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ANCOR is inviting direct support professionals and their supporters to rally in Washington, D.C. next month to show their support for H.R. 1279 (pdf).

DSPs to DC will convene workers, people with disabilities and their family members, providers, and advocates to “deliver a unified message about the direct support workforce crisis and the need to pass legislation to help stabilize this critical workforce,” according to an ANCOR email. The event will be held on September 8 and 9, in conjunction with ANCOR’s Governmental Activities Seminar.

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“The Baby Boom generation will need care, and most people today prefer to stay in their homes, so in order to attract and maintain people like Rosa, we need to make sure they’re paid a livable wage, that they have health care benefits and that they have the training they deserve,” Washington Governor Christine Gregoire told Tacoma Weekly. Gregoire was talking about having shadowed Tacoma home care worker Rosa Vadillo for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)’s June 30 “Walk A Day In My Shoes” event.

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“What’s wrong with this picture?” begins an op-ed in the April 22 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“In Washington, hairdressers need 1,000 hours of training and dog masseurs need 350 hours. Washington’s long-term care workers, on the other hand, need only 34 hours of training.”

“More Training for Long-Term Care Workers” notes that the direct-care workers who provide home and community care in Washington are required to complete only 34 hours of training – well under half of the minimum required of nursing assistants in nursing homes. “This is especially bewildering when you consider that often the care is provided without an on-site nurse or supervisor,” point out authors Nancy Dapper and Louise Ryan. Dapper is the director of the western and central Washington state chapter of Alzheimer’s Association, and Ryan is the state Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

The authors are advocating for a recommendation by Long-Term Care Worker Training Workgroup created last year by the governor of the state. That group recommended that the state require a minimum of 85 hours of training plus certification for long-term care workers, but the legislature has not introduced its recommendation in the form of a bill.

“We have a tradition in Washington of going to the voters when the Legislature fails to act on critical issues,” write Dapper and Ryan. “Maybe it’s time for the people to finish what the Legislature started?”

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

Administrators, CNAs, and other members of the nursing staff in nursing homes are urged to participate next month in a free webinar on consistent assignment. The June 3 session is the third in a series sponsored by the Advancing Excellence in Nursing Homes campaign.

Steve Levenson, MD and Jennylynde Renteria-Packham, RN, MSN, CDONA will explain the benefits of the consistent assignment model of care, in which CNAs always work with the same group of residents, and talk about how to implement it. Representatives from nursing homes in Pennsylvania and Washington who are using consistent assignment will join the two presenters to discuss how they got started and what they’re getting out of it.The session will last from 2 to 3:30 Eastern Time, with call-in beginning at 1:45. Participants must register by Mary 29.

To register, click here or call (888) 869-1189 and ask to register for Conference ID # 44387623.

Elise Nakhnikian, Senior Online Editor
enakhnikian@phinational.org

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.

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Providing health insurance makes consumer-directed home care workers more likely to stay, both on the job and in the field as a whole, according to a study from Washington state.

Evaluation of Interventions to Improve Recruitment and Retention (pdf) reports on a survey to evaluate a series of initiatives instituted by the Home Care Quality Authority (HCQA). The changes were aimed at improving recruitment and retention of the so-called individual providers (IPs) who participate in the state’s consumer-directed home care program, many of whom are related to the people they care for.

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