Tuesday night at the Democratic Convention in Denver, I saw a special speaker take the floor around 6:15. Her name is Pauline Beck, and she is a home care worker in Oakland, California.
Ayear ago, Barack Obama spent a day on the job with Pauline, as part of the SEIU’s Walk a Day in My Shoes initiative. Pauline, who referred to the candidate as “my friend,” spoke passionately about her belief in his ability to change America and help people like herself. “I’ll never forget the day I spent working with Senator Obama, and I know he won’t either,” she said.
“My job is to help people, and I love my job, but being a home care worker is hard,” Pauline told the delegates. “The wages are low, the hours can be long, and the work can be physically challenging…. Workers need a president who stands up for us.”
As the energy and anticipation spread through the crowd, it was thrilling to see a direct-care worker take on such a prominent role. The fact that this workforce was highlighted is a very promising sign: We could be in for some significant, much-needed changes in long-term care policy over the next few years.
Allison Lee, National Campaign Manager
Health Care for Health Care Workers alee@phinational.org
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.
It’s just one sentence out of 52 pages - not including introductions and appendixes - but direct-care workers got a mention in the 2008 Democratic National Convention platform.
In a section titled Renewing the American Community, under the subtitle “Seniors,” the platform (pdf) reads:
“We will take steps to ensure that our seniors have meaningful long-term care options that are consistent with their individual needs, including the option of home care. We believe that we must pay caregivers a fair wage and train more nurses and health care workers so as to improve the availability and quality of long-term care.”
Could this be a sign that a political will is stirring to improve home care jobs?
Recommendations for Establishing a Credentialing System for Iowa’s Direct Care Workforce,
It’s just one sentence out of 52 pages - not including introductions and appendixes - but direct-care workers got a mention in the 2008 Democratic National Convention platform.
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