Feb. 22, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Linda Barbarotta, 202-508-9209
Lauren Shaham, 202-508-1219
Sarah Mashburn, 202-508-9492

Long-Term Care Providers and Public Workforce Development Systems Join Forces to Create Quality Jobs and Quality Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Partnerships between long-term care providers and the public workforce development system can help improve the quality of care, increase the supply of quality direct care workers and promote greater workforce stability through higher retention and lower turnover, according to a new issue brief from Better Jobs Better Care (BJBC).

The brief chronicles the activities of five long-term care employers, offering a range of services, who successfully partnered with the workforce development network to create innovative training methods and recruitment tools to address direct care workforce shortages. The initiatives include:

• Recruiting, screening and testing pools of direct support professionals for providers in Lexington, Ky.; Portland, Maine; Phoenix, Ariz. and Rochester, N.Y.
• Establishing an education and training ‘earn while you learn’ program for certified nursing assistants in five initial sites: Chicago, Ill.; Houston, Texas; Sioux Falls, S.D. and the states of Maryland and Washington. As of September 2005, 450 workers completed or were enrolled in CNA training across the sites. The program was expanded in April 2005 to include Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan and Virginia.
• Creating a training and career model for direct care workers providing care in assisted living facilities in Oregon.
• Launching a regional initiative facilitated by three local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in south-central Pennsylvania to increase the supply of qualified and trained direct care workers, connect these workers with long-term care employers and improve training opportunities. From 2001 to 2003, vacancy rates for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and home health aides in this region dropped from 12-15 percent to 8-10 percent.
• Developing and delivering pre-employment and post-employment training to direct care workers in northwest Michigan. These trainings were developed in response to needs identified by long-term care employers through surveys conducted by the local WIB. Nearly 200 workers from across the region attended pre-employment training. Almost 150 workers, most of whom were direct care workers, attended post-employment training on dementia, body mechanics, elder abuse and stress and time management.

The workforce development network, consisting of local and state Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and funded primarily through the U.S. Department of Labor, creates local programs to train job seekers and link them to available employment with businesses in their communities. A list of state and local WIBs can be found at www.nawb.org/asp/wibdir.asp.

“The starting place for these partnerships often involves overcoming a perception gap: providers need to move beyond limited knowledge or skepticism about public workforce programs,” Dorie Seavey, issue brief author and national policy specialist at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute said. “WIBs need to understand the critical role that the long-term care industry can play in the economic development of their local communities. When these two sets of players do meet, significant areas of mutual interest can emerge.”

“The successful partnerships profiled in this brief show how important it is for these two sectors to get to know each other and work together to help solve recruitment and retention problems in long-term care. Investing dollars in the direct care workforce can reap benefits for all involved,” Robyn Stone, executive director of the Institute for the Future of Aging Services (IFAS), senior vice-president for research at AAHSA and BJBC Director said.

To order the issue brief, please call (202) 508-1216. The brief is also available on the BJBC Website, www.bjbc.org.
Better Jobs Better Care is a four-year $15.5 million research and demonstration program, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. Its goal is to achieve changes in long-term care policy and practice that help reduce high vacancy and turnover rates among direct- care staff across the spectrum of long-term care settings and contribute to improved workforce quality. Technical assistance is provided in partnership with the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute.

Better Jobs Better Care is directed and managed by the Institute for the Future of Aging Services, American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA). For more information about Better Jobs Better Care, contact Natasha Bryant at 202-508-1214, nbryant@aahsa.org or visit www.bjbc.org.