A firsthand look at direct care work

In a web-exclusive commentary written for Newsweek, journalist Lauren Kessler provides insight into what it is like to be a direct care worker at a facility for residents with Alzheimer’s disease.  To better understand the disease that killed her mother and afflicts approximately 5 million people a year, Kessler took a job as an entry-level caregiver at an Alzheimer’s facility she calls “Maplewood.”  In her commentary, Kessler writes about the situation of her co-worker, Jasmine, who has a 7-year old son, a car that died, and a voucher for federally subsidized housing that she received after waiting for 3 years.  For her work at the facility, Jasmine receives no health insurance, no sick days, no vacation days, no job security and not even a paid lunch break.  Kessler notes, “the chasm between the importance of the job and the remuneration is astonishing.”  She states that if she and Jasmine worked 8 hours a day for 52 weeks, they still wouldn’t clear $15,000 each after deductions.  The facility is understaffed, and Jasmine and Kessler are required to care for 11 - 14 residents each.  Yet despite the backbreaking and often unpleasant work, Kessler found that the job was the best she had ever had because it taught her patience, how to live in the moment and how to find and connect with the humanity that remains within us all, no matter how demented we become.  Kessler used her experience at “Maplewood” to write a book called “Dancing with Rose.”

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19132566/site/newsweek/, June 10, 2007

 

 

 

 

Hollis Turnham

Michigan State Director

Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute

1325 S. Washington Avenue

Lansing, MI 48910

517-327-0331

 

www.paraprofessional.org

www.directcareclearinghouse.org

www.coverageiscritical.org