Manila Freeman, Detroit, MI, retired from the Detroit school system as a GED specialist. Like many DCWs, she started as a family caregiver, caring for her brother, a disabled Veteran with multiple needs. After he moved in, she learned that “an agency” had signed him up for assistance and made her the paid homecare worker.
In her words, “I did the duties, and then the check came. I saw how small the check was…for helping him to make sure he could do his personal needs, feeding, staying on the special diet, lifting, helping him to walk…I had a full-time job, I was working part-time, my son was in school, my mother had moved in with me. I got a rude awakening.”
Manila is now on a mission “to see why can’t a homecare worker get as much pay as any other healthcare profession? Even when you’re doing companion work – you’re on all the time – you have to be.”