"Better Jobs, Better Care" Program Aims to Improve Long-Term Care

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 2002 -- A four-year, $15 million program is being launched to improve the recruitment and retention of direct care staff - people who work on the frontline of long-term care services such as nursing assistants, home health aides and personal care attendants.

The Institute for the Future of Aging Services (IFAS) will manage the program, which is being funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The program will provide grants to projects that test new approaches to providing a more stable and qualified long-term care staff, and systemically evaluate what works to achieve this objective.

"The 'Better Jobs, Better Care' Program will support demonstration and research projects that promote long-term care policies and practices which help to reduce high vacancy and turnover rates among frontline staff and improve workforce quality," explained Robyn I. Stone, Dr.P.H., Executive Director of the Institute.

"The effects of our inability to get and keep quality direct care workers are felt every day by millions of long-term care consumers who rely on these workers for care and support," said Maureen Michael, program officer at RWJF.

The "Better Jobs, Better Care" Program will award up to five demonstration grants to teams of long-term care providers, workers and consumers - working in concert with state and local officials - to develop and implement public policy and provider practice changes that support the recruitment and retention of a quality direct care workforce. Grantees will address a broad range of policy and practice issues, spanning the long-term care, health care, labor, education, and welfare fields that affect the quality of the direct care worker's job.

Up to 12 applied research and evaluation grants will be awarded to study workplace innovations and policy initiatives. Grants will be awarded in four areas: federal and state long-term care policy changes; the organization, management, and culture of the workplace; job preparation and ongoing education and training of direct care workers; and approaches to expanding the pool of available workers.

"'Better Jobs, Better Care' recognizes that high-quality services require high-quality jobs," noted Steven L. Dawson, president of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), a national nonprofit organization that specializes in the recruitment, training and supervision of direct-care staff. PHI is a partner in the "Better Jobs Better Care" Program in providing technical assistance to program grantees.

Calls for Proposals (CFPs) are available at www.futureofaging.org.