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May 15, 2006
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In This Issue:
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Report Rounds Up Curricula and Literature for Direct-Care Worker
Supervisors
A new review of literature and directory of curricula compiles
information about effective management and supervision techniques for
people who oversee direct-care workers.
The report was created by the Michigan Direct Care Workforce
Initiative in response to a study of Michigan direct-care workers,
which found that 25 percent of workers who left their jobs did so
because they were dissatisfied with their supervisors.
Management and Supervision Training Curriculum Directory and Literature Review
consists of two parts:
- A brief review of evidence-based journal articles on issues
such as supervisory styles, job coaching, career ladders, team
building and conflict resolution; and
- A bibliography of curricula that teaches skills such as
conflict resolution, team building, coaching supervision, managerial
leadership, and how to promote an organizational culture that values
frontline staff.
Click here
to read the report.
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Will the Age Wave Swamp the Health Care Workforce?
A comprehensive report on the coming boom in the number of elderly
Americans looks at projected changes in ethnic diversity, life
expectancy, care needs, and other demographics.
The Impact of the Aging Population on the Health Workforce in the United States
also explores how the age wave will affect the need for health care
workers of all kinds, including direct-care workers.
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A Book-Length Examination of Career Ladders
Moving Up in the New Economy: Career ladders for U.S. workers,
a new book about the potential and limitations of career ladders,
devotes an entire chapter to direct-care workers.
Career ladders can improve employees' skills, wages, and
commitment to their employers, writes author Joan Fitzgerald. They
are particularly effective for "[moving] impoverished workers who are
now stuck in entry-level jobs into better jobs, if they have neither
the education nor training for better jobs, nor the time and
resources to acquire them."
Fitzgerald identifies three types of career ladders, all of which
are being used in health care: (1) increasing the pay and
professionalism of direct-care jobs; (2) creating tiers within the
profession to recognize skill increases and provide pay increases;
and (3) advancing people into better-paying occupations that require
more education. She explains how each works in the world of health
care and long-term care services, illustrating them with real-world
examples. She also identifies five features that successful programs
generally share.
Fitzgerald says career ladders are underutilized, since they are
used only sporadically and not always with the necessary supports.
She outlines what's needed, both from employers and from
policymakers, to make career ladders more pervasive - and more
effective.
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CNAs Suggest Workplace Improvements
At a conference last fall in Ohio, certified nursing aides suggested
ways to improve their jobs that would also benefit the long-term care
organizations in which they work. As reported by Managing Editor
Sandra Hoban in the May issue of Nursing Homes magazine, these
included a range of ideas from flexibility in scheduling, to better
training, to better supplies for residents, to the desire to become
part of the decision-making process when it pertains to resident care.
The CNAs overwhelmingly suggested that administrators spend more
time on the floors getting to know staff and residents, encouraging
communication between nurses and staff, and asking for input. The
article also lists a number of other specific suggestions.
Click here
to read "CNAs are speaking-But are you listening?"
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Sing It, Sister!
Next time you want to let someone know why direct-care workers
deserve higher wages, you might refer him or her to
American Worker .
In this short animated video, the American Idol panel must decide
which of two workers - Flip the Fry Guy and Carrie Caregiver - most
deserves a raise. While Carrie sings her song, which is about the
rewards of her work and the difficulty of getting by on her wages,
one of her clients supports her by holding up cards to communicate
vital facts about caregivers.
American Worker was produced by the American Network of
Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) and United Cerebral Palsy.
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Home Health Aides Want More Information, Respect
The best way to improve jobs for home health aides, according to a
report in the June issue of Home Care Management and Practice,
is to give them the tools they need to provide good care; acknowledge
and honor the relationships they form with their clients; and treat
them with respect.
In
Closing the Home Care Case: Home Health Aides' Perspectives on Family Caregiving
Alene Hokenstad and colleagues at the United Hospital Fund report on
a series of focus groups they held with home health aides. The aides
mentioned few of the usual ways suggested for improving home care
jobs, such as full-time jobs, better pay, or career advancement
opportunities. Instead, the authors note, their suggestions "focused
more on how they could better meet the needs of their patients." For
themselves, they add, the workers "simply asked to be treated with
respect."
The aides often lacked the information they needed to provide
appropriate care. In addition, they said they rarely got advance
notice about when a case would close, often simply being told by
their schedulers not to show up the next day after weeks or months on
the job. These abrupt transitions were hard for them - and for the
clients and family members they had grown close to.
The authors recommend that agencies establish better lines of
communication for relevant information, removing barriers to
communication between home health aides and other members of the
caregiving team and fostering a true partnership between them.
Click here
to access the article, which is free to subscribers only.
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New Ways to Bridge the Care Gap
There's more than one way to address the care gap, as recent news
from South Korea and Germany shows.
The South Korean government will create about 12,000 direct-care
jobs this year for senior citizens interested in assisting other
elders who have disabilities. The government currently funds 1,750
such jobs. As described on
Digital Chosun,
the elders provide companionship and perform home care duties such
as bathing, housecleaning, laundry, cooking, and checking in-home
safety. They work for seven months and are paid 200,000 won
(approximately $215) per month.
Meanwhile, the Protestant Church has created a two-year
retraining course for prostitutes in Dortmund, Germany. The course,
in which former prostitutes build new identities and new careers, is
training 30 students to become either salespeople or direct-care
workers. In a May 3
report
on National Public Radio's Marketplace, a woman from a Protestant
charity explained why she thinks prostitutes are good candidates for
caregiving work. "We think they are very good in this job because
they are not afraid of physical intimacy, they are very sensitive for
other people, and they can good listen (sic) to other people," she
said.
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Vermont to Assess Direct-Care Worker Availability
Vermont is funding a study to assess the need for direct-care
workers. The assessment will focus on "potential problems regarding
quantity, quality, stability, and availability of workers,
specifically as they apply to long term care services and supports
provided to Vermont's elderly and disabled populations," according to
the bill calling for the study, which was passed on May 9.
The state has appropriated $40,000 for the assessment, which will
project potential problems and opportunities through 2030 and
recommend ways of addressing problems in both the near and the long
term. A report on the needs assessment and recommendations will be
delivered to the state legislature no later than December 30, 2007.
An interim report, to be delivered a year earlier, will include an
assessment of existing needs and recommendations for short-term
strategies to address them.
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OWL Calls for Better Wages, Working Conditions for Direct-Care Workers
Noting that "long-term care is a women's issue," the Older Women's
League (OWL) has issued a report on the challenges facing both
consumers and workers, which calls for increasing wages and benefits
and improving training and supervisory practices for direct-care
workers.
Women and Long-Term Care: Where Will I Live and Who Will Take Care of Me?
is co-written by OWL and five other organizations representing
various long-term care stakeholder groups. One of the report's six
sections is devoted to the long-term care workforce, and most of the
others mention the importance of direct-care workers. Each section
includes policy recommendations, and almost all are illustrated by a
personal story.
"We are living in an aging society, and not only are women the
face of aging, we are the face of those who care for the aging," said
OWL President Marilyn Robinson at a May 9 press briefing. The
majority of the people receiving care, their informal caregivers, and
the paid direct-care workers who assist them are all women.
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June 13, 2006
Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving award ceremony, Atlanta, GA
June 14, 2006
Direct Care Workers Association of North Carolina will host its first
Spring Institute, Hickory, NC
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