In home care services offer tremendous help to seniors who still live on their own. While many caregivers are working in retirement homes and other senior housing developments, in home care provides patients with a level of independence and dignity that they may not receive outside of their own homes.
As the elderly population increases and care facilities fill up, in home caregiver demand is rising. However, these people perform some of the most thankless jobs, and make a small fraction of what most medical professionals make in wages. Many caregivers, in fact, are below the poverty level and rely on public assistance programs just to get by.
The jobs of geriatric care professionals exceed the job requirements of many other professions. These caregivers can be responsible for administering medications, helping the patient move around, going to the bathroom, bathing, making sure that they make it to their appointments on time, helping them with groceries, folding laundry, as well as nearly every day-to-day activity. For those who have no other family to care for them, these caregivers are all they have.
The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute released a recent study that said that 1.4 million of these senior in home caregivers work for a specific firm that is tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while nearly one million are ?independent providers,? who are employed by the patient directly. Even more jobs in this field are expected to emerge in coming years as America continues to age, although this work continues to resemble domestic labor, rather than a job.
The demographic that primarily makes up the home care workforce is women of color, as well as immigrants. The majority of these people do not have college degrees, and many do not have healthcare themselves. This attests to the systematic oppression of these groups, which has changed little throughout history.
Even those who are employed by organized care provider services make less than a living wage, according to the BLS. In fact, home care workers were only granted overtime and minimum wage benefits in Oct. 2015.
Home care workers provide some of the most noble care, bettering the lives of many elderly patients each and every day, but although their work is helpful, seems to be no one readily available to help them.
