HHS LAUNCHES DEMONSTRATIONS TO RECRUIT AND RETAIN
PERSONAL ASSISTANCE WORKERS TO HELP PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced five new demonstration grants aimed at helping recruit, train and retain direct service workers, who provide personal assistance to people with disabilities who need help with eating, bathing, dressing and other activities of daily living.

Grants totaling nearly $6 million will be distributed to pay for the demonstrations, three of which will test offering health insurance benefits to workers to determine if that helps keep workers on the job.

"We need to find ways to keep these hardworking, dedicated caregivers on the job," Secretary Thompson said. "Hopefully, these demonstration projects will identify ways to allow more caregivers to stay in the profession and encourage more qualified people to provide this essential care and services."

A part of the President's New Freedom Initiative, the Demonstration to Improve the Direct Service Community Workforce will grant $1.4 million each to the New Mexico Department of Health, the Maine Governor's Office of Health Policy and Finance and Pathways for the Future, a service provider in North Carolina. Each of these grantees will be offering health insurance to direct service workers during the three-year demonstration. Grants of $680,500 each will go to the University of Delaware and Volunteers of America in Louisiana for developing educational materials, training of service workers, mentorship programs and other activities.

"These personal assistance workers are the backbone of the nation's community-based long-term care system, and should have the same access to health insurance and other work incentives as millions of working Americans," CMS Administrator Tom Scully said. "Through these demonstrations we hope to be able to attract and retain more of them."

In 2001, President Bush launched the New Freedom Initiative, which promotes the goal of removing barriers to community living for people with disabilities. Under this initiative, 10 federal agencies have collaborated to remove barriers to community living. Secretary Thompson last year established the HHS Office on Disability to lead HHS agencies in addressing the New Freedom Initiative.

More information about this program and the President's New Freedom Initiative is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/newfreedom.

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Last Revised: October 2, 2003