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Quality Care Partners, a home care services organization based in Manchester, NH, is operating stronger than ever, after being purchased by New Hampshire Catholic Charities, a nonprofit social service agency. Read the full story

Susan Misiorski, PHI Director of Organizational Culture Change Initiatives

The New Hampshire Quality of Life Council held its 3rd Annual Quality of Life Awards Ceremony on September 29 to celebrate the transformation of nursing homes into “vibrant centers of life” and to recognize homes in the Granite State that have successfully implemented quality-of-life practices. Read the full story

New Hampshire’s “baby boomer” generation will face an inadequately staffed direct-care workforce — unless the state’s legislators and home care agencies make a concerted effort to recruit and retain home-based workers, according to two new reports. Read the full story

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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“Higher wages, training and benefits would make being a direct support worker a respected profession and a viable career choice,” notes Kathleen Bates in The True Costs and Benefits of Self-Directed Care: Living with Independence, Freedom, and Equality (LIFE) Account Feasibility Study & Implementation Plan. (pdf)

Bates describes her own circumstances and those of several other New Hampshire residents in order to outline the challenges of living with a disability and finding competent and compatible direct-care workers to help with daily activities - not to mention backup when a caregiver is unable to get to work. She also describes the rewards of managing one’s own care and maintaining one’s role as a parent, a worker, and a fully engaged member of a community.

The goal of consumer-directed models like New Hampshire’s The Personal Care Attendant program, says Bates, is to improve the quality of life and increase the access to community for people with disabilities. And “in order to make this work,” she writes, ”we need to invest in the work force.”

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org