Direct Care News: Advocating for Medicaid expansion in Texas

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For direct care workers and their allies

March 12, 2013

Join Us Next Week

You are cordially invited to join us next week for a reception and fundraiser honoring the work of Leonila Vega in the ballroom on the ground floor of the building that houses DCA in New York City. We hope to see you there!

Advocating for Medicaid Expansion in Texas: I Am a Rock, Not a Pebble

Valda Spence

Doing advocacy work is like knocking stones together: the more stones you have, the more noise you can make. I don't want to just tap a couple of pebbles together; I want to grab a whole handful of big rocks and make a righteous noise.

I headed up to Austin last week with a group of direct care workers brought together by Direct Care Alliance. We were there for a March 5 day of advocating for Medicaid, the government program that provides health insurance for low-income people, and I had been asked to be one of the featured speakers at the rally.

It was my first time in Austin, and my first time ever to attend a rally, let alone speak at one. I was very excited to be given such a good opportunity to make my voice heard about something I care deeply about. Read more from Valda Spence.

Direct from Washington, D.C.

Secretary of Labor Nomination Expected Soon: President Obama is expected to nominate Thomas E. Perez as the new Secretary to the Department of Labor (DOL). Perez is currently the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and if confirmed as Secretary of Labor, would fill the role previously held by Hilda Solis, who resigned in January of this year.

DCA trusts that President Obama will appoint a Secretary who shares his administration's commitment to women, immigrants, minorities and low-wage workers. We look forward to working with the next Secretary on current and future initiatives to improve direct care jobs, including finalizing DOL's proposed regulations to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to home care workers. Learn more about Thomas Perez.

David and Goliath

David Moreau

When you work as a direct care worker, you often don't know the right thing to do. People's needs are complex and few of us have advanced knowledge of applied behavior analysis. And even if we did, it would still be hard.

At the day program where I work I support an autistic man. By trying different things, we've worked out a schedule together. We bring bottles to the redemption center, listen to music on the headphones at the Bates College library, go mall walking, go bowling, bring the trash bags to the bin and do puzzles in the quiet room.

I try to make the expectations clear. "We stay with our team mates." "We clean up after ourselves." "We use an indoor voice." "After we've helped John Russell for an hour at the Food Bank we can go get a soda."

Most of the time things go pretty well - but not always. Read more from David Moreau.

Quick Links

Direct from the Headlines

The New Mexico Direct Caregivers Coalition is looking for a few good southern New Mexico family and professional caregivers for a Listening and Leadership session at the Branigan Library in Las Cruces on Friday, March 22. Learn more about the English-language session (3:30-5:30 p.m.) or the Spanish-language session (1-3 p.m.)

New studies from the Institute for Women's Policy Research document the potential savings of providing paid sick days for employers in Maryland, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon.

A proposed California law would establish training and background checks for aides, among other regulations for private home care agencies.

What 30 Rock tells us about why home care workers need minimum wage and overtime pay.

The Consumer Voice is looking for people who have a loved one receiving long-term care to join a family member focus group phone call on March 13.

The Direct Care Alliance is the national advocacy voice of direct care workers in long-term care. We empower workers to speak out for better wages, benefits, respect, and working conditions, so more people can commit to direct care as a career. We also convene powerful allies nationwide to build consensus for change.

If you have comments on this issue of The Direct Care News or ideas for future issues, please contact Elise Nakhnikian at 646-823-7434, enakhnikian@directcarealliance.org.