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Boris, E., Chung, G., Delp, L., Matthias, R. & Zubin, C. (2004, May). Workforce needs in California’s healthcare system. Briefing Paper. California Policy Research Center, Berkeley, CA.
Abstract
In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) enables more than 300,000 low-income elderly and younger disabled recipients to stay in their homes rather than live in more expensive institutional settings. This innovative, cost-effective, consumer-directed program has become a national model that other states are examining, and is a vital component of California’s continuum of services for those who need long-term care. IHSS is key to California’s compliance with the Olmstead decision which requires that states provide services that allow people with disabilities to live in community settings rather than institutions. Proposed budget cuts in wages, benefits, and services will slow the growth and increase turnover of the workforce, make it much more difficult to match consumers with competent providers, and severely undermine the effectiveness and integrity of IHSS, the state’s largest in-home care program. They may ultimately lead to greater state expenditures by forcing some consumers into higher-cost care and by increasing the use of costly emergency services as the continuity and quality of IHSS care are diminished. This paper, funded by the California Policy Research Center, was written by a multidisciplinary team of UC researchers from California Homecare Research Working Group, who analyzed current studies that evaluate long-term care workforce needs in order to improve service delivery, with a particular emphasis on IHSS. Based on current research, we analyze the implications of the proposed cuts on the capacity of IHSS to provide quality care.
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Permission obtained by Andrea Spurgeon, CPRC. Download the PDF
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