A UNIVERSAL WORKFORCE FOR A UNIVERSAL NEED.
Direct care workers deserve a system they can navigate. A system where training counts, credentials travel, and careers can grow.
PHI’s Universal Direct Care Workforce Initiative™ is connecting the dots, aligning states, employers, and career pathways for direct care workers through shared standards and sustainable financing. Together, we can transform the lives of millions of direct care workers, older adults, and people with disabilities.
THE PROBLEMAN UNSUSTAINABLE STATUS QUO
Direct care work is essential.
The system supporting it has not been built to last.
Across the country, more than 5.4 million direct care workers help older adults and people with disabilities maintain their health, safety, independence, and wellbeing. Yet wherever they work—in homes, residential settings, or nursing homes—infrastructure remains fractured and under-resourced.
⚠️ Training requirements vary by occupation and state.
⚠️ Credentials are inconsistent and rarely transferable.
⚠️ Clear pathways to economic mobility are rare.
⚠️ Wages remain poverty-level.
⚠️ Turnover reaches as high as 100 percent in some settings, even as demand continues to rise year after year.
Workers, employers, individuals and families, and communities across our nation deserve a system that works, not a fractured one. Government agencies and payers hold critical responsibility for financing, regulating, and managing care.
We all need sustainable solutions.
A COHERENT DIRECT CARE WORKFORCE ARCHITECTURE
The PHI Universal Direct Care Workforce Model™ connects direct care roles into coherent state and national frameworks built on universal entry-level competencies, stackable and portable credentials, integrated career pathways, and financing structures that support wage progression and retention.
It sets a new standard for how workers navigate their careers and futures. With this aligned approach, fragmentation gives way to connection and stability.
✅ Workers build real careers and prosper financially.
✅ Individuals and families receive consistent, skilled care.
✅ Employers reduce costly turnover and meet their missions and bottom lines.
✅ Policymakers gain the tools they need for long-term impact.
✅ States and our nation sustain a workforce designed to succeed.
PHI is bringing forward-thinking solutions to address today’s challenges. This is long-term infrastructure—not a short-term fix, but a constellation strong enough to shape the future of long-term care.
THE SOLUTION