August 12, 2022 – Recently, PHI, the nation’s leading authority on the direct care workforce, released its new strategic plan for 2022 through 2025. PHI works to transform disability and eldercare services and is a national organization committed to strengthening the direct care workforce by producing robust research and analysis, leading advocacy initiatives, and designing groundbreaking workforce models. 

The new strategic plan responds to the challenges and opportunities facing the direct care workforce on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increasing aging population. The new strategic vision statement is to, “create high-quality jobs to transform the direct care workforce and meet the growing demand for long-term services and supports.”

To advance this mission, the strategic plan highlights five action items, including driving investment in workforce innovations and policy change and bolstering the evidence for improving direct care jobs. They also aim to deepen the public’s understanding of how vital direct care is, as well as support employers in improving job quality and thus retention, and including diversity and equity in direct care. 

These initiatives to support the direct care workforce are supported by professionals in the industry who face these challenges head-on. 

“If I could make a change, it would be for this field to show more appreciation for what we do because we are the main backbone of this work,” said Michelle Godwin, Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at Villas at Killearn Lakes in Tallahassee, Florida. 

Marisol Rivera, a Care Coordinator at Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) in Bronx, New York, added, “I think the role of the home health aide should be considered just as important as any other health care role.”

These sentiments are backed by PHI, which has been fighting for the direct care workforce for decades. Working in close collaboration with leaders across the country, PHI aims to make that a reality for the direct care workforce. 

To read the whole PHI Strategic Plan: 2022 – 2025, click here.