By Rebekah Seder, Program Coordinator
With the Baby Boomer generation growing older, 10,000 people every day for the next 20 years will turn 65 in the United States. Over the next two decades, the demand for a well-trained competent workforce to support the healthcare needs of the aging population is going to explode. But staying on the current course, the demand can’t be met.
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At a meeting earlier this month, Dr. Robyn Stone of Leading Age (formerly the Institute for the Future of Aging) told funders that they are at a critical moment where leveraging relationships with government officials, healthcare providers, and workforce stakeholders can break down the barriers currently threatening the growth of the direct care workforce – a sector which has the potential to become a gigantic economic driver locally and nationally.
Dr. Stone explored the current status of the workforce and noted that a shortage of competent caregivers is due to a variety of factors including a limited labor supply, a negative image of long-term care as a career path, high turnover employment rate, poor compensation, and bad work environments.
While there is a long-term need for systemic reform, Stone identified a number of areas where funders can begin to have an immediate impact on the sector.
Training is a major area. Most training programs are primarily supported by public funding, making them vulnerable to state and federal budget cuts. These programs focus almost entirely on the number of training hours received, rather than the actual “quality” of the training. Significant investment is needed to improve training programs and create a pipeline of skilled employees through community college and high school vocational programs.
In another vein, as the direct care workforce is increasingly foreign-born, there is a need for training programs that address the cultural barriers that affect relationships between caregivers and their aging clients.
While philanthropy can only scratch the surface in addressing the many challenges of the direct-care sector, there is a key role for funders to play in engaging government and nonprofit partners to advance dialogue and identify creative new ways of facilitating the sector’s growth.
Dr. Stone pointed out that the most important element of caring for the aging population is the quality of the staff. By instituting practices which attract, prepare, and provide for direct-care workers, the quality of the care itself will increase. With the quality of care matching the volume of demand, the direct-care workforce will help the country’s economy prosper for decades to come.
- Presentation: The Future of Long-Term Care, by Dr. Robyn Stone (.ppt)
The meeting marked the launch of Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers’ Working Group on Aging’s 2011 meeting series, “Quality Jobs/Quality Care,” in partnership with the Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative at the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and the Washington Area Women’s Foundation. The series will continue on May 11 with a discussion of training the direct care workforce. Details TBA.
