Direct Care and Support Professional Advisory Council

Maine’s Direct Care and Support Professional Advisory Council was established in February of 2022. Council members are employed in nursing homes, assisted housing, which includes residential care and assisted living and home care across the state. Some are new to the profession of providing direct care and direct support while others have many years of experience. All have joined the Council knowing that their participation can make a difference. Together, their strong collective voice informs policy decisions on issues that are most important to them as well as for thousands of direct care and direct support professionals in Maine. Appointments are made by a steering committee including representatives from the following organizations: The Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, Maine Health Access Foundation, Home Care Alliance of Maine, PHI National, DHHS, Office of Aging and Disability Services. Terms are for 1 year. For more information about the Advisory Council, please contact Nicole Marchesi at (207) 621-1079 or click here for the Advisory Council’s website.

Maine’s Direct Care and Support Report

On September 17th, 2024, the Direct Care and Support Professional Advisory Council sponsored its first conference “Uplifting the Voices of Maine’s Direct Care and Support Professionals”. The conference brought together 87 Direct Care and Support Professionals and 35 policymakers from across the state.

Discussions were held with policymakers to offer suggestions about what could be done to better support Direct Care and Support Professionals in their work.

The Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program in collaboration with UMaine Center on Aging officially launched the conference report which can be accessed here.

Focus Group Report

Please click here to read the Maine Direct Care and Support Professionals Focus Group report on the "Engage and Empower Direct Care Workers Initiative". The Maine Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program implemented the project "Engage and Empower Direct Care Workers Initiative". Ethos was commissioned to conduct a series of ten focus groups with Maine’s Direct Care and Support Professionals. Funding for the "Engage and Empower Direct Care Workers Initiative" was provided by the Maine Health Access Foundation and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Aging and Disability Services. The primary purpose of the Engage and Empower initiative is to help Direct Care and Support Professionals define and express their collective voice so that they have an impact on Maine’s workforce planning and policymaking. This will allow workers to inform those who make decisions about their jobs to know what is important to them. It is anticipated that sharing the work and findings of the Initiative will inform strategies that ultimately will boost recruitment and improve retention of Direct Care and Support Professionals. The focus groups were an initial step in the process of identifying primary issues confronted by this group in their important line of work.