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March 12, 2007
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In This Issue:
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NAHC Point/Counterpoint Debates the Coke Case
A series of articles in the February 2007 issue of
Caring explain how the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) applies
to home care, debating the position of the National Association for
Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) on the issue.
Next month, the United States Supreme Court is set to decide that
question, reviewing the scope of the "companionship services
exemption" provision of the FLSA in
Long Island Care at Home v. Evelyn Coke.
At stake is whether home health aides employed by third parties are
entitled to FLSA minimum wage and overtime pay protections. As those
rules are currently interpreted, the aides are considered exempt.
Click here
for the rest of the story.
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Getting to Know You
A
recent study
found that sharing residents' life histories with staff can help curb
aggressive behavior among people with dementia. Staff often respond
to aggressive behavior by distancing themselves and treating the
people involved impersonally, which can exacerbate the problem.
Learning more about the residents as individuals, the researchers
found, can help staff make changes that elicit less aggressive
behaviors in response.
Click here
for the rest of the story.
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Recent additions
Click here
for more news from the Clearinghouse.
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Legislators Hear About Need for Health Care Coverage
At a January 29 briefing for Iowa legislators at the state capitol in
Des Moines, Executive Director Di Findley and Policy Director John
Hale of the Iowa Caregivers Association testified about the urgent
need for health coverage for the state's direct-care workers.
Hale called on the lawmakers to do the right thing and "get
serious about health care reform." "While it's easy to look at this
as a policy issue, the reality is that it's a
personal issue," he added. "It's a personal issue for 275,000
Iowans without coverage, the thousands more who fear losing the
coverage they have, the thousands more who are paying premiums that
they can't afford for coverage that doesn't meet their needs, and the
thousands more who can't get the insurance they are willing to pay
for due to pre-existing conditions."
Click here
for the rest of the story.
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More Information
Click here to read more from and
about the HCHCW campaign.
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AAHSA Proposes a Better Way to Pay
Financing Long-Term Care: A Framework for America,
a report commissioned by the American Association of Homes and
Services for the Aging, describes the weaknesses in the current state
of long-term care financing and proposes new ways to structure the
system. Calling for "insurance, not welfare," the report says we must
find an alternative to Medicaid funding or long-term care will lead
states "either to abandoning all other state responsibilities, such
as education, or abandoning ever-larger proportions of those with
long-term care needs."
A Craig's List for PWD
Skip's List, an online
information exchange for people with disabilities (PWD), is a kind of
"Craig's List for PWD," according to its moderator, Al DeGraff.
Features include news, blogs, job listings, and both personal and
classified ads.
Baby Boom or Bust?
The recent decline in disability rates among the elderly may be
coming to an end. According to a new report from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services' National Institutes of Health,
Americans now in their early to mid 50s report poorer health, more
pain, and more trouble doing ordinary physical tasks than their older
peers reported at their age in the past. "This new analysis provides
some initial data raising the question of whether today's
pre-retirees could reach retirement age in worse shape than their
predecessors, with individuals potentially in poorer health than
current retirees and possibly increasing health care costs for
society," says a news release on the report.
Click here
for the release.
LTC Professional Organizations Collaborate for Quality
Four of long-term care's main professional associations - the
American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA), the American
Medical Directors Association (AMDA), the American Society of
Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) and the National Association Directors
of Nursing Administration/Long Term Care (NADONA) - have joined to
form the Long Term Care Professional Leadership Council. The Council
aims to promote "comprehensive approaches to defining and meeting
quality standards for facilities and residents."
Click here
for a press release.
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Which of the following does the most to ensure quality care for
long-term care consumers?
Adequate numbers of direct-care workers (DCWs)29%
Effective training and education for DCWs48%
Workplace practices that allow DCWs to exercise more judgment on
the job, reacting to individual preferences and needs24%
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Dear Friend
PHI is looking for examples to cite in a fact sheet about
long-term care providers working with their local Workforce
Investment Act-funded "one stops." If you or someone you know has
gone to a one-stop for help in recruiting, training, or supporting
direct-care workers, please contact us at
news@directcareclearinghouse.org. Whether your
experience was rewarding, frustrating, or a little of each, we'd like
to hear about it.
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DOL ETA to Issue Long-Term Care Training Grants
Approximately $2.5 million in training money for long-term care is
being made available by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and
Training Administration (DOL ETA) as part of the President's High
Growth Job Training Initiative.
"Frequent medical advances and the graying of America are signs
that the future of healthcare increasingly lies with the caring
professionals who work in long-term care. In regions throughout the
country, the workforce investment system stands ready to partner with
and respond to the needs of long-term care providers," said Assistant
Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco
in a DOL ETA
news release.
Click here for
more information about the grants and how to apply. The closing date
for applications is April 5.
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The Leading Edge
Developing leadership among long-term care workers is an investment
that pays, argues the cover story of the March issue of
Provider magazine. Aspiring leaders get "the jobs of their
dreams and the skills to do them well" and serve as role models to
their co-workers, while the facility gets "quality staff, reduced
turnover, strong supervisors, and satisfied residents and family
members." In
"Providers Nurture Staff Growth,"
long-term care leaders share concrete ideas and examples for
long-term care employers interested in nurturing leadership skills in
their staff.
Click here
for the rest of the story.
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Training, Career Ladders Boost Caregiving Image in Japan
Providing training and career advancement opportunities for
direct-care workers helps Japan upgrade the quality of its long-term
care system, according to a study of methods used in four developed
countries.
According to
Quality Assurance for Long-Term Care: The Experiences of England, Australia, Germany and Japan,
the Japanese system "relies heavily on training and certification to
develop the skills of long-term care workers." Direct-care workers
can be certified as a Home Helper First or Second Grade, or as a
Certified Care Worker. These career ladder rungs, says the report,
"have been one factor in a substantial improvement in the visibility
and image of caregiving as a profession."
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Direct Support Professional Wage Bill Reintroduced
The Direct Support Professionals Fairness and Security Act of 2007
(H.R. 1279), the bill calling for increased wages for direct support
professionals that was introduced into Congress last year with the
support of ANCOR, was reintroduced into the 109th Congress last
month.
Click here
to read the text of the bill and
here to register
support for it.
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Paid Family Caregivers Report Greater Emotional Strain
Workers hired directly by the consumers they serve in the federally
funded Cash and Counseling demonstration project were twice as likely
as agency workers to be very satisfied with their compensation and
just as likely to be very satisfied with overall working conditions.
However, those hired to provide services to a member of their own
family were more likely to report great emotional strain and lack of
respect.
The study, results of which are reported in the February issue of
Health Services Research, compared Cash and Counseling workers
in Arkansas, Florida, and New Jersey with their agency counterparts.
According to
"How Caregivers and Workers Fared in Cash and Counseling,"
most (54-78 percent) of the directly hired workers in the three
states studied were related to the care recipient, typically a
daughter or son. Only about half said they received formal training
in personal care, compared with at least 80 percent of the agency
workers, yet they were at least as likely to say they felt well
informed about the care recipient's conditions and service needs.
While warning that their findings may apply only to one model of
consumer direction, the authors conclude that workers might benefit
from caregiver support networks.
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Personal Stress Affects Satisfaction with Supervisors
Personal stressors such as family, financial, and health concerns
affect direct-care workers' satisfaction with their supervisors more
than anything else, and workforce supports can allay their effects,
according to
"The Impact of Stress and Support on Nursing Assistant Satisfaction With Supervision".
Authors Linda S. Noelker et al. of the Benjamin Rose Institute
and Ball State University interviewed 338 nursing assistants employed
at 22 skilled nursing facilities for the survey, whose results were
published in Volume 25, Number 4 of the
Journal of Applied Gerontology.
The report calls for employee assistance programs and training
for supervisors in team building, communication, and motivational
skills to assist workers in managing their sources of stress.
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National Network to Support Paid and Unpaid Caregivers
A new
National Quality Care Network
(NQCN) being formed this year will bring together people from
corporations, professional associations, universities, government
agencies and community-based service providers to discuss how to
better support family and formal caregivers in long-term facilities
and home and community-based care systems.
The goals of the NQCN, which is being convened by the Rosalynn
Carter Institute on Caregiving, include:
Developing and disseminating evidence-based workforce
development strategies and other interventions to improve quality;
Creating a national database and clearinghouse of
evidence-based interventions, clinical guidelines and standards of
care;
Organizing conferences, training sessions and workshops; and
Providing grant funding for the development and dissemination
of evidence-based interventions.
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Corrections
The February 16 issue of Quality Jobs/Quality Care contained
incorrect information about technical assistance grants provided by
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' National Direct
Service Workforce Resource Center. The five states that have won a
second round of funding are Georgia, New Jersey, North Carolina,
Wisconsin, and Utah.
Click here
for more information.
Also in the February 16 issue, the link to a new Clearinghouse
best practice profile did not work if you clicked on it from your web
browser.
Click here
to view the practice description.
We apologize for the errors.
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March 19-21, 2007
American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA)
Future of Aging Services Conference, Washington D.C.
April 14-17, 2007
American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA) Annual
Convocation, Charlotte, NC
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