Making Work, Work: Quality Work and Quality Care to Support Labor Market Participation and Retention of Care Workers and Care Recipients

Overview

This collaborative research project of the Yang Tan Institute and the Worker Institute will identify policies, programs, and practices needed to support home care workers and care recipients – specifically, care workers with disabilities and adults with disabilities who use personal care services to be able to work – as both groups endeavor to engage in the labor force.

Why This Work Matters

Learning what we can about how to best support home care workers, especially those with disabilities, is important for their own wellbeing and to support the essential role they play in the lives of individuals who rely on them to participate in employment and community life.

This has become even more urgent due to the current shortage and growing need for care workers. In a field that already has a high rate of disability, it is critical to accommodate and support current and future care workers. As we engage in this work, we will also consider how the degree to which these workers’ needs are addressed influences the care they provide to care recipients, impacting these individuals’ own employability.

Additional Info

Objectives

Build an understanding of how the employability of care recipients is impacted by home care workers and the structure of their jobs.
Build an understanding of how the structure of care worker jobs and care workers’ own disabilities/health conditions impact their work experience and access to accommodations.
Develop recommendations for key constituents, including unions, home care worker training programs, agencies that employ/place home care workers.
Disseminate findings and resources to key constituents, care workers, and care recipients.

Activities

Convene an advisory council of care workers, care recipients, and other constituents.
Conduct a scoping literature review.
Collect data through a screening survey and focus groups of care workers and recipients across three states: New York, Washington, and Oklahoma.
Disseminate findings to target audiences, through publications, research briefs, conferences, webinars, and media “impact stories.”

Contact information

Anne Marie Elizabeth Brady
Email: ab2532@cornell.edu

LaWanda H. Cook
Email: lhc62@cornell.edu

Sarah von Schrader
Email: sv282@cornell.edu

Zoë West
Email: z.west@cornell.edu

Funding agencies

National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90IFRE0105). NIDILRR is a Center within the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Collaborating partners

We are grateful to Applied Self-Direction, Developmental Disability Council of Oklahoma, Disability Action Center – NW Inc., Human Service Research Institute, New York Association on Independent Living, Oklahoma Statewide Independent Living Council, and PROVAIL who have agreed to promote the study and findings from this research.