Texas
Project Title: Texas Direct Service Workforce Initiative
The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services has two major goals: 1) identifying ways to reduce turnover and improve the perceived professional status of direct service workers in the community; and 2) improving outreach and education for direct care workers who serve people recently relocated from institutions into the community. Texas plans to determine the feasibility of creating an affordable insurance pool that direct service workers could join as a work place benefit, improve access to personal attendant training for direct service workers through partnerships with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), DARS and the Austin Community College Health Professions Institute, and increase the viability and use of the Attendant Network website where individuals can find personal attendants and personal attendants can find work.
The National Direct Service Workforce Resource center will provide Texas with intensive technical assistance in support of a November 2006 stakeholder forum that will identify critical issues in the area of recruitment and retention for future action. The DSW Resource Center will provide technical assistance with the following;
- Analysis of the factors impacting workforce retention, including availability of insurance and other fringe benefits for workers, employee mentoring, and characteristics of Texas’ CDS options.
- Evaluating the successful aspects of the TCDD’s attendant pool grants and recommendations for supporting the direct care workers online network.
- The design and facilitation of stakeholder focus groups to identify issues related to recruitment and retention.
- Recommending specific ways that local Workforce Development Boards can be used in Texas to assist in the recruitment and retention of direct service workers.
- State and national innovations in all areas, including wages and reimbursement.
Populations Served: Aging, MR/DD, Physical Disabilities
For More Information Contact:
Jeff Kaufmann
Grants Coordinator, DADS
701 W. 51st St., Austin, TX78751
512-438-4329 (ph)
512-438-5768 (fax)