By Stephen Tweed 
“Although direct care workers constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the workforce, there is a documented critical and growing shortage of these workers in every community throughout the United States. There is significant need to attract many more direct care workers in the near future.”
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
In early March 2016, we received a sneak preview of the results of the 2016 Home Care Benchmarking Study from Home Care Pulse. We have a close working relationship with Aaron Marcum, the CEO of Home Care Pulse and creator of this annual benchmarking study. We’ve been fortunate to be able to work closely with Aaron and his team to craft the questions, review the results, and write articles for the Sales and Marketing Section and the Recruiting and Retention section of the final report.
In our article for the Study, and in future blog posts, we proclaimed that the “Caregiver Recruiting Crisis is Official.” The data we have gathered show that if owners and CEOs of home care companies want their businesses to survive and prosper in the long term, they will need to develop a totally new mindset about caregivers. This crisis is real and will be with us for a long, long time.
Another report published by the Family Caregiver Alliance suggests that annually 8,357,100 people receive support from the five main long-term care services:
- home health agencies (4,742,500),
- nursing homes (1,383,700),
- hospices (1,244,500),
- residential care communities (713,300) and
- adult day service centers (273,200).
These data do not include private pay in-home care.
This same report shows that 80 percent of elderly people receiving assistance, including many with several functional limitations, live in private homes in the community, not in institutions. Elderly people with limitations in three or more activities of daily living who live in the community receive an average of 9 hours of assistance per day (counting both formal and informal sources of care) and people age 85 or older with that degree of impairment typically receive about 11 hours of assistance per day.
The trend toward community-based services as opposed to nursing home placement was formalized with the Olmstead Decision (July 1999), a court case in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of individuals to receive care in the community as opposed to an institution whenever possible.
https://www.caregiver.org/selected-long-term-care-statistics
Another study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services looks at understanding direct care workers. The report explores the role of “direct care workers”— CNAs, home health aides, and personal care attendants—who are the primary providers of paid hands-on care for more than 13 million elderly and disabled Americans. This report also clearly identifies the Caregiver Recruiting Crisis.
“Although direct care workers constitute one of the largest and fastest-growing sectors of the workforce, there is a documented critical and growing shortage of these workers in every community throughout the United States. There is significant need to attract many more direct care workers in the near future.”
Conquering the Crisis 
Ongoing research into the Caregiver Crisis led to a brand new book that is coming out on June 1, 2017. Conquering the Crisis: Proven Solutions for Caregiver Recruiting and Retention will be published by Red Letter Press.
This new book is the home care industry’s leading resource for defining the crisis, providing solutions, and offering a system for success.
As a loyal reader of Home Care CEO Report, we are offering you the opportunity to order a pre-publication copy of Conquering the Crisis at an amazing 40% off the publisher’s list price. For just $15.00, we’ll send you a personally autographed copy of this brand new book to help you find and keep the caregivers you need to grow your business and get ready for the future.
Invite Stephen Tweed to speak at your next Association Conference or Corporate Meeting
With the publication of Conquering the Crisis, Stephen Tweed is in great demand as a conference and convention speaker in home health care, hospice, private pay home care, and post-acute care. If you or someone you know are on the meeting planning team for an association convention or corporate meeting, and you need an award winning professional speaker to enlighten and enliven your audience, invite Stephen Tweed to be your keynote speaker.
