Who Will Care For Us?

Long-Term Care and the Long-Term Workforce

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Gerontology, Business & Finance, Human Resources & Personnel Management
Cover of the book Who Will Care For Us? by Paul Osterman, Russell Sage Foundation
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Paul Osterman ISBN: 9781610448673
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation Publication: September 6, 2017
Imprint: Russell Sage Foundation Language: English
Author: Paul Osterman
ISBN: 9781610448673
Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation
Publication: September 6, 2017
Imprint: Russell Sage Foundation
Language: English

The number of elderly and disabled adults who require assistance with day-to-day activities is expected to double over the next twenty-five years. As a result, direct care workers such as home care aides and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) will become essential to many more families. Yet these workers tend to be low-paid, poorly trained, and receive little respect. Is such a workforce capable of addressing the needs of our aging population? In Who Will Care for Us?  economist Paul Osterman assesses the challenges facing the long-term care industry. He presents an innovative policy agenda that reconceives direct care workers’ work roles and would improve both the quality of their jobs and the quality of elder care.
 
Using national surveys, administrative data, and nearly 120 original interviews with workers, employers, advocates, and policymakers, Osterman finds that direct care workers  are marginalized and often invisible in the health care system. While doctors and families alike agree that good home care aides and CNAs are crucial to the well-being of their patients, the workers report poverty-level wages, erratic schedules, exclusion from care teams, and frequent incidences of physical injury on the job. Direct care workers are also highly constrained by policies that specify what they are allowed to do on the job, and in some states are even prevented from simple tasks such as administering eye drops.
 
Osterman concludes that broadening the scope of care workers’ duties will simultaneously boost the quality of care for patients and lead to better jobs and higher wages. He proposes integrating home care aides and CNAs into larger medical teams and training them as “health coaches” who educate patients on concerns such as managing chronic conditions and transitioning out of hospitals. Osterman shows that restructuring direct care workers’ jobs, and providing the appropriate training, could lower health spending in the long term by reducing unnecessary emergency room and hospital visits, limiting the use of nursing homes, and lowering the rate of turnover among care workers.
 
As the Baby Boom generation ages, Who Will Care for Us? demonstrates the importance of restructuring the long-term care industry and establishing a new relationship between direct care workers, patients, and the medical system.
 
 

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The number of elderly and disabled adults who require assistance with day-to-day activities is expected to double over the next twenty-five years. As a result, direct care workers such as home care aides and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) will become essential to many more families. Yet these workers tend to be low-paid, poorly trained, and receive little respect. Is such a workforce capable of addressing the needs of our aging population? In Who Will Care for Us?  economist Paul Osterman assesses the challenges facing the long-term care industry. He presents an innovative policy agenda that reconceives direct care workers’ work roles and would improve both the quality of their jobs and the quality of elder care.
 
Using national surveys, administrative data, and nearly 120 original interviews with workers, employers, advocates, and policymakers, Osterman finds that direct care workers  are marginalized and often invisible in the health care system. While doctors and families alike agree that good home care aides and CNAs are crucial to the well-being of their patients, the workers report poverty-level wages, erratic schedules, exclusion from care teams, and frequent incidences of physical injury on the job. Direct care workers are also highly constrained by policies that specify what they are allowed to do on the job, and in some states are even prevented from simple tasks such as administering eye drops.
 
Osterman concludes that broadening the scope of care workers’ duties will simultaneously boost the quality of care for patients and lead to better jobs and higher wages. He proposes integrating home care aides and CNAs into larger medical teams and training them as “health coaches” who educate patients on concerns such as managing chronic conditions and transitioning out of hospitals. Osterman shows that restructuring direct care workers’ jobs, and providing the appropriate training, could lower health spending in the long term by reducing unnecessary emergency room and hospital visits, limiting the use of nursing homes, and lowering the rate of turnover among care workers.
 
As the Baby Boom generation ages, Who Will Care for Us? demonstrates the importance of restructuring the long-term care industry and establishing a new relationship between direct care workers, patients, and the medical system.
 
 

More books from Russell Sage Foundation

Cover of the book Unequal Time by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Private Equity at Work by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Bridging the Gaps by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Unequal City by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Places in Need by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book A Pound of Flesh by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Coming of Age in the Other America by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Beyond Obamacare by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Immigrants, Evangelicals, and Politics in an Era of Demographic Change by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Administrative Burden by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Homeward by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book The Obama Effect by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book The Long Shadow by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Sites Unseen by Paul Osterman
Cover of the book Where Bad Jobs Are Better by Paul Osterman
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy