A Place for Mom's Family

A Place for Mom, the free nationwide elder care referral service, hosts the largest online community on the web for families caring for elderly loved ones.

They just created an area in their online community called Local Events. This new section enables healthcare professionals to announce senior related events happening in your area. You can announce an education seminar or speaking engagement, a senior community grand opening, or a care giving support group meeting, to name just a few examples.

As Direct Care Workers, we can enjoy this web information too! Just stop by and check out events happening in your area. It is a great idea for home health aides thinking about outings for their clients!

A Place for Mom's Family is the premier site on the web for families to find a supportive place to ask questions, exchange experiences and share perspectives about caring for aging loved ones. Thousands of families visit this online community every day. Let the families in your area know about your important events today!

PHI Calls for Changes in Federal DCW Job Classifications

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 recommends that the government’s three occupational categories for direct-care workers be changed as follows:

• Nursing Aides, Orderlies and Attendants. Split this category into two, separating those who provide hands-on patient care under the direction of nursing staff (nursing aides) from those who do not (orderlies and attendants).
• Home Health Aides. Change the description of their duties to reflect increased responsibilities, including monitoring of health status, feeding, toileting, ambulation, medication management and administration, and also sometimes non-health care related tasks such as preparing meals, housekeeping, and laundry.
• Personal and Home Care Aides. Update the description of their duties to reflect the broader range of tasks they perform, and to refer to the range of populations they serve: older adults, people with chronic illnesses, people who are convalescing, and people living with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. Also, change the occupational title – to Personal Care Assistants – to make it more current with the terminology that is developing within the long-term care industry.

Read more on the PHI blog here.

TRIAD Breakfast

TRIAD is holding their 6th annual breakfast! Rob Vaughn from channel 69 news will be the key note speaker. Learn about Project Lifesaver!

To RSVP for the event or inquire about sponsorship opportunities, you may contact Karen Francis at 610-295-3198. Please RSVP by September 10th.

Arden Courts
Attention: Karen Francis
5151 Hamilton Blvd.
Allentown, PA 18106
***************************************************************************

Lehigh County – City of Allentown TRIAD Program

invites you to attend our
6th Anniversary Breakfast
to be held on

Tuesday
SEPTEMBER 16, 2007
7:30 a.m.- Registration & Buffet Breakfast

Keynote Speaker:
Rob Vaughn

News Anchor- Channel 69 News

Program begins promptly at 8:30 a.m. at the

Fearless Fire Company
1221 South Front Street
Allentown, PA 18103

Seniors $15.00 All Others $20.00
Please R. S.V.P. by September 10, 2008

Name: _______________________________________________________

Organization: __________________________________________________

Address: _____________________________________________________


Number attending: __________ Amount Enclosed:_____________________


I am unable to attend, but would like to contribute _____________________
Make checks payable to: TRIAD
Please send to : c/o Karen Francis
Arden Courts
5151 Hamilton Blvd.
Allentown, PA 18106

Caregiver Educational Workshop

This free educational program is designed to help caregivers and family members of individuals with Alzheimer’s and related dementia cope with the care needs of their impaired loved one. Pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, please contact Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter at
800-272-3900 or 215-561-2919., or visit our web site at www.alz.org/desjsepa.

Location:
Third Street Alliance for Women & Children
41 North Third Street
Easton, PA 18042
610.258.6271

Topics: Basics Of Alzheimer’s and Related Disorderes

Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Time: 5:30pm-7:30pm

Speaker:
Ms. Siobhan Gannon
Alzheimer’s Association


Please call 800-272-3900 or
610-258-6271 before August 22th, as seating is limited.

Real Wages Fall for Direct Care Workers

PHI Chartbook Shows National, State-by-State Data

Thanks to the steadily increasing demand for home care, the second fastest-growing occupation in the country is that of personal and home care aides (PHCAs). Yet PHCA wages - which were low to begin with - are failing to keep up with inflation nationwide.

State Chart Book on Wages for Personal and Home Care Aides, 1999-2006, (pdf) a new PHI publication by Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey, looks at the decline in inflation-adjusted wages for these crucial workers. Based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it charts the wages received by personal and home care aides in all 50 states and the nation over a seven-year period.


"Consumers want to receive their long-term care services at home, if at all possible, and all 50 states and the federal government are working to accommodate that wish," says PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein. "But it takes more workers to deliver one-on-one care in a client's home than to assist several people per shift in a nursing home.

"Between the aging of the baby boomers and the shifting of government funds from facility-based care to home and community-based care, we expect to need a million more direct-care workers by 2016 than we did in 2006," Edelstein adds. "We need to make sure these jobs can attract and support a stable, high-quality workforce. Unfortunately, just when we need to do more to build this critical workforce, what we find in too many states is that our investment in wages is uncompetitive and falling further and further behind."

Among the chartbook's key findings:

• Between 1999 and 2006, national median wages for PHCAs increased by an average of 2 percent a year, from $7.50 to $8.54. However, this increase was not enough to keep up with inflation. Real wages for these aides declined by 4 percent, to $7.17 in 1999 dollars.
• Over the same period, 18 states and the District of Columbia showed a decline in real median wages for PHCAs. In five of those states, real wages fell by 10 percent or more.
• In nearly 60 percent of states (29), average hourly wages for PHCAs were below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Line wage for full-time workers who live alone -- low enough to qualify for many state and federal assistance programs.

Nationwide Initiative to Reduce DCW Turnover Documented

Many of you know that the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Direct Care Workers Association started as part of the Better Jobs Better Care demonstration project. PHI's blog has an post that discusses the July issue of The Gerontologist devoted to findings from the Better Jobs Better Care research and demonstration project. Read more here.

Local Universally Designed Home on Display!

Imagine a community in which older adults remain in their homes, staying involved with family, friends and neighbors...Now imagine buying a home designed to fit your lifestyle and physical needs as you grow older.This imaginary housing option became a reality on June 7, 2008, when United Way's Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging and Lehigh Career & Technical Institute unveiled the Universally-Designed Home.




Many of those that work in direct care get to see for yourselves how slight modifications in the home can make a person more independent. This project is one way that the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley is trying to make the general public aware of this growing need.

For more informtion on the Universally-Designed Home, visit the Lehigh Valley Allince on Aging's website at http://www.lvagingmatters.org/ and click "Housing and Mobility Options."

How I Live United

Thanks to Doreen for stopping by United Way's Live United photo shoot earlier this week!

Doreen works for Family Answers as a Home Health Aide. She has attended the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Direct Care Worker Association monthly chapter meetings and our recent Two Hands Caring: Helping You Help Others Conference. Doreen is dedicated to improving her skills and knowledge so she can do the best job possible helping others. That is a true example of Living United!

Gas Prices Killing You?

Gas prices are hitting everyone hard -- Direct Care Workers included. PHI's blog has an interesting discussion of the crises here.

Casey Hearing Impacts Direct Care Work

Ari Mittleman from Casey's office asked the Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging staff to share this information:


Casey Hearing Examines Person-centered Health and Long-term Care for Older Americans

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) today held a hearing that focused on improving person-centered residential long-term care and outpatient health care for older Americans. At the hearing, Senator Casey announced that he is working on legislation that would help provide better person-centered long-term care.

“Our elders deserve to live lives of dignity and respect through all stages of life,” said Senator Casey. “They have a profound right to be decision-makers in their own care – to be at the center of their own care, with a partnership of family and providers. And our elders are critically important to the overall health and well being of our society.”

In his opening statement, Senator Casey focused on the philosophy and practice behind person-centered care within two types of settings. The first is outpatient care for elders living on their own or in assisted living and the second is long term residential care in nursing facilities. Senator Casey also spoke about the critical need for reform in health care and long term care for older citizens given projections on increases in Americans over the age of 65. Currently there are an estimated 38 million Americans in this age group, and that number is expected to double within the next twenty years.

Senator Casey also discussed legislation he will be introducing, the Promoting Alternative Nursing Homes Act. The legislation would foster significant culture change in long term care for older citizens by providing favorable loan funding and loan guarantees for entities that provide person-centered care within a “small house” nursing facility framework.

At the hearing, Senator Casey heard testimony by medical professionals, policy and academic experts, family members and direct care workers dealing with health and long term care for older Americans. Dr. William Thomas, MD, Professor, Erickson School of Aging Studies, University of Maryland and founder of the Green House Model, spoke about the changing relationship between patients and health care providers, and the emergence of “patient-centeredness” as a strong model for that relationship.

Robert Jenkens, Director, Green House Project, NCB Capital Impact spoke about older Americans living in a Green House as opposed to a traditional nursing home and the improvements in clinical care brought on because the staff knew and understood the elders better.

Melinda Abrams, M.S., Assistant Vice President, Patient-Centered Primary Care, The Commonwealth Fund discussed the Medical Home model and the considerable policy and evaluation work conducted by the Commonwealth Fund concerning this model and its implications for better health outcomes as well as cost savings.

Eric A. Coleman, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine, Director, Care Transitions Program, University of Colorado testified about transitional care (the times when elders flow between hospitals, rehabilitation centers, skilled nursing facilities, and possibly other establishments), the need for quality and safety at the time of transitions and the impact transitions have on person-centered care.

Other experts who testified at the hearing include: Zoe Holland, daughter of a former Green House resident, Lincoln, NE; Edna Hess, Shahbaz, Lebanon Valley Brethren Home, Palmyra, PA; and Diana White, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, Institute on Aging, Portland State University Portland, OR.