“Although Connecticut has expanded programming for services to meet the needs of older adults, persons with disabilities and persons with chronic health needs, we are losing the necessary labor force to properly provide these services,” says When No One Cares: Why We Need to Save Connecticut’s Direct Care Workforce. (PDF) The eight-page white paper outlines the state’s fast-growing need for direct care givers – particularly home care workers.
Connecticut’s “care gap” will be one of the more pronounced in the nation, with its population of elders is expected to increase by 69 percent by 2030, while the population that has traditionally supplied the great majority of direct care workers – women aged 25 to 44 – decreases by 10 percent. What’s more, home care, which is becoming more common as the long-term care system is “rebalanced,” requires more direct care workers than residential care, making it all the more urgent that the state find ways to attract and retain workers.
The paper organizes the roadblocks to building a stable and sufficient direct care workforce into three categories – recruitment, retention and reimbursement – and offers policy and practice solutions for each.
Connecticut’s Direct Care Workforce Shortage Team (DCWST), which was created last year by Senior Resources, the Area Agency on Aging covering Eastern Connecticut, published the paper. As part of its research, the team hosted two roundtables with direct care workers last spring to identify the causes of the profession’s high turnover rate. The key issues identified were:
- Transportation Training/Supervision
Unemployment Compensation
Low Wages
Liability Protection
Health Insurance
The DCWST will hold three community forums in Connecticut this fall to help spread its message. “Our team is small, but we are committed to alerting stakeholders to the importance of strengthening our direct care workforce,” says Lisa Reynolds, Senior Resource’s Planner and a coauthor of the paper.
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Director
Direct Care Alliance
