Books to add to your reading list
Covering topics such as transforming the roles of home care workers to decision-making rights for people with disability, here’s our pick of the latest books to put on your bookshelf.
Covering topics such as transforming the role of home care workers to decision-making rights for people with disability, here’s our pick of the latest books to put on your bookshelf.
American economist Professor Paul Osterman has turned his attention to the pay and working conditions of the home care workforce in his latest book, Who Will Care For Us? Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce.
In his thought-provoking book, Professor Osterman argues the case for broadening the roles and responsibilities of direct care workers to create more attractive jobs and boost care quality.
Osterman, who is a professor of human resources and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, proposes better integrating support workers into healthcare teams and training them to become “health coaches”. In this expanded role, direct care workers could have a critical role in educating clients to manage chronic conditions, monitoring changes in health and managing transitions out of hospital.
Professor Osterman says investing in the training and skills of the direct care workforce could reap significant savings to the healthcare system through reduced hospital and residential care admissions and lower staff turnover costs.
For the book, Professor Osterman analysed national survey data and conducted 120 interviews with workers, employers, advocates and policymakers.
While Osterman’s book analyses the US context, he presents a compelling case for transforming the jobs of direct care workers that has relevance for Australia.
Who Will Care For Us? Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce is published by the Russell Sage Foundation and is available from 28 September.
Melbourne Law School lecturer Dr Anna Arstein-Kerslake has written a new book exploring the right to decision-making for people with cognitive disability.
Restoring Voice to People with Cognitive Disabilities discusses the importance of decision-making and the ways in which it is currently denied to people with cognitive disability, including people with intellectual disability, mental health disability and dementia.
Dr Arstein-Kerslake outlines the legal and practical solutions to ensure that people with cognitive disability enjoy the same right to decision-making as others.
Restoring Voice to People with Cognitive Disabilities was officially launched last month by former Australian Disability Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes. The book is published by Cambridge University Press.
