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Millions of older adults and people living with disabilities rely on the direct care workforce, and the numbers are growing at an enormous rate every single day. Sadly, we have undervalued the importance of the direct care workforce and ill prepared the critical need to provide quality of life and quality of care training. It's time to change the paradigm.
This is where people want to be.. home. It is time to examine changes needed for people stay safe and well with availability of appropriate care and services.
The Home Health/Care Industry quickly stepped up to the plate during the COVID pandemic. The demand for services ballooned almost over-night, and providers responded with a fierce determination to serve those in need.
The challenges were not that different from long term care. However, one might argue they were a bit more challenging due to the remote nature of the workforce.
COVID testing and protocol training required an enormous amount of coordination. Another challenge was the lack of testing for the home-bound elders, and discovering that in desperation for care, dishonesty of symptoms was a factor.
The shortage of Certified Nursing Assistants in Aging Services is reaching a critical point. Piled on top of the current shortage is the projected need. However, systemic and sustainable solutions have evaded the industry.
High staff turnover in long-term care is certainly not a recent phenomenon. Going back to the 1970s studies pointed to average turnover rates for registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) ranging between 55% - 75%. With growing demands for these professions as our aging population explodes, many providers are reporting upwards of 100% turnover. Many factors need to be addressed - one being how we are preparing this workforce to work with the growing numbers of older adults with dementia? Leaders have many options for dementia training. What do we hear most often? Keep it simple and engage the learner!
The increasing diversity of the U.S. and other nations offers opportunities and challenges for senior care care providers, health care systems, and policy makers to create and deliver services to culturally diverse patients and to train and increasingly culturally diverse workforce. Cultural competence refers to an ability to interact effectively with people of different cultures. Cultural competence comprises four components: (a) awareness of one's own cultural worldview, (b) attitude towards cultural differences, (c) knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews, and (d) cross-cultural skills. Developing cultural competence through training can result in a better ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people across cultures and can lead to a 15% decrease in miscommunication. In senior care, this communications training can significantly improve outcomes, especially in caring for those with dementias, chronic illness, pain and at end-of-life.
