Home Care Workers in the News
Issues related to home care workers — the quality of their jobs, remedies to improve these jobs, and the demand for these workers — were the topics of radio segments, online publications, and a news magazine over the last two weeks.
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR) aired two segments about the home care workforce on October 16 and 17.
- “Home Health Aides: In Demand, Yet Paid Little” reports that while there is an increasing demand for home care workers, low wages and inadequate training make it hard to attract and retain workers to build the workforce our nation needs.
- “Home Health Aides Often as Old as Their Clients” highlights the aging of the home care workforce and the natural compatibility between older workers and their elderly clients.
The Hill
PHI President Jodi M. Sturgeon‘s blog post, entitled “Personal Care Aide Training Essential to Quality Care,” was published in The Hill on October 17.
Training standards are critical to improve both the quality of care PCAs provide and the quality of their jobs, Sturgeon writes. Her blog comes on the heels of a Capitol Hill briefing on state training standards for personal care aides and the Personal and Home Care Aide State Training (PHCAST) demonstration project.
Businessweek
“What Tomorrow’s Jobs Look Like,” a Businessweek slide show published on October 9, includes a portrait of Juana Silvia Fuentes, a home health aide at Cooperative Home Care Associates.
Job growth in home health care is expected to rise 69.4 percent by 2020, states the news outlet.
Huffington Post
Job quality in low-wage industries — such as home care — can and should be improved, argues an October 9 commentary, “Too Few Good Jobs? Make Bad Jobs Better,” published in the Huffington Post. The John A. Hartford Foundation Executive Director Corinne H. Rieder, F. B. Heron Foundation President Clara Miller, and Sturgeon co-authored the opinion piece.
— by Deane Beebe
