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Pennsylvania Senator Lends an Ear to Direct-Care Workers
June 20, 2007
The June 18 meeting between U.S. Senator Robert Casey Jr. and a standing-room-only roomful of direct-care workers arranged by hospice aide Brenda Nachtway at her Pennsylvania hospital was a resounding success. ''He said he learned a lot and was going to go back to Washington and see what he could do to make things better,'' says Nachtway.
Approximately 100 people, most of them CNAs, home health aides, personal care attendants, and other direct-care workers, gathered at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg in answer to the senator's request for an informational session. Attendees told the senator about having no health insurance for themselves or their families, having too little time to spend with the people they assist because of staffing shortages, and being forced to leave the work they love because of on-the-job injuries, Nachtway reports. They also talked about the inadequate pay and training.
After listening to their concerns, the senator thanked the workers for the crucial role they play. He also talked ''quite a bit,'' says Nachtway, about his gratitude toward the direct-care workers who assisted his father toward the end of his life. ''I think, in the end, one of the real solutions to this is to change how we think about these workers,'' the senator is quoted as saying in a Daily Item article. ''Their status has to be elevated.... It is a profession and it should be treated as a profession.''
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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