PHI Establishes National Policy/Advocacy Office in DC

Bronx, NY – PHI, a nonprofit working to strengthen eldercare and disability services in the United States, announces that it has opened a national policy/advocacy office in Washington, DC. The opening of the DC-based office caps a year in which the Bronx-based PHI has significantly increased its efforts to shape federal policy in support of a stable, well-trained direct-care workforce capable of supporting the growing demand for eldercare and disability services. PHI played a key role in ensuring that the Institute of Medicine report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, addressed the needs of the direct-care workforce, and subsequently, was named co-convener, along with the American Geriatrics Society, of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance. The new PHI office will leverage two distinct funding streams totaling $300,000-which will allow PHI to be a more powerful national advocate for direct-care workers than has previously been possible. The Atlantic Philanthropies, an international foundation which operates in the U.S., Australia, Bermuda, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa and Viet Nam, will exclusively support PHI staff’s legislative and regulatory advocacy work. The SCAN Foundation, a newly formed California-based foundation will fund PHI’s public education, policy development, and communication activities to improve care for elders. This new foundation support is a crucial step in positioning PHI to help policymakers make the critical connection between the quality of direct-care jobs and the quality of services for elders and people living with disabilities,” said Steven Edelstein, PHI’s National Policy Director. Two senior PHI staff-Carol Regan and Allison Lee-will staff the office. Both have extensive experience in promoting innovative federal and state health care and workforce policies, most recently through PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers initiative. A stronger federal advocacy presence will better position PHI to influence emerging health, long-term care, and workforce policies, and ensure that our nation’s workforce of more than 3 million direct-care workers is recognized, rewarded, and made stronger, starting with ensuring them affordable health care,” said Carol Regan, who will now serve as PHI’s Government Relations Director. This is crucial to preparing America to care for the growing number of elders and people living with disabilities who depend on this workforce every day.” PHI’s newly launched PolicyWorks website ( www.PHInational.org/policy) will supplement these efforts by disseminating timely policy analysis, research, and advocacy opportunities to state and national allies. PHI National Policy Director Steven Edelstein, who manages PHI’s 14-person policy team, will oversee our federal policy work along with our continued work in the states. An increased national focus on chronic disease management, integrated models of care, cost control, and healthcare workforce development as part of national health reform will provide opportunities to position the direct-care workforce within this key legislation. For example ,” Regan said, we believe that the healthcare workforce development provisions now being discussed must include explicit reference to recruiting and training a quality direct-care workforce.” For more than 17 years, PHI ( www.PHInational.org) has been on the forefront of practice and policy initiatives to improve the lives of people who need home and residential care, and the lives of the workers who provide it. In its work, PHI helps consumers, workers, employers, and policymakers improve eldercare/disability services by creating quality direct-care jobs. The goal of PHI is to ensure caring, stable relationships between consumers and workers, so that both may live with dignity, respect, and independence. The Atlantic Philanthropies ( atlanticphilanthropies.org) are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Atlantic focuses on four critical social problems: Ageing, Children & Youth, Population Health, and Reconciliation & Human Rights. The SCAN Foundation ( www.thescanfoundation.org) is an independent nonprofit foundation dedicated to advancing the development of a sustainable continuum of quality care for seniors that integrates medical treatment and human services in the settings most appropriate to their needs and with the greatest likelihood of a healthy, independent life. The SCAN Foundation supports programs that stimulate public engagement, develop realistic public policy and financing options, and disseminate promising care models and technologies.