Measuring and monitoring the adequacy of the direct-care workforce and impacts on unmet need: landscape scan of data sources and potential opportunities for future research

Direct-care workers play a critical role in supporting the daily activities of individuals who need long-term services and supports (LTSS). A new report from Long-Term Quality Alliance (LTQA) and the Community Living Policy Center (CLPC) at Brandeis University highlights recommendations to inform future research, policy, and practice that aim to advance efforts to improve standardized data collection and reporting, to better understand the impacts of direct-care workforce shortages, and to drive critical investments in the direct-care workforce. The report includes considerations for self-direction. While there are no established processes for data collection and reporting, FMS providers may have access to some data relating to wages and compensation as well as data on the experiences of individuals self-directing services. The report suggests significant work needs to be done to understand what would be feasible and meaningful in terms of workforce data collection in self-direction programs.