What Workers Want

A list in the first newsletter published by the Maine Personal Assistance Services Association summarized what workers in an inaugural meeting said they wanted their association to do for them:

• Empower us to preserve human dignity
• Help us address issues like continuity of care and short staffing
• Give affirmation
• Help us make changes
• Provide comraderie
• Other people will view us as professionals
• Other people will see us as valuable
• Other people with see the people we serve as valuable, including older people [and] people with disabilities, both children and adults
• Our voices could be solidified (and unified) and people would listen.

(reported by PHI, Direct Care Worker Associations: Empowering Workers to Improve the Quality of Home and Community Based Care, Spring 2004)

How do you feel about this list? Is that what you would say? Are there any others you would add?