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Direct Care Worker Associations
By the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute and MEDSTAT for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Workforce Tools #3, Spring 2004. This publication describes the emergence of state, regional, and national direct-care worker associations, which are promoting the interests of workers through education, professional development, and advocacy. It also provides information on the nuts and bolts of starting an organization, raising funds, and building membership. |
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Direct Care Workers Speaking Out on Their Own Behalf
By Elise Nakhnikian and Karen Kahn. Better Jobs Better Care Issue Brief #2, December 2003. (8 pgs.). This brief provides an overview of the growing movement to encourage worker participation in efforts to transform both long-term care public policy and workplace practices. The authors explain why worker participation in these efforts is important, identify some key successes in both the workplace and policy areans, and review some common roadblocks to meaningful involvment of workers. |
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Multistakeholder Coalitions: Promoting Improvements in the Long-Term Care Workforce
By Karen Kahn and Elise Nakhnikian. Better Jobs Better Care Issue Brief #1, October 2003. (8 pgs.). This brief examines the evolution of national and state coalitions advocating for quality long-term care jobs and quality care. It then examines factors that contribute to successful coalitions and challenges that often strain the ability of diverse organizations to work together. Some practical advice on assessing the health of a coalition is also included. |
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Victories for Home Health Care Workers
By Stu Schneider. Dollars and Sense, September/October 2003. (3 pgs.). This article outlines home care woerks' efforts to organize in California, Oregon, and Washington through newly formed public authorities. The author describes the public authority model originally developed in California and how the model has spread to Washington state, and more recently to Oregon. Public authorities act as the "employer of record" for independent home care workers, thereby providing the vehicle necessary for collective bargaining rights. Union organization under the pubic authority model had had significant impact on wages and benefits for home care workers. |
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The Launch of the Direct Care Alliance: Proceedings from the June 2000 Conference
October 2000. (36 pgs.) Over 100 concerned providers, workers, and consumers came together at this visionary conference to discuss how to create a stable, valued, and well-trained workforce in long-term care. |
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Health Insurance Coverage for Direct-Care Workers: Riding Out the Storm
By Debra Lipson and Carol Regan. Direct care workers and long-term care employers are facing greater challenges than ever before in securing affordable health coverage. In an era of soaring health insurance premiums and state fiscal crises, the prospects for expanding health coverage for more direct care workers seem daunting. But there are ways to design health insurance packages so that they are reasonably priced for direct care workers and long-term care employers. This issue brief presents the case for improving health coverage to direct care workers and offers realistic strategies for making health coverage more available and more affordable to them and their families. |
