As our population shifts and older adults begin to outnumber children for the first time in history, 77% of adults age 50 and over want to remain in their homes for the long term, according to ageplus.org. Home Care Association of America talks with member agencies every day, and the No. 1 struggle facing most home care agencies right now is being able to hire and retain enough caregivers to meet the demand for services.
It turns out that a digital platform assembled by a Northeastern research group on short notice amid the COVID-19 pandemic substantially helped lessen a Massachusetts crisis in healthcare staffing. The partnership helped the long-term care industry and its dire need to find and hire workers during the pandemic. Ozlem Ergun, COE Distinguished Professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern, worked with her students in 2020 to design and run a centralized process that paired healthcare workers with open positions at long-term care facilities.
Lynne Ingersoll and her cat, Jesse, spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day together in her small bungalow in Blue Island, Ill. A retired librarian, Ms. Ingersoll never married or had children. At 77, she has outlived her parents, three partners, her two closest friends, five dogs and eight cats. When her sister died three years ago, Ms. Ingersoll joined the ranks of older Americans considered “kinless”: without partners or spouses, children or siblings. Covid-19 has largely suspended her occasional get-togethers with friends, too. Now, she said, “my social life consists of doctors and store clerks — that’s a joke, but it’s pretty much true.”
Caregivers who attend to elderly and disabled people in their homes in Los Angeles County could get a wage boost under a proposal approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors. Workers with the In-Home Supportive Services program have been pushing for higher wages for over a year, arguing that L.A. County’s current rate of $16 an hour has made it difficult to scrape by amid rising costs for rent, gas and groceries. People with disabilities who rely on the program say low wages make it difficult to find and retain IHSS workers to help them remain in their homes.
As Ohio's senior population rapidly grows, so does the need for the home care workers to help them age in place. But amid a national health care shortage, stagnant wages for a demanding job, and slow growth in the labor force, strengthening the home care workforce is a daunting task. Ohio's projected job openings for direct care workers from 2018 to 2028 is 229,800 direct care workers who assist older adults and people with disabilities with daily tasks, such as dressing, bathing and eating, according to PHI, a New York-based national organization committed to strengthening the direct care workforce through research and advocacy.