Workforce Star Graduate Stories
Fairfax County’s Long Term Care Coordinating Council supported the Central Senior’s Center’s and GRACE Ministry’s application to the Fairfax Incentive Fund and Life Circle AlliancesSM funding to establish Personal Care Aide Training for members of various ethnic groups including members of the Korean, Hispanic, and Muslims communities. These recent immigrants are motivated to learn skills to support their families but struggle with English skills.
This funding was critical in developing the health care workforce necessary to care for those with need of long-term care, both at home and in group setting: 1. the funding made it possible for the PCA certificate program to be duplicated in the Hispanic and the Muslim communities. 2. The funding made it possible to incorporate vocational ESL into the certificate program. 3. The funding helped certified PCA graduates to access paid job coordinators who connect them to the hiring agencies or provide information relating to job openings. Both organizations are certified by the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services and offer 40-hour programs plus occupational ESOL classes twice each year.
Over the past five years, some 600 PCA’s have been trained.
Some PCA graduate stories:
M. K. was a fifty year old woman and had never worked in her life and lost her husband to a massive stroke. She had three children at that time ranging from 16 to 20 years old. She was overwhelmed trying to manage the small business owned by her late husband and did not know what to do to support her family. She suffered from bouts of severe depressions for two years. Finally she enrolled in the certificate program to become a Personal Care Aide (PCA).
After completion of the certificate of PCA, the Central Senior Center Job Coordinator, provided by the grants, helped her get a job at the Sunrise Senior Service. She worked long hours and completed on-the-job training to become a medical technician, to increase her family’s income. She finished her Certified Nurse Aide classes in June 2010 and is preparing to take the exam to become a Board Certified Nurse Aide.
The PCA certification was just beginning for her achievements in the health care field. She mentioned that she wants to continue to study and gain further certification. She has gained confidence and her self esteem has improved significantly. Today she supports herself and helps her children. She is very grateful for the training she received.
Heisung Lee, Executive Director
Central Senior Center
Story 2
J. Lee, a woman with disfigured face, came to me and asked whether she could find a job as a PCA with her handicap. I told her that the sick and very frail elderly need your care, not your face. Caring is coming from your heart which transfers to your hands. She was in the second class of the certificate program and was hired by the Sunrise Senior Services and is working now as a CNA.
She was in her early 50's and was in a bad car accident and lost her whole jaw bone which required intensive restorative surgeries. Her husband abandoned her in the middle of recovery from her second surgery and at the same time she was notified that her insurance coverage would not provide for her surgery in the future. She told me that she could not eat well due as her teeth were also damaged. She stayed at her sister’s home for long time and failed to get a job. She concluded that no one would hire her with her disfigured face. She told me that she really wanted to die.
Today, she working long hours and has saved money to advance her education and is studying to become a certified nurse aide. She is saving money for more cosmetic surgery. Since her graduation from the PCA program, she has had two surgeries. While her face has improved, she still needs a few more surgeries to restore the normal functioning of her mouth and to further improve her facial features.
Given her own painful experience, she really understands the struggles faced by people with disabilities and is very compassionate. Elderly residents in the nursing home love her and request her as their aide. She has found a way to live independently and has become a caring care provider.
Heisung Lee, Executive Director
Central Senior Center
Story 3
A young man in his 30’s and came to the certificate class in order to learn basic care giving skills for his father who was very sick. His mother died a few years ago in an accident. During the classes he was very attentive. When he lost his father, he returned to finish the certificate program and now in the body message therapy class. He tells classmates that the PCA class inspired him to work in the health care field. He is grateful to the program which gave him a purpose in life: to serve the sick.
Heisung Lee, Executive Director
Central Senior Center
