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A pdf version of this newsletter can be found at http://www.pascenter.org/newsletter/CenterforPASBulletinJan08.pdf Previous newsletters can be found at http://www.pascenter.org/newsletter/index.php
Center for Personal Assistance Services BulletinJanuary 2008 - Volume 5, Issue 1In this issue:
The Center for Personal Assistance Services provides research, training, dissemination and technical assistance on issues of personal assistance services (PAS) in the United States. Personal assistance services (PAS) refer to help provided to people with disabilities to assist them with tasks essential for daily living. These tasks include bathing, dressing, getting around, toileting, eating, shopping, remembering things, and other activities. PAS, along with assistive technology such as wheelchairs, text readers, and hearing aides, help people with disabilities to participate in activities at home, at work, and in the community. The purpose of this newsletter is to provide the latest news on issues relating to formal and informal PAS, home & community-based services, the PAS workforce, and workplace PAS within and outside of the Center. Further detail about the Center staff and advisors can be found at http://www.pascenter.org/about/ On the Center for PAS websiteThe following are new resources available on the Center for PAS website (http://www.pascenter.org):
Congressional testimoniesBill Would End Exclusion of Home Care Aides from Fair Labor Standards Act; PHI’s Seavey calls Fair Home Health Care Act “an historic opportunity”. Dorie Seavey, Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute 's (PHI) Director of Policy Research discussed the historic opportunity HR 3582 offers in an October 25 hearing before the Subcommittee in Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The proposed bill would extend minimum wage and overtime protection to home care workers. Seavey noted, first, that home care workers should be on an equal footing with respect to all other low-wage occupations; second, that, within long-term care, the home care labor market should not have second-class status with respect to compensation—and, therefore, with respect to its ability to attract and retain workers; and finally, that federal lawmakers can work together to coordinate, rather than send conflicting messages about, the direction of our nation’s long-term care policy.” For more information, go to http://www.phinational.org/Sections/news.htm#Oct31 Mike Oxford opposes the Fair Home Health Care Act in a letter to the House Subcommittee on Workforce Protections Mike Oxford, Executive Director of the Topeka Independent Living Resource Center, explains the concerns of the TILRC with HR 3582 and argues that the bill, if passed, "will strongly disrupt both the lives of people with disabilities and their attendants." For the text of Oxford's letter to the Subcommittee, go to http://www.pascenter.org/documents/Woolsey_hearing.pdf NewsInternational Forum on Disability and Development in Beijing, ChinaCharlene Harrington was an invited plenary speaker at the International Forum on Disability and Development in Beijing, China, December 9-11. She presented on Home and Community Based Services in the U.S.: Trends and Innovations in Programs, Policies and the Workplace. The conference was sponsored by the China Research Center on Disability and Development, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and Peking University. The Chinese government has paid increasing attention to the people with disabilities and their development in recent years. The Second China’s National Sample Survey on Disabled Persons has been conducted on April.1, 2006 and the preliminary data analyses were completed at the end of this past year. The first research center (China Research Center on Disability and Development), jointly sponsored by the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and Peking University, was also set up last year. The Conference heard presentations about the National Sample Survey on Disabled Persons and from international representatives from the US, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. National Symposium on Strengthening the Home and Community-Based Direct Service Workforce announcedThe National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center has announced that the U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services, with other federal partner agencies, are jointly convening a National Symposium on Strengthening the Home and Community-Based Direct Service Workforce on May 8-9, 2008 in Baltimore, MD. This event will provide a forum for showcasing best practices in home and community-based direct service workforce development, highlight Federal and state workforce initiatives, and disseminate research findings and best practices. A primary theme of the event will be the importance of addressing workforce issues across age and disability consumer populations. The DSW Resource Center was created by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2006 to respond to the growing shortage of workers who provide direct care and personal assistance to individuals who need long term supports and services in the United States. Contact information for the DSW Resource Center is: For more information about the symposium agenda and registration, go to http://www.dswresourcecenter.org/index.php/dsw/dsw_symposium Kaiser Family Foundation Publishes PAS Center report on HCBSDeveloping home and community-based service (HCBS) alternatives to institutional care has been a priority for many state Medicaid programs over the last two decades and the focus of Medicaid policy debates recently. While the majority of Medicaid long-term care dollars go toward institutional care, the national percentage of Medicaid spending on HCBS has more than doubled from 1992 to 2003. This report presents a summary of the main trends to emerge from the data for the three Medicaid HCBS programs, and findings from the survey of policies used on 1915(c) waivers in 2005. This report was co-authored by researchers from the PAS Center and the Kaiser Family Foundation For more information, go to http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7575.cfm New Report Examines Medicaid Long-Term Care Policies in the StatesIn October 2007, the National Association of State Medicaid Directors released a report, "State Perspectives on Emerging Medicaid Long-Term Care Policies and Practices," which provides an overview of how states have implemented changes to their Medicaid long-term care policies as required by the Deficit Reduction Act. Information was collected through a survey given to the states, which yielded 13 key findings. Among other things, the survey found that states use their Money Follows the Person grant dollars in many ways, states are initiating efforts to transition individuals out of institutional settings, long-term care reform in the states continues to encourage home- and community-based living, and states are using care coordination to improve and integrate care. For more information, go to http://www.nasmd.org/resources/docs/LongTermCareRpt1007.pdf Long-Term Service and Supports: The Future Role and Challenges for MedicaidA new Kaiser Family Foundation Report examines the structure and impact of Medicaid’s role in long-term care. Based on a roundtable discussion of policy makers and experts and drawn from a body of health services research, the report highlights policy challenges facing the Medicaid program today and identifies issues in providing long-term care going forward. By gathering evidence to address key policy issues, such as integrating services, benefit design, quality monitoring and financing, the report can serve as a foundation for the current and ongoing policy debate regarding Medicaid’s future role as a provider of long-term care services and supports for low-income elderly and disabled Americans. For more information, go to http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7671.cfm The Center for PAS welcomes new staffmemberMelinda (Mel) Neri has joined the staff at the Center for Personal Assistance Services and the University of California, San Francisco. Neri has a BA in Sociology from the University of Washington and has been working in disability and health services research since 1997. She comes to UCSF from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, OR. At OHSU she was the Coordinator for a CDC-funded grant to promote the health and well-being of Oregonians with disabilities. Previous to that she worked for seven years at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC where she was the Coordinator for the NIDRR-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Spinal Cord Injury and Secondary Conditions. Mel has also worked for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA and the Center for Disability Policy and Research at the University of Washington. Neri will be working on a variety of projects at the Center. Welcome Mel! Graduate opportunity for students interested in the topic of disability and employmentDouglas Kruse recently became Director of the Rutgers Ph.D. program in Industrial Relations and Human Resources. As a person with a disability (paraplegia requiring wheelchair use), he has been very interested in recruiting and funding students interested in disability. His program is involved in several government-funded studies designed to understand and increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities. For example, they are working with researchers at several other universities on a study of corporate culture and disability funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, in which we are doing case studies of large U.S. companies to understand how company policies and attitudes create both barriers and opportunities for people with disabilities. They are also involved in a 5-year center to study employer demand for people with disabilities, with projects relating disability to employment projections, contingent work, and layoffs/downsizing. They plan to include Ph.D. students in these and other projects and help them become expert scholars in disability and employment. The application deadline for admission next Fall is February 1st, 2008. For more information, go to http://www.smlr.rutgers.edu/PhD/index.html or contact Douglas Kruse directly at: Research articles and reportsPersonal Assistance Services Cooperatives: Final Report for the Office of Disability Employment Policy The Center on Personal Assistance Services (CPAS), at the request of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), conducted a study of consumer-directed personal assistance services (PAS) cooperatives, with an emphasis on workplace PAS. This report presents case studies of seven cooperatives, describes advantages of consumer-run cooperatives, identifies funding issues and sources, and presents considerations for those contemplating starting consumer-run PAS cooperatives. It contains a review of the literature and resources, which revealed only a few examples of successful consumer-directed PAS cooperatives in the United States, but found models of self-sufficient consumer cooperatives in Europe, which have been providing service for decades. In consumer-directed cooperatives, ten percent or fewer members are using the cooperatives’ PAS services in order to work or to find employment. However, PAS cooperatives show promise as a means of delivering workplace PAS, if the cooperatives make employment an explicit focus and goal from the beginning. To retrieve the report, go to www.pascenter.org/documents/FINAL_Report_PAS_Coops.pdf or www.pascenter.org/documents/FINAL_Report_PAS_Coops.php Nursing Facilities, Staffing, Residents, and Facility Deficiencies, 2000 Through 2006 A new report has been completed by the University of California, San Francisco showing trends in U.S. nursing homes by state for the years 2000 through 2006. The data are from the federal On-Line Survey and Certification System (OSCAR) reports that are completed at the time of the annual nursing home surveys by state Licensing and Certification programs for the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. For more information, go to http://www.pascenter.org/nursing_homes/nursing_trends_2006.php SELECTED CONFERENCES DURING January, February, and March 2008For more detail about these conferences, go to: http://pascenter.org/conferences/index.php January January 08 - January 09, 2008 January 18, 2008 January 25 - January 28, 2008 January 30 - February 01, 2008 January 31 - February 01, 2008 February February 11 - February 12, 2008 February 12, 2008 February 20 - February 23, 2008 March March 11, 2008 March 18, 2008 March 27 - March 30, 2008 For more detail about these conferences, go to: http://pascenter.org/conferences/index.php This document was developed by the Center for Personal Assistance Services, funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDDR) of the US Department of Education, grant #H133BO31102. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee/contractor and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Department of Education. Please credit the source and support of federal funds. To unsubscribe to this Newsletter, please send listserv@listserv.ucsf.edu an email from the email address you wish to unsubscribe with: signoff PAS_NEWS http://www.disabilityinfo.gov
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