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Caregivers Corner

July, 2000

Caregiver Shortages on the Frontline...

The crisis of staffing shortages and low wages among direct care workers in long term care was the focus of a Congressional staff briefing June 16. The event on Capitol Hill was held in conjunction with a 2-day planning conference of the Direct Care Alliance that was attended by more than 125 individuals.

The Direct Care Alliance (DCA) is a growing national coalition of long term care consumers, direct care workers, and concerned healthcare providers who have come together to pursue a common goal. Founded in November 1998, the practice-based coalition seeks to promote broad-based reforms in public policy and in healthcare industry practice to ensure a stable, valued, and well-trained direct care workforce that can meet consumers' demands for high-quality paraprofessional healthcare services.

Direct care workers provide the vast majority of hands-on care within the long term care health system, and consumers rely on these workers to provide them with comfort, companionship, and care in an atmosphere that preserves their dignity and wellbeing. Understanding the values and contribution of direct care workers to the quality of long term care, the DCA is focusing efforts on four main workforce issues:

	Recognition of the value and dignity of caregiving work
	Higher wages and improved benefits
	Comprehensive training and job support
	Reasonable workloads that enable workers to deliver high-quality care while working sufficient hours to earn adequate salaries

At DCA's recent planning meeting in Washington, DC, participants discussed what they shared in common and what information and ideas they could take back to their home communities. According to DCA's acting coordinator Mary Ann Wilner, PhD, "The DCA is dedicated to achieving a stable, competent and well-trained staff through public education and informed advocacy." To accomplish this goal DCA sponsors four major activities:

	Cross-stake holder dialogue in which consumers, workers and concerned providers come together to educate one another about workforce issues
	Public education to create a broad constituency that recognizes the true value of paid caregivers' work
	Informed dialogue with state and federal legislators and regulators to advance better use of public funds to support workforce compensation and training
	The establishment of a national clearinghouse on the direct care workforce to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about workforce issues in long term care

To get involved and become part of this growing national alliance, contact:

The Direct Care Alliance
c/o The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
349 E. 149th Street, Suite 401
Bronx, NY 10451
718.402.7766 (phone)
718.585.6852 (fax)
Email: info@directcarealliance.org
Web: www.directcarealliance.org

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