Aging in Our Community A Message from W. Mark Clark, President and CEO
Recognizing the Importance of Direct Care Workers You may recall that in my April column, I talked with you about the critical issue of the worsening shortage of qualified Direct Care Workers to serve care for older adults today and in the future. In this month’s column, we’re delving even deeper into some of the contributing factors, potential solutions, and what PCOA and our partners are doing to move the needle on this very important issue. A 2021 report from LeadingAge titled Feeling Valued Because they ARE Valued: A Vision for Professionalizing the Caregiving Workforce in the Field of Long- Term Services and Supports details the challenges faced by the direct care sector, and the pressing need to address them. LeadingAge proposes as series of actions to address challenges to the direct care workforce, including expanding the caregiver pipeline, enhancing training and education, facilitating career advancement, increasing compensation, and other systemic reforms. PCOA has boots on the ground in several of these arenas through our workforce development programs, and has legislative priorities focused on others. The overarching message of the report, however, which is consistent with other experts in the field, is that the workforce crisis cannot be solved until we as a sector and a society fully recognize the importance of Direct Care Workers and treat and compensate them accordingly.
The professional nature of this highly- skilled position is often overlooked, without recognition of the level of training and competence required to do it. Re- framing the issue through this lens is vital to solving its challenges. PCOA is taking action on a number of fronts. We have worked with the 13 local homecare agencies with whom we contract to provide care to our case managed clients to implement a series of strategies to positively impact this issue. We also own and operate a non- medical home health agency, PimaCare at Home, which primarily serves those in the Arizona Long Term Care System, or ALTCS, the long-term care branch of Medicaid. PimaCare at Home both employs Direct Care Workers to serve some of the most socially and economically disadvantaged members of our community, and provides a suite of initial and ongoing trainings for Direct Care Workers. In April 2020, PCOA acquired CareGiver Training Institute, which educates Caregivers and Nursing Assistants to prepare them to become certified workers in those fields. Research indicates sufficient training and preparation for caregiving work to be a significant factor in attracting workers to the field and reducing turnover. Over the past few weeks, you may have seen or heard the TV and radio direct care worker recruitment campaign PCOA is running in partnership with United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. This campaign encourages community members in search of a fulfilling career to pursue direct care work, and leads them
to a program offered by United Way. The program pays for direct care worker training, fingerprinting, TB testing, and offers support to help individuals succeed. Our goal is not only to recruit more workers to the field in the immediate term, but also to test messages that are effective in doing so in our community. In light of today’s shortage of skilled workers across fields and the likely worsening of that shortage if left unaddressed, it is imperative that those of us working in the aging space take immediate and innovative action. Our ability to fill these openings with qualified caregivers depends on our ability to professionalize the caregiver workforce – and that begins with respecting the skill and competence of those doing the work, acknowledging their importance for the future of caregiving, and changing our practices accordingly.
W. Mark Clark President & CEO
May 2022, Never Too Late | Page 3
Pima Council on Aging
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