An article describing The Annapolis Coalition Pacesetter Award project has been published online by the Community Mental Health Journal and will appear in print shortly. It is titled Workforce Development Innovations with Direct Care Workers: Better Jobs, Better Services, Better Business. It describes findings from a national search for innovative workforce practices that simultaneously improve the lives of direct care workers serving individuals with mental health and substance use conditions, improve client care, and strengthen the service organization from a business perspective. Five programs received the Pacesetter Award among the 51 nominations. The authors of the article, Wayne Dailey, John Morris, and Michael Hoge, derived from this search and describe in this article six cross-cutting principles that can inform future workforce efforts: (1) supporting educational and career development, (2) increasing wages and benefits, (3) creating workforce development partnerships, (4) using evidence-based practices to train staff and assess service fidelity, (5) strengthening supervision, and (6) employing people in recovery in direct care roles.
For those with library or institutional access to SpringerLink, the article can be accessed online here.
A description of the project and case studies from the national award winners can be found on the Annapolis Coalition website.