Join the Personal Support Workforce today! Call 971-801-8734 for more information. Click here for a membership application!
SEIU 503 members provide the entire spectrum of care and supports in Oregon, from children to seniors, and for people with physical and developmental disabilities. As Personal Support workers we share a goal of providing services that make Oregon a better place to live. We work together to improve the lives of SEIU 503 members and their clients and help build an Oregon where access to services and support is a top priority. Our strength as a union has resulted in some of the strongest worker contracts in the nation, enacting improvements that strengthen the program for ourselves and the families we support.
Oregon’s PSW Program: The Self-Directed Option For DD Services
“Self-directed Medicaid services means that participants, or their representatives, have decision-making authority over certain services and take direct responsibility to manage their services with the assistance of a system of available supports. The self-directed service delivery model is an alternative to traditionally delivered and managed services, such as an agency delivery model. Self-direction of services allows participants to have the responsibility for managing all aspects of service delivery in a person-centered planning process. Self-direction promotes personal choice and control over the delivery of waiver and state plan services, including who provides the services and how services are provided.” – Federal Medicaid definition of self-directed HCBS. Medicaid requires Case Management Entities (CMEs) to provide information about the PSW option so that people receiving services and their families can make an informed choice about a which service type will work for their needs.
Great Benefits and a Payscale
In our most recent contract, SEIU503 Personal Support Workers won substantial wage increases and a step-based payscale!
Before forming our union, Personal Support worker wages were at poverty level with few to no benefits. Today, because of the work PSWs have done to come together in a union, workers now have access to important benefits like assistance with health insurance, retirement savings, paid time-off, discounted college tuition and more.
Paid Training and Continuing Education
Thanks to advocacy by SEIU members and self-advocates and their families, there are strong training standards in place for all PSWs. Workers are provided with 12 hours of training initially and will then complete 12 hours of continuing education every two years. PSWs are paid for their time when being trained, and that training is available in multiple languages. Workers can also take additional trainings to enhance their skills and earn wage differentials for those skills.
Carewell SEIU 503 is your home for Training and Benefits hard won by SEIU 503 homecare and personal support providers. Learn more about Carewell here.
Why Choose To Be A Member? The Union Difference!
✅ A contract, union stewards and organizers who make sure you get treated fairly at work.
✅ Save thousands on healthcare premiums.
✅ Member-only advantages like free college courses, up to $20,000 in life insurance, and discounts on everything from travel to legal advice.