Support For Caregivers Network (this website) focuses on how employees can support employees who are also family caregivers. Stepping back from that issue to gain a little perspective, one of the problems we notice is that direct care workers (paid caregivers) are way too scarce. Here is what the Federal Department of Health and Human Services says about the problem:
About the direct care workforce crisis
The direct care workforce is an integral part of the care infrastructure, and includes people with various job titles, including personal care attendants, home health aides, direct support professionals, direct service workers and more, who help support older adults and people with disabilities to live in their own homes and communities. Their services also provide respite for, and complement the support provided by, families caregivers.
Low wages, lack of benefits, limited opportunities for career growth, and other factors have resulted in a long-standing shortage of these critical professionals. That shortage reached crisis levels during the COVID-19 pandemic and continues today, with more than three-quarters of service providers declining new participants and more than half cutting services.
As a result of the workforce shortage, people who need assistance often have no option except to move to a nursing home or other institution; people who want to leave these facilities cannot; and the health and safety of those who live in the community are put at risk.
As the populations of older adults and people with disabilities grow, so does the demand for home and community-based services. Without urgent action, the problem will only continue to get worse.
HHS Website
The same press release that includes the quote above describes a new effort by HHS to address the crisis. Honestly speaking, the details of the described plan are a bit murky due to loads of bureaucratic language. To sum it up as best as possible, the HHS is coordinating a program to connect states into a network to work on the scarcity of direct care workers issue.
No matter how murky the details, any effort to improve the quality and quantity of the direct care workforce will help family caregivers.
Links
HHS Website: HHS Announces a Multi-Pronged Effort to Strengthen Direct Care Workforce
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