Better Jobs Better Care: A Foundation Initiative Focusing on Direct Care Workers

Background to BJBC In 2001, the Office of the Assistant secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and RWJF funded the Urban Institute and the Institute for the Future of Aging Services (the latter part of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging) to develop research and demonstration agendas for the recruitment and retention of direct care workers in long-term care. The advisory group recommended that a research and demonstration program be developed that included all settings of long-term care (including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, boarding homes, and community-based services) to test the effectiveness of specific interventions (e.g., incentives and benefits, organizational structure, and expansion of the labor pool) on improving the recruitment and retention of the frontline workforce.