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CMS to Help Five States Strengthen the Home- and Community-Based Workforce
July 17, 2006
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has chosen five state Medicaid agencies to receive intensive technical assistance (TA) from CMS' National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center. The TA will help the states develop or implement ways of strengthening the workforce that supports people with disabilities in home and community based settings, according to an announcement on the CMS website
The five states are:
- Arizona, which will establish a foundation for consumer-directed care and for reimbursing spousal caregivers;
- Louisiana, which will implement a workforce development initiative that includes improving wages and benefits, developing recruitment programs, expanding career pathways, and finding ways to address an immediate shortage of direct-service workers in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina;
- New York, which seeks assistance for three parts of an ongoing project to strengthen its direct-support workforce: training, career development, and supporting workers who assist self-directing consumers;
- South Carolina, which is developing educational interventions for managers and supervisors in an effort to improve retention rates for direct-service workers; and
- Texas, which is looking for ways to reduce turnover, improve the perceived professional status of direct service workers in the community, and improve outreach and education for workers who serve people who have recently relocated from institutions into the community.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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