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Date: December 2017 RE: Direct Care Workforce Issues: Di Findley, Iowa CareGivers
[email protected] RE: Prepare to Care: Dr. Anita Stineman
[email protected]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Lack of Awareness, Vision, and Sustained Commitment Puts Successful Iowa Initiatives Addressing Our Direct Care/Service Workforce Crisis in Peril Nationally, Iowa Is Recognized As A Leader In Addressing The Direct Care/Service Workforce Crisis..... But Not In Iowa! (Des Moines, IA): A report released by PHI National https://60caregiverissues.org/training-and-advancedroles-issue-18.html features Iowa as one of three model states addressing serious direct care/service workforce recruitment and retention issues, including more standardized and portable training credentials. That particular initiative has been administered by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and overseen by the University of Iowa (UI) College of Nursing. Iowa’s accomplishments are the result of about 25 years of incremental steps and collaboration with many public and private stakeholders as outlined in this impact infographic http://www.iowacaregivers.org/uploads/pdf/infographic_11x17_final_.pdf “This collection of interconnected initiatives that contain the desperately needed policy and practice solutions to the direct care workforce crisis, which is no longer a prediction…it has arrived,” said Di Findley, Executive Director, Iowa CareGivers. The direct care/service workforce makes up one of the largest occupations in Iowa and is in high demand. With nearly 500,000 Iowans aged 65 or older and the increasing demand for home and community based services, the difficulty finding and keeping direct care/service workers (DCWs) is worsening. DCWs are often known as nurse aides, home care, hospice, medication, and rehabilitation aides, patient care technicians, personal assistants, direct support professionals, and other titles. The jobs experience high turnover costing the system millions every year. While some turnover is due to educational advancement, it is also often due to low wages; working short-staffed; a lack of health care coverage and educational opportunities that enhance their knowledge and skills. Highlighted in the report are Iowa’s efforts to implement the 2012 recommendations of a legislativelydirected Direct Care Worker Task Force. Members included those working in the field, employers, educators, advocates, and others who were tasked with reviewing the educational standards for those who work in direct care/service, a system plagued by inconsistency and burdensome regulation. Original Task Force recommendations were to: 1) Certify direct care/service workforce; 2) Develop a standard curriculum; 3) Develop and offer specialty training in oral care, dementia, mental health, autism, and other areas); 4) Provide continuing education standards; 5) Expand the DCW Registry to list DCWs credentials; and 6) Train instructors. “Many of the recommendations have been achieved including the development and testing of the curriculum, known as Prepare to Care (P2C). Outcomes, as the PHI report points out, included increased knowledge, skills, and staff retention during the training pilot, but lacking is the infrastructure needed to maintain accurate records of the worker’s credentials to ensure training portability
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and worker ownership,” said Dr. Anita Stineman, UI, CON, which oversees the P2C curriculum. “We have embraced Prepare to Care and its first specialty, Mouth Care Matters, training for staff at our 18 assisted living communities. It benefits our staff and our corporation, but more importantly, it benefits the Iowans we serve,” said Joy Laudick, Senior Housing Management. The PHI report concludes …”Iowa’s work to develop a new direct care worker credentialing system is unique in that it prepares workers to serve every population regardless of setting or population served. However, a confluence of factors stands in the way of fully implementing a statewide direct care worker (professional) credentialing system.” “Iowa’s elected officials admit that we’ve reached a workforce crisis, but they have abandoned the very Iowa programs and initiatives recognized nationally, by imposing budget cuts so severe that it places the efforts in peril,” Findley said. Note: Spanning over 25 years, a host of initiatives, has received major investment by private foundations such as Robert Wood Johnson and Atlantic Philanthropies, Northwest Area Foundation, Mid-Iowa Health Foundation and Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation. A federal Personal and Home Care Aide State Training (PHCAST) grant, administered by Department of Public Health, supported the development of the competency-based Prepare to Care (P2C) curriculum, and a community college Department of Labor (DOL) grant was used to develop a module. State appropriations also support the work but were recently drastically cut. About Iowa CareGivers: Iowa CareGivers is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that exists to ensure that Iowans of all ages and abilities receive the care and support they need by focusing on serving the needs of the direct care workforce. www.iowacaregivers.org About PHI: PHI works to transform eldercare and disability services. We foster dignity, respect, and independence for all who receive care, and all who provide it. As the nation’s leading authority on the direct care workforce, PHI promotes quality direct care jobs as the foundation for quality care. For more information, visit our website at www.PHInational.org www.60CaregiverIssues.org
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