Who Will Care for Us? Addressing the Long-Term Care Workforce Crisis

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Author(s): R.I. Stone; J.M. Wiener

Research Area: Health

Type: Report

Abstract:

The future of the long-term care workforce is an important policy question given the unprecedented rate of decline in the number of available paraprofessional workers. In this report, authors Stone and Wiener examine factors contributing to the workforce shortage, efforts to retain numbers and develop a quality workforce and research options that may contribute to policy formulation in this critical area. Low recruitment and high turnover have reduced the frontline long-term care workforce. Regulatory policy largely ignores workers' concerns and government employment agencies direct program graduates away from the field and into more lucrative employment. Still, recruiting and retaining an adequate workforce to meet a growing demand have become a priority for many states. To this end, they have adopted a series of policies aimed at stopping the drain on these critical resources. For instance, states may increase worker fringe benefits such as health insurance, they may develop career ladders to provide room for advancement or they may look to former welfare recipients to develop new worker pools. In order to develop a qualified, sustainable workforce, however, research is needed in a number of areas. This means further examination into root causes of the shortage, research into the efficacy of policy interventions and a detailed profile of the present workforce broken down along demographic, economic and geographic lines.