What We’re Reading: Thinking Through Re-Opening, Paying Family Caregivers, COVID-19 Vaccines by Race & More!

To help our members stay abreast of important national policy discussions and inform their advocacy, we share our reading list from this week:

Three resources from the Kaiser Family Foundation:

• Key Findings on Workplace Benefits and Family Health Care Responsibilities from the 2020 KFF Women’s Health Survey. We anticipate this could be useful in assisting our members with the DSP recruitment and retention crisis, as family responsibilities often affect DSPs’ availability.
• Public Health Experts Worry About Boom-Bust Cycle of Support. This research could inform our members’ advocacy to state and federal policymakers on the need for consistent funding for their organizations.
• COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race and Ethnicity. Our members who advocate on equity issues and on prioritizing vaccines for high-risk communities might find this information relevant.

From the National Academy for State Health Policy:

• Paying Family Caregivers through Medicaid Consumer-Directed Programs: State Opportunities and Innovations. Our members have long shared the need to support family caregivers to help address demand for disability supports that the Medicaid system is not currently able to meet.

From American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD):

• Vaccine Hesitancy Among Adults with Disabilities. We anticipate this could inform our members efforts to help the people they support get vaccinated.

From the Bipartisan Policy Center:

• Building a Bipartisan Housing Agenda This Congress. Many of our members have expressed concern about how the lack of affordable, accessible housing affects people with disabilities’ ability to live in the community, and providers’ capacity to offer supports in the community. We anticipate this resource could help inform our members’ advocacy.

From The Management Center:

• Decisions at the Gateway of Reopening—Reflect, Reinvest, Redesign. As our members think through how to reopen their services as a larger share of the U.S. population receives vaccines, this article offers some human resources-oriented insights.