Winter 2009

Greetings!

This quarterly newsletter provides updates on the work of the National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center as well as links to resources and information about workforce improvement activities and initiatives.

New Direction for the DSW Resource Center

New Focus on Money Follows the Person & Engaging with Stakeholders on National Initiatives

From 2006-2008, the DSW Resource Center provided intensive technical assistance to 15 state Medicaid Agencies.  Many notable successes were achieved in those states, including the passage of a statewide wage increase for workers in Louisiana and the implementation of a statewide recruitment and retention training program for providers in South Carolina.
 
Over the next two years, the DSW Resource Center will provide individualized, in-depth technical assistance for up to 16 Money Follows the Person (MFP) grantees as they work to strengthen the home and community-based direct service workforce in their states to support individuals transitioning from institutional settings.  Through this TA, we hope to help states design better workforce policies and build the service capacity necessary for their transition activities and their home and community based services programs to be successful.   For more information, please visit the DSW Resource Center website.

The Resource Center team will also continue to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and participate in national efforts to strengthen the home and community based workforce.  For example, we participated along with representatives from the Department of Labor and the Direct Care Alliance in a strategic planning meeting with ANCOR in December, discussing several ongoing and planned efforts to improve DSP wages, recruitment and retention.  In January, we presented about CMS workforce demonstrations and projects and the work of the Resource Center at a meeting of The Long Term Care Discussion Group in Washington, DC.   Representatives from the Senate Aging Committee presented at that meeting about a bill that has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Kohl (D-WI).  S.245, "Retooling Health Care Workforce for an Aging America Act of 2009," which would expand training opportunities for workers among several other workforce improvement efforts.  We have been invited to provide input on this bill and will track its progress in Congress closely over the next few months.  Members of the Resource Center team are now represented on the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, a broad-based group that formed in response to the Institute of Medicine's 2008 report "The Future Health Care Workforce for Older Americans,"

Key Federal Partners Focusing on DSW: ANCOR

Putting the "P" in DSP: National campaign to address the direct support workforce crisis continues its focus
by Renee Pietrangelo at ANCOR

"We Put the P in DSP" was the title of the grand prize winner in a recent You Tube video contest for direct support professionals (DSPs), sponsored by The American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR), in partnership with Therap, LLC. "P", of course, stands for professionalism.  The video, which you can view here (http://www.youneedtoknowme.org/contest/index.php#grand), was created by Ben Leadbetter of RHD-RI in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
 
The contest is part of a larger, multi-year National Advocacy Campaign by ANCOR to raise awareness about the crisis in recruiting and retaining direct support staff and bring fairness to compensation levels for this workforce that discourage people from seeking employment as direct support workers. Also addressed within the campaign's scope is education and training and the applied technologies to enhance quality and raise the professionalism of this critical workforce, which underpins community-based supports and services for people with disabilities that make a productive and meaningful life in the community of choice a reality for millions of people nationwide with intellectual, cognitive, developmental and other disabilities.
 
The ANCOR campaign, launched in the fall of 2001, has worked with Congress, CMS and DoL on multi-faceted efforts to address the crisis. Its mission---To enhance the lives of people with disabilities by obtaining the resources to recruit, train and retain a sustainable direct support workforce, is critical to the continuation and growth of quality, community-based and consumer-driven supports and services to the disability population.
 
Legislation soon to be reintroduced into the 111th Congress by Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Lee Terry (R-NE) offers a state option for obtaining enhanced Federal Medicaid Assistance to raise wages to parity with wages for direct care staff of state-operated disability facilities. The bill, The Direct Support Professional Fairness and Security Act, is also support by ANCOR's campaign partners the Arc of the U.S., United Cerebral Palsy and Lutheran Services of America.
 
The theme of the campaign's public awareness efforts is "You Need To Know Me. I am a Direct Support Professional." The theme offers flexibility in communicating the campaign's advocacy message---"You need to know that the current community-based disability support system doesn't work without me. You need to know that my job isn't easy, and, in fact complex and challenging."  Click on YouNeedToKnowMe.org now for more information on this issue and ANCOR's advocacy efforts.
 
ANCOR is dedicated to its advocacy goals of advancing a national policy to address the DSP workforce shortage; obtaining wage and benefit enhancements; securing incentives for solidifying a career path for DSPs through expanded and enhanced education and training and technology applications; and both supporting and expanding the reach of this vital workforce through creative and effective technology applications.
 
ANCOR is the association of private providers of supports and services to people with disabilities.  Its roughly 800 member agencies employ more than 400,000 direct support professionals nationwide and support nearly 500,000 individuals with disabilities.

New Resources

DSW Resource Toolkit
This toolkit contains key resources generated from the technical
assistance provided to the 2006, 2007, and 2008 intensive TA states
under the DSW Resource Center grants.  The toolkit contains resources about Consumer Direction, Recruitment and Retention, Wages, Health Care Coverage, Training, Data Collection, Managed Long Term Care, and Disseminating Results.

Resource Toolkit

Cross-Disability Synthesis
This paper provides an overview of direct service workforce challenges and practices across four sectors: intellectual and developmental disabilities, aging, physical disabilities and behavioral health.  Drawing on the literature, activities and outcomes of the Direct Service Workforce Resource Center since its inception in 2005, this paper provides a synthesis of the similarities and differences of the workforce challenges and solutions across the sectors.

Cross-Disability Synthesis

Upcoming Webinars

Registered Apprenticeship
The Department of Labor's Registered Apprenticeship training programs are an important tool to provide career paths for workers and improve recruitment and retention.  On February 17, 2009 at 3:00 pm Eastern, the DSW Resource Center will host a webinar on the the Registered Apprenticeship programs for direct service workers.  Hear from the Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship about how to get started in the program and the benefits that it offers for employers and apprentices.  The webinar will also feature a participating employer to talk about their experiences with the program.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/634513231

Future Webinar Topics
Please let us know if there is another topic you would like to learn more about by writing to us at info@....

The DSW Resource Center was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2006 to respond to the growing shortage of workers who provide direct care and personal assistance to individuals who need long-term supports and services in the United States.

email:  info@...
phone:  1-877-822-2647