Despite “massive” need for home health aides and other personal care workers, little is being done to increase the size of this labor force by bettering wages and working conditions, experts said during the May 1 edition of The Diane Rehm Show.
“There’s a massive need… but we’re doing nothing to boost the supply for this massive need,” said Val Halamandaris, president of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, a group that represents home care and hospice companies. “There is very little effort to bring qualified people into this field.”
The Department of Labor has classified home care workers as the “single category we need more [workers in] than any other job in the next 20 years,” says Halamandaris. The industry itself is valued at about $84 billion.
There are currently about 2.5 million home care workers in a workforce that is the fastest growing occupation in the nation, according to Carol Regan, government affairs director at PHI (Paraprofessional Health Institute), an organization that represents home care workers.
– This article was found in the Home Healthcare News May 1, 2013
Care N Assist has been working to train and support this growing group of workers for over eight years. We pride ourselves in having well below average turnover rates and offer raises and continued education for our employees.
Though this job and its work is far from perfect, it does offer entry level experience for those wishing to work in the health care industry. We are very happy to know that many of the home health aides we trained have moved on to nursing, therapy and other medically oriented jobs.
