michigan Center for Assisted Living of PHI’s collaborative training and policy efforts reinforces our commitment to improve the quality of supports and services and direct-care jobs,” said PHI President Steven Dawson. “We salute the commitment of these Michigan provider organizations to excellence and innovation.”

PHI Impact in Michigan

PHI’s Michigan-based work began in the late 1990s with a project to introduce the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeast Michigan to peer mentoring. Since 2001, PHI Michigan’s policy and training and organizational development staff have had a full-time presence in the state.

PHI Michigan was honored for its legislative/regulatory activities and accomplishments including:

• supporting a “boilerplate provision” to address the high costs of health insurance coverage for Medicaid-funded long-term care providers, which was included in both the House and Senate versions of the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget and signed into law by the Governor;
• educating Michigan’s federal legislators about the Institute of Medicine‘s Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce report recommendations and gaining their support for their inclusion in the federal health care reform law; and
• improving the state’s CNA training curriculum and administration.

PHI Michigan has also led a myriad of training and organization development activities throughout the state, including:

• providing technical assistance for the development of the Healthcare Skills Alliance and its Certified Nurse Aide Registered Apprenticeship Program;
• developing, with partners, the Michigan Alliance of Person-Centered Communities, the state’s first culture change coalition recognized by the Pioneer Network;
• supporting state associations’ and advocates’ education and training programs with workshops, seminars, and articles, including producing two webinars for HCAM’s Quality First Leadership Series; and
• introducing the coaching approach to leadership and communications across the state through various public and co-sponsored programs.

PHI Michigan Team

The PHI Michigan policy and training staff members who accepted the award at the HCAM/MCAL event were MI State Policy Director Hollis Turnham; MI Senior Workforce Advocate Tameshia Bridges; and MI Training and Organization Specialists Cean Eppelheimer and Maureen Sheahan. They have been supported in their Michigan work by governmental consultant Jean Doss.

More information on PHI initiatives in Michigan and State Facts: Michigan’s Direct-Care Workforce (pdf) are available online.

– by Deane Beebe

It is not too early to think about the upcoming tax season and ways that direct-care workers can get a bigger refund and keep more of their money at tax time. Read the full story

Tameshia Bridges

By Tameshia Bridges, Michigan Senior Workforce Advocate

This tax year, PHI’s Michigan office launched the Earn, Keep, Save MORE outreach campaign, an effort to increase income for direct-care workers. The campaign equipped employers with information and resources they could use to educate their staff about federal and state earned income tax credits (EITC) and free tax preparation services available in the community.

The EITC provides an important opportunity for low-wage workers to build economic assets. Through the EITC, direct-care workers in Michigan can receive tax credits ranging from a few hundred dollars — to over $5000. Yet many workers don’t apply because they are unaware that they are eligible for these state and federal benefits. Read the full story

PHI has released a fact sheet on Michigan’s direct-care workforce (pdf). The eight-page document reveals that while demand for workers  is at a historic high and growing, the labor pool is shrinking and poor job quality is adding to the difficulty of attracting and keeping new workers.

These factors, warns the fact sheet, are leading to a potential workforce crisis for the long-term care industry and the families who rely on long-term care services and supports.

Some key facts from the report:

• Roughly a quarter of the state‘s direct-care workers do not have any health insurance.
• A third of Michigan’s direct-care workers live in households that rely on some kind of public benefits, such as Medicaid or food stamps.
• In 2007, the average Michigan direct-care worker received an annual income of $16,446.

“The problem for Michigan,” says PHI Midwest Director Hollis Turnham,
“is that the low wages earned by most  direct-care workers put these jobs at income levels that do not support a family.

“Greater investment in direct-care jobs would make them more attractive to workers from shrinking industries like manufacturing, helping to keep Michigan residents employed here — rather than moving out of state.”

The document concludes with five policy recommendations for improving Michigan’s direct-care jobs including increasing wages, improving training, and improving access to health benefits.

Direct-care workers in Michigan could keep up to $5,306 at tax time  through the state and federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

To encourage workers to take advantage of the credits, PHI Michigan has launched a campaign called “Earn, Keep, Save  MORE.”

Read the full story