Direct Care Workforce

Review two papers that center on the topic of public disability and health benefits and the fundamentals of the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income programs and their relationships with Medicare and Medicaid. Part I looks at definitions, distinctions and overlaps; it reviews the effects on the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act. Part II discusses major initiative and issues in these programs in light of growing administrative, fiscal, and other problems.

One in five people in a typical office is likely to experience a mental illness each year. Experts increasingly acknowledge how work is a key factor in supporting mental wellness, warding off symptoms of mental illness and helps throughout the recovery process. This online brochure offers information, reviews the potential risks and benefits of telling your employer that you have a mental illness, and offers links to resources that provide information on mental health in the workplace.

In 2003 CMS launched the Demonstration to Improve the Direct Service Community Workforce by awarding five grants and five more in 2004. Six grantees are using funds to make health care coverage more affordable/accessible. Interventions vary in strategy but each takes three approaches: subsidizing employer-based coverage, offering arrangements that combine basic insurance and personal accounts, or outreach to enroll DSWs in public private partnerships. This report reviews the lessons learned.

This site offers a unique mix of quantitative and qualitative policy information to assist advocates, researchers, and policymakers interested in improving implementation of federal workforce policies. Data is presented in state by state summaries and interactive databases for Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Pell Grants, Perkins Vocational & Technical Education, Adult Education & Family Literacy, and Wagner-Peyser/Employment Service programs.

This report analyzes the costs and benefits of the State of Michigan increasing the wages of Home Help workers. Home Help is one of several programs that provides for low-income individuals who need long-term care but do not want to move out of their homes. The report analyzes the effect of higher wages by focusing on two types of benefits and costs: public and private. The authors hypothesize that raising wages will reduce turnover and improve care, attracting more clients to the program.

In an effort to improve the quality of care provided in long-term care settings, as well as ensure a committed and qualified workforce, ASPE funded a study of the efficacy of various approaches to pre-employment screening and on-the-job monitoring of nurse assistants to prevent resident abuse in nursing homes. This study is intended to inform policymakers, providers and consumers about the contributions and effectiveness of existing federal mandates and state and provider based strategies.

The Tennessee Personal Assistance Supports and Services program developed this comprehensive guide to assist individuals in self-direction. The guide provides people with disabilities the information and tools needed to hire and manage a Personal Assistant. The guide discusses the differences between hiring individually or through an agency, how to process a self-assessment, offers job descriptions and performance expectations, and other checklists.

This report describes grant activities in three major LTC systems areas: Access to Long-Term Care Services and Supports, Services, Supports, and Housing, Administrative and Monitoring Infrastructure. For each of the focus areas the report describes Grantees’ accomplishments, illustrates the challenges and discusses the consumers’ role in the implementation and evaluation of activities. The report uses information provided during the reporting period October 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005.

In many ways, consumers are the best experts on their disabling conditions, including their own needs for support and the effectiveness and quality of programs. As a result, obtaining consumer participation and input at all stages of program design, implementation, evaluation and quality assurance is important. Effectively and efficiently involving consumers and obtaining their input, however, requires creative and innovative methods. This checklist will help to enhance full participation.

This report offers the findings of an outreach project conducted with direct-care employers and employees in Maine to help connect them with a new health insurance product called DirigoChoice. The research suggest that “states experimenting with innovative health coverage plans will need to address major challenges -- such as the part-time nature of direct-care work, low wages, and low reimbursement rates -- to ensure coverage for these critical health care workers.”