The fear of violence against home care aides, nurses, and therapists may be adding to the already-severe shortage of care workers and adding to the burden on family caregivers. In our increasingly aggressive society, home care workers say they are being assaulted by angry and frustrated family members as well as people in the neighborhoods they visit. In some cases, [...]
The US desperately needs more direct care workers to provide personal assistance to frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. Many native-born Americans were unwilling to do this work even before the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, shortages are far worse. Yet, the US continues to bar entry to those who are willing and able to care for frail older adults [...]
The shortage of staff in long-term facilities and home care agencies has gone from a problem to a crisis. Three rural nursing homes in Maine close because they cannot hire enough staff to maintain care for patients and residents. A nursing home in Oklahoma shuts its doors due to a staff shortages. Same in Kansas. A new industry survey reports [...]
Every conversation I have with operators of senior living facilities and home care agencies quickly pivots to one issue: A desperate shortage of care workers. The problem isn’t new. Low pay, low status, and physically and emotionally demanding work has plagued the long-term care industry’s ability to hire for years. Highly restrictive Trump-era immigration policies further shrunk the supply of [...]
The massive pandemic relief bill that the House is likely to approve by the end of this week includes billions of dollars in new funding for government long-term services and supports (LTSS) for frail older adults and young people with disabilities. But, paradoxically, the most far-reaching change may be from a temporary funding increase for Medicaid home and community-based services [...]
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is, very slowly and cautiously, acknowledging the need to reform the way we support frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. In recent days, a task force created by his campaign made several proposals to expand home and community based care under Medicaid and support both family and paid caregivers. Since covid-19 has killed more [...]
It is a terrifying time to be caring for an aging parent or other family member who needs assistance with physical or cognitive limitations. You are unable to visit your loved ones in care facilities. It is a struggle to find aides to care for them at home. You worry about them contracting the potentially deadly coronavirus. You worry about [...]
The coronavirus pandemic is stressing hospital capacity to its limits, and one way to reduce this pressure it to move patient care downstream. That means keeping as many patients as possible out of the hospital in the first place, and getting those who have been hospitalized discharged as quickly as possible to make room for other, more critical patients. The [...]
The other day, someone asked me whether, given the coronavirus outbreak, her 93-year-old aunt should go a skilled nursing facility for rehab following a week-long hospital stay. Her question is an important one: What should you do if you or a family member are living in a nursing home or assisted living facility (ALF), or may need to go to [...]
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has proposed an ambitious plan to reform long-term care finance and delivery in the US. It includes a public catastrophic long-term care benefit, enhancements to the private long-term care insurance market, reform to Medicaid long-term services and supports (LTSS), and higher wages and benefits for direct care workers. Buttigieg, who says he learned about the [...]