SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking educational partnership begins today that will strengthen the in-home support work force and provide dedicated home care providers a pathway to nursing career opportunities. The partnership between City College of San Francisco (CCSF), UC San Francisco (UCSF) and Homebridge – one of San Francisco's leading in-home caregiving organizations serving older adults and those with complex health, behavioral, and social needs - comes on the heels of important lessons learned during the COVID-19 crisis. It aims to strengthen San Francisco's response to current aging, equity and workforce challenges.
The program will provide on-the-job training to Homebridge In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) workers for Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) certification through CCSF and link participants to on-the-job clinical training with UCSF. It will then connect workers to CNA jobs and a pathway to nursing careers with San Francisco healthcare providers.
The initiative aims to overcome obstacles to career advancement for home care providers, including access to education and training, as well as fees associated with healthcare training and certification. Funded by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Metta Fund, the program offers paid, on-the-job training towards CNA certification for Homebridge workers. Program participants will remain on the job at Homebridge while attending ten hours of weekly class instruction using the CCSF curriculum. The state clinical practice requirement of 100 hours will be fulfilled at UCSF Health.
"The launch of this innovative career pipeline initiative is a significant strategic step in growing our long term care workforce and creating a thriving health care sector for all San Franciscans," said Mayor London Breed. "Given that these workers are predominantly women of color, the initiative also demonstrates San Francisco's commitment to economic opportunity and equity for women and people of color. These dedicated home care workers have been at the forefront of supporting older adults and people with disabilities through the COVID-19 crisis, saving lives and enabling at-risk residents to remain safely at home here in the City."
Throughout the pandemic, home and community-based care workers have been first responders to older adults and people with disabilities living at home in isolation. Their rapid response networks and in-home supportive services are essential for ensuring safety at home, access to vital resources such as food and healthcare and for mitigating entry or re-entry into congregate care settings.
"As the main vehicle for job and workforce training in San Francisco, City College is excited for this partnership," commented Interim Chancellor Dianna Gonzales. She added: "Furthermore, partnerships like these demonstrate our commitment to economically empower our diverse and most vulnerable communities, while continuing our mission to provide educational pathways with a social justice lens."
The 15-week "On-the-Job" Certified Nursing Assistant Training Program, fully accredited by the CA Department of Public Health, will provide career path opportunities into certified healthcare for home care providers while offering health care providers access to a dedicated, highly experienced and patient savvy workforce. The partnership is an innovative step towards integration of home care and health care services, long advocated by practitioners and recipients of IHSS as necessary for successful, quality in-home care.
A statewide Master Plan for Aging called for by Governor Newsom in 2018 and released in January 2021, identifies "caregiving that works," as one of its five bold goals to be realized by 2030. The plan targets the creation of one-million high-quality caregiver jobs while citing a projected labor shortage of up to 3.2 million paid direct care workers.
Demand for in-home and community-based long-term support workers grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and is expected to increase in the near future as access to IHSS is expanded under California state law in 2021-2022. These shifts come after a ten-year surge in California's direct care workforce between 2009-2019 (source: PHI) and as California is preparing for 25% of its population to reach age 65 or older by 2030.
Home care is currently the largest of all occupations in California (source: PHI 2021). Despite its vast reach, the provider workforce remains largely underpaid and unrecognized as an invaluable part of the U.S. workforce and healthcare delivery system. In California, home care workers are twice as likely to live in low-income households as other Californians and one in four lives below the federal poverty line (source: CA Master Plan for Aging). Most caregiving jobs are held by women (81% PHI), particularly Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Asian-American women, and many are immigrants (48% PHI).
The program is also a step in addressing a significant shortage in nurses and nursing assistants statewide, in light of both an aging nursing workforce and the increased demands during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This partnership offers an important career path for these frontline workers that will also help the hospitals and other health care institutions that benefit from these workers' new skills," said Dr. Pat Patton, DNP, MSN, RN, Chief Nurse Executive and Vice President of Patient Care Services at UCSF Health. "As an anchor institution in San Francisco, with a goal of contributing to our community's socioeconomic health as well as its health care needs, we are proud to be a part of advancing the workforce and healthcare development goals that are critical to meeting the care needs of San Franciscans."
The program is one of three CCSF institutional service agreements, including one with SF Police and SF Fire, focused on career pathway expansion, and the first in healthcare. For Homebridge whose IHSS work is funded through a contract with the San Francisco Department of Disability and Aging Services, it is the next link in a highly recognized person-centered model of caregiving with a ladder from home care into health care. "We believe that providing critical training concurrent with employment will demonstrate a pathway for San Francisco and other jurisdictions throughout California towards increasing the numbers of incentivized workers and an appropriately skilled workforce able to meet the growing demands of an aging California,'' said Mark Burns, Executive Director of Homebridge.
CONTACT: Erin Saberi (916) 952-5080/ [email protected]/
SOURCE Homebridge
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