HeartWork!

Senate Healthcare Bill

PHI says, "Senate Finance Committee's Healthcare Bill Will Better Prepare Direct-Care Workers to Serve Older and Disabled Americans"

In the Chairman's Mark released September 16, Senator Max Baucus has addressed the health care needs of America's elders and people with disabilities by including provisions aimed at improving training and compensation for direct-care workers -- the nursing assistants, home health aides, and personal assistants who provide millions of Americans with daily hands-on assistance. The Chairman's Mark includes a total of $425 million in funding over five years for two groundbreaking, competitive demonstration grant programs designed to help sustain the health professions workforce."

We applaud Senator Baucus for his commitment to better prepare and support direct care workers," said Steven Dawson, president of PHI, a nonprofit working to strengthen eldercare and disability services in the United States. " With Congressional support, direct-care workers can better provide the quality of care that America's rapidly growing population of elders and people with disabilities desperately needs and deserves."

Read the full PHI Press Release

Happy National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week!

The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to set aside September 14-19, 2009 as National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week, a week to recognize, in the words of Ancor, “the invaluable supports Direct Support Professionals (DSPs) provide and the difference this workforce makes in the lives of Americans with disabilities.”

The resolution (pdf) creating the recognition week states that, among other things, the Senate “recognizes the dedication and vital role of direct support professionals in enhancing the lives of individuals with disabilities of all ages” and “appreciates the contribution of direct support professionals in supporting the needs that reach beyond the capacities of millions of families in the United States.”

Click here to read PHI's full story.

PHI Launches PolicyWorks

PHI Launches PolicyWorks: A National Strategy Center for the Direct-Care Workforce

PHI announces the launch of PolicyWorks, an online strategy center promoting national and state policy solutions to strengthen the direct-care workforce. PolicyWorks features:

• Strategic Areas - Frameworks for understanding the leading policy issues affecting the direct-care workforce
• Workforce Facts - An introduction to the demographics, size, and economic impact of the direct-care workforce
• Policy Recommendations - Strategic recommendations on the critical issues affecting direct-care workers
• Chart Gallery - High quality graphics highlighting key data on the direct-care workforce
• Guide to Accessing Federal Recovery Act Funds - Help for those interested in taking advantage of the unprecedented level of public resources now available
• Health Reform Resource Center - Resources to help ensure that national health reform works for the direct-care workforce

PolicyWorks is staffed by PHI's national and state policy experts and led by PHI National Policy Director Steve Edelstein.

"Come Care With Me" Days Influence PA Legislators

This video created by PHI Healthcare for Healthcare Workers is provided for informational purposes only. United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Direct Care Workers Association does not advocate or lobby for any particular candidates or piece of legislation.

Come Care With Me

Recently, PHI's Health Care for Health Care Workers Initiative sponsored a "Come Care With Me" event, where they paired a PA legislator with a direct care worker in his or her district. The legislator shadowed the worker, observed the importance of long-term care, and learned more about the situations facing direct care workers.

A news crew attended the most recent event with Rep. Mark Longietti, and you can watch the report here:

Article Challenges Human, Economic Challenges of Direct Care Work

As reported by PHI, the Washington Post Magazine ran a major feature article recently that highlighted the disparity between the rising need for home-care workers and the poor wages and working conditions these jobs usually entail. Its author, Paula Span, referenced figures from PHI Director of Policy Research Dorie Seavey about the low wages paid to workers and the high turnover rates that undermine the quality of care.

“Marilyn Daniel’s Reward” (May 10) weaves the story of 91-year-old Rozzie Laney and her 63-year-old home-care aide Marilyn Daniel around a detailed explanation of the role of home health care workers and the generally poor quality of their jobs. In effect, it offers readers, within the context of a heart-warming story of compassion and care, a primer on the field of home health care and the human and policy-level issues that currently confront it.

Please take a moment to read the full article by clicking here.

Manual for Nursing Homes Going Through Culture Change

For more than 20 years, America’s nursing homes have struggled to live up to the goals of the “culture change” movement, which would transform nursing homes from clinical institutions into home-like settings in accordance with person-centered federal standards established in the 1980s.

A new manual from the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign created with support from the Commonwealth Fund seeks to address this issue by offering nursing home staff an evidence-based guide to preparing, implementing, and sustaining clinical and cultural changes.

Read the full story on the PHI blog by clicking here.

PHI Releases Survey for HealthCare Workers

What Does "Affordable" Coverage Mean to You?

As Congress addresses national health reform, PHI's HealthCare for Health Professional division is collecting research and would like YOUR definition of what affordable means - premiums, co-payments, deductible, and share of family income - however you define it.

Take the time to tell them what YOU think by taking this short survey NOW.

PHI Testifies Before Senate Aging Committee

Who Are Direct Care Workers?

PHI released a new fact sheet on direct care workers. Did you know?:

• 88 % Female
• 52 % Minority
• 21 % Foreign born
• Average age: 41
• Median Annual Earnings for direct-care workers: $17,000
• 42 % Some college or advanced degree
• 41 % Receive public benefits such as Medicaid or food stamps
• 27 % Have no health insurance
  

Click here to read PHI's full story and the report

Pilot Health Plan for Iowa Direct-Care Workers Moving Forward

According to the Health Care for Health Care Workers blog, a report (pdf) by the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and the Division of Insurance outlines a demonstration project that would provide health insurance for up to 250 direct care workers through a voluntary employer-sponsored plan. The report was a directive of HF 2539, a health insurance reform bill passed during the 2008 legislative session.

Click here to read the full story.

PHI & Partners in Care

PHI is a provider of training and organizational development services to Partners In Care. In the clip below, Flannery talks about how PHI’s coaching supervision method is helping to transform the workplace culture for her home health aides.







Click here to view the full posting on PHI's blog.

Pioneer Network Launches New Website

According to PHI, Pioneer Network, an organization formed in 1997 to advocate for culture change in eldercare, is celebrating a decade of success with the launch of a new website.

The new site will host Webinars and forums and serve as a repository for research and tools to support the goals of the culture change movement.

Pioneer Network was formed in 1997 by a small group of prominent professionals in long-term care to advocate for person-directed care.

Click here to read the full story.

CMS Launches 5-Star Rating System of Nursing Homes

Public can now access ratings for the 15,800 nursing homes in the United States that participate in Medicare or Medicaid. Click here to read the full story on PHI's blog.

Doing Heartwork -- The Story of Terrell Cannon

They call it “heartwork,” because “if you don’t do it from the heart, it makes it hard to do,” Terrell Cannon recently told a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist about the job of a direct-care worker.

Cannon was featured in a recent column called “While helping others, investing in themselves,” which examines the work of Home Care Associates, an employee-owned cooperative and affiliate of PHI located in Philadelphia.

Cannon worked her way up to director of training after a welfare caseworker referred her to HCA in 1993, when, as metro columnist Annette John-Hall writes, Cannon was “pregnant, unemployed, and angry.”

In the following clip from HeartWork, an original theater piece performed by women who work as home health aides and certified nurse aides, Cannon performs a dramatic monologue recounting her journey from a troubled youth to a rewarding career in home health care




Many thanks to PHI for this inspiring story. Read the full article here.

The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint for Reform

The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint for Reform, published last month by the Center for American Progress and the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, identifies key characteristics of a high-performing health system.

Specifically, the 124-page book lays out a vision for restructuring the organization, quality, and financing of the health care system, proposing policies for the next administration and Congress to enact over the next five years.

Click here to read PHI's full report on the story.

Growing Your Staff

Are you having trouble recruiting and maintaining adequate staff? Click here to check out an article from PHI!

This article reports on several nursing homes' efforts to address the nursing and direct-care workforce shortages. The report discusses common causes of turnover and outlines initiatives that facilities have employed to address it. Programs include creating an in-house school of nursing, developing lines of communication between staff and management, increasing staff to patient ratios, providing career ladders for certified nursing assistants and licensed vocational nurses, making changes to the workplace culture, and addressing low wages.

PHI Releases Adult Learner-Center Training Guide

Turnover among direct-care workers, especially those who are new on the job, is an ongoing issue for long-term care employers. Many factors contribute to the problem, but one workers themselves often cite, is inadequate preparation for the job.

Recognizing that traditional training programs are often not effective, PHI, over the last two decades, has developed a different approach to preparing workers. Drawing on the principles of adult learning, PHI trainings engage learners more actively through small group work, role plays, and other interactive techniques.

These learner-centered trainings are more successful than traditional approaches in developing workers communication, problem solving and work readiness skills, giving workers the tools they need to develop positive caregiving relationships.

Click here to read full article and download the training guide.

PHI Launches the 9 Essential Elements of Quality Care

PHI recently announced the nine essential elements of quality care:

Individualized

1. Directed by informed choices made by the consumer (or, where appropriate, by family members or other designated representatives);
2. Offered at the time and place most preferable to the consumer, in a manner that is safe and unhurried; and
3. Provided in a way that honors the consumer’s individuality and preferences.

Respectful

4. Acknowledging the consumer’s right to dignity and privacy, both physical and emotional;
5. Supporting all those involved in the caregiving relationship—the consumer, family members, and the direct-care worker—to relate as individuals in an environment of trust and mutual respect, and
6. Sustaining the consumer’s full range of relationships with friends and family members, and promoting opportunities for broader community engage

Professional

7. Holistic—supporting well-being, health, independence, and quality of life;
8. For consumers with medical needs, consistent with progressive standards of clinical practice—those that are individualized, respectful and coordinated across settings; and
9. Provided by direct-care workers who have quality jobs that allow them to provide the highest-quality services and support.

Click here to view the full story