By Robyn Stone
Robyn Stone explores what a small workforce study in Richmond can teach us about designing research so it leads to sustainable change.
During my career at LeadingAge, I’ve participated in my share of large, national studies that offered our research team ample funding and unique opportunities to test big ideas and discover better ways of delivering long-term services and supports (LTSS) on a national scale.
I’m very proud of this large-scale research. But one of our current studies has convinced me that national studies, while vitally important, are not the only way to bring about change in our field.
Sometimes, small can be just as beautiful.
The LeadingAge LTSS Center is currently setting the stage for its evaluation of a small, local pilot project in Richmond, VA, through which two home care agencies—Jewish Family Services and Family Lifeline—are implementing a four-pronged approach they hope will bolster the city’s home care profession and boost retention rates.
The two agencies will use funds from the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation to:
- Increase the compensation they pay their professional caregivers.
- Offer those caregivers subsidies to increase their access to much-needed transportation.
- Provide caregivers with high-quality training and career advancement opportunities.
- Improve the capacity of the home care agencies to track data and measure outcomes.
Our job as researchers will be to assess whether, at the end of the study, these four interventions influenced the job satisfaction of professional care providers and whether retention rates improved as a result. If the answer turns out to be “yes,” this small, local intervention could very well provide workable strategies for addressing our national workforce crisis.
While we wait for project results, we’re already learning five lessons from our colleagues in Richmond about how to design a workforce study so any positive outcomes we document can lead to sustainable change.
Those lessons include:
Focus on the local market: The Richmond project recognizes that workforce issues are local issues that can best be addressed by understanding the local labor market. The two home care agencies in the study are based in Richmond. The project is supported by a local foundation. Local policymakers, local service providers, and local educators are participating in designing interventions they believe will meet local needs and will work well within the local economy and the local political environment.
Don’t focus only on one solution: Employees care about wages and compensation, but that’s not the only thing they care about. Planners of the Richmond project understand that. That’s why they designed a multi-faceted approach to workforce development that also includes transportation access, training, and data collection.
Strive for sustainability: The Richmond Memorial Health Foundation made it clear from the start that it wants project interventions to continue for a long time after grant funds are spent. Because it’s impossible to sustain wage increases with cyclical grant funding, the project must secure local investments to ensure its long-term sustainability and to facilitate its spread to other agencies and, possibly, to other communities.
Find local partners: Partnerships will be the key to achieving sustainability. That’s why I applaud the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation for understanding that this project is not just about two agencies and the people who work there. It’s about local educators and transportation providers, policymakers, and even the evaluation team. In welcoming these partners to the table, the foundation created a group of engaged and committed allies who will play a critical role in implementing this project and fostering sustainable workforce solutions in Richmond.
Think early about evaluation: Because the evaluation team was brought into the Richmond project during the planning stage, we’ve had the opportunity to use our expertise to propose needed modifications to the interventions, offer feedback on training materials, and suggest improvements to current data collection processes. The result, I believe, will be a stronger intervention and a more robust set of data for our evaluation.
Our colleagues in Richmond have hit upon a partnership model of program development, testing, and evaluation that can be applied to any new program in any LTSS organization.
Feel free to try it in your community.
Robyn I. Stone, DrPH, is senior vice president of research at LeadingAge, and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston. Her widely published work addresses long-term care policy and quality, chronic care for people with disabilities, the aging services workforce, affordable senior housing, and family caregiving.