L - Lucinda (Cindy) Vandenburgh, Caregiver Champion; R - Susan Gordon, COVE Caregiver Initiative Director

Vermont’s “Healthy Aging Awards” have been expanded to include a new category: “Caregiver Champion.” Read the full story

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
July 6, 2009

Contact: Alex Olins
PHI Northern New England Director
Phone: (802) 655-4615
Email: aolins@PHInational.org

Rewarding Skill and Improving Care
New initiative provides career advancement opportunities for direct-care workers in Vermont

Burlington, VT — Few issues are more important to people today than health care. Both from a personal and societal perspective, Americans are deeply concerned about what the future holds for them when it comes to health care. In many states, the growing needs of an aging “baby boomer” generation are creating an enormous shortage in qualified direct-care workers, who provide most of the “hands on” home and community-based care that elders and people living with disabilities depend upon.

Challenged by this critical need, the Vermont Department of Labor, with funding from the DOL’s Workforce Education and Training Fund, is supporting a unique education and career ladder training program for 65 Personal Care Assistants (PCAs) at four sites in northwestern Vermont:

• VNA of Chittenden and Grand Isle Counties
• Franklin County Home Health Agency
• Armistead Caregiver Services
• Home Instead Senior Care

PHI — a nationally recognized training and organizational development consulting firm focused exclusively in the eldercare/disability services industry, with a regional office in Vermont for many years— will be serving as project manager of the entire initiative. PHI will be collaborating with the Vermont Department of Labor (DOL), the Northwest Technical Center, the Community College of Vermont, Vermont Adult Learning, and all four community partner sites throughout the project.

“These educational opportunities will be the next steps in what has proven to be a valuable and mutually important collaboration,” said Churchill Hindes, VNA President and CEO. “This initiative will benefit the agencies involved, the trainees who participate in the instruction, and ultimately — and most importantly — the people who will benefit from their skills and caring.”

An Innovative Solution with Growth Opportunities

The initiative will address the state’s shortage of direct-care workers with the development of a career ladder training program to improve workforce retention and ultimately, it is hoped, increase the number of PCAs available to care for Vermont’s aging population. The program will assist incumbent workers to advance in their health care careers, and allow participating workers and organizations to:

• Earn while they learn. PCAs will be paid for at least 50 percent of their time while in training—a critical component of success in incumbent worker training programs for low-wage workers.
• Work toward meaningful promotions and raises: At some locations, training will enable a PCA to be promoted to PCA II. At other sites, training will enable a PCA to be certified as a Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA), with the requisite increase in wages.
• Participate in a flexible and robust learning opportunity. Each provider will provide a customized training program for its workers.
• Encourage a more diverse group to enter health care professions. Non-native English speaking participants will be able to take contextualized ESOL classes at their worksite, in conjunction with their clinical skills classes.
• Improve workforce retention.

The CareWell curriculum, a 40-hour course developed by the Visiting Nurse Association (with support from the Community of Vermont Elders through their Better Jobs Better Care initiative), will be a cornerstone of the PCA training. PHI, in addition to its role as project manager, will also be providing its “Coaching Approach to Communication” training at all sites.

“One of the fastest-growing occupational areas in Vermont over the next 20 years will be in direct-care services,” said Greg Voorheis, Senior Grant Administrator for the Vermont Department of Labor. “The state’s Workforce Education and Training Fund grant to PHI creates the opportunity for multiple long-term care employers to hire well-trained direct-care workers who will be participating in the development of a career ladder.

“PHI’s leadership in this work will benefit not only long-term care employers, but many direct-care workers already in the field — or individuals who aspire to work in the field. And, most importantly, their work will improve the quality of health care provided to individuals. We look forward to sharing what we learn with others,” Voorheis concluded.

The program, which was officially launched in early June, will conclude in June of 2010.

For more information about this project, call Alexandra Olins, PHI Regional Director, Northern New England, at 802-655-4615.

The July issue of The Gerontologist is devoted to findings from the Better Jobs Better Care research and demonstration project. BJBC, which began in 2002 and ended in 2006, was the largest initiative in the nation ever created to address the high vacancy and turnover rates of direct-care workers by improving the quality of direct-care jobs. The initiative involved changing both public policy and employer practice. Demonstration grants were made to groups in Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

A nine-page overview lays out how and why the project came into being, the problems affecting the direct-care workforce, and how awareness of and responsiveness to those problems is changing. The essay is by Robyn Stone (pictured), executive director of the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, and PHI President Steven Dawson. FAS and PHI conceived of BJBC and provided technical assistance to the grantees. Funding was supplied by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies.

Among the findings detailed in the issue:

• Direct-care workers across long-term settings identified more pay, improved communication, better supervision, and being treated with respect as the most important things employers could do to improve jobs.
• After accounting for satisfaction with wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities — good basic supervision was most important in affecting CNAs to stay in their jobs.
• There is a positive correlation between CNA job commitment and resident satisfaction.
• After accounting for satisfaction with wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities, good basic supervision was the most important factor behind commitment to the job. Read the full story

Are rising gas prices making it harder for you to deliver or receive care? Add your comments at the end of this post. 

We all feel the pinch from high gas prices, but for home care workers it’s more of a punch. As PHI President Steven Dawson puts it: “The doubling of gas prices over the past few years has been like a pay cut for many home care workers — particularly those serving clients in rural areas.

“Policy makers like to believe that home care is cheaper than nursing homes, but that’s only true because home care workers are paid less than nursing home workers, often without health benefits,” adds Dawson. “There’s not much good to say about higher gas prices, except perhaps that they will now force policy makers to look more closely at the real costs of shifting toward home-based care, and in response create realistic reimbursement policies that will offer home care workers a true livable wage and benefits.”

When PHI’s Michigan State Director Hollis Turnham wrote about the home care gas crisis in our blog in June, talking about the problems she was already hearing about, anticipating others, and asking what other people were experiencing, the response was swift and impassioned. An employer called rising gas prices “the 500 lb gorilla in the room for home care agencies.” A home care worker talked about seeing turnover increase and “looking for something closer to home myself.” The head of a home care and hospice aide recruitment agency said he planned to do “something very tangible to address this issue,” though he wasn’t ready yet to say just what. 

Read the full story

If you’re having some doubts about whether public perception of direct-care workers is improving, a recent run of insightful stories in local papers may give you some hope.

Two stories in Vermont papers, one in the April 7 St. Albans Messenger and one in the April 4 Brattleboro Reformer, covered a new study about the state’s growing direct-care worker shortage. Both amplified its message and recommendations, stressing the need for higher reimbursement rates to long-term care providers, so they can increase pay and benefits for direct-care workers. “If employers are having trouble now with hiring and retaining workers, we’re really going to see a shift in the next 10 to 12 years as the baby boomers turn 75 and older,” said Alexandra Olins, PHI’s northern New England regional director, in the Messenger article.

Read the full story

According to a new study, better wages and benefits are critical to retaining direct-care workers in Vermont, yet a third of the state’s direct-care workers have employer-sponsored health insurance and only half of the workers surveyed expected to receive a raise.

Legislative Study of the Direct Care Workforce in Vermont also reports that only 42 percent of the 1,700 direct-care workers surveyed received formal job training, although workers who receive professional training remain in their jobs significantly longer.

The report makes nine recommendations to strengthen the state’s direct-care workforce: Read the full story