California’s caregiver crisis
America is graying and faces a caregiver crisis. By 2030, people 60 years and older will constitute one in four Californians, projected to reach 10.8 million residents.
By 2031, according to the California Department of Aging, a quarter of the state’s residents will require varying levels of care that demands a robust and skilled workforce. But California faces a projected labor shortage of up to 3.2 million paid direct care workers.
At a March 7 Ethnic Media Services briefing on the critical role of caregiving, experts discussed the looming caregiver crunch as California’s aging population grows. They urged healthcare workers to avail of CalGrows – the state’s training program that provides free comprehensive online training for paid and unpaid caregivers aimed at creating a growing network of trained and empowered caregivers manning a support system for seniors across the state. The program represents an opportunity for hundreds of caregivers to polish their skills, and earn a stipend and a certificate of completion before it ends in August.
Time is running out.
Living longer
As medicine gets more successful and people live longer, the need to support an increasingly aging population living with chronic conditions grows more urgent, said Dr. VJ Periyakoil, a researcher in longevity at Stanford University and a pioneer in the field of aging.
At the top of the list of chronic conditions that impact our later years are heart disease and cancer she added. Strokes are another major cause of mortality morbidity followed by lung disease, dementia, diabetes, liver disease, and kidney problems. People are likely to die of conditions because multi-morbidity is very common in older adults.
“Most of us are going to eventually live with one or more chronic conditions for many years. We will end up having heart disease, some type of cancer that is treatable, and people often live for years.”
Healthcare worker shortage
The glaring shortage of healthcare workers trained to provide that support is a massive problem that’s become the elephant in the room, said Periyakoil. California has to address both the lack of trained caregivers and the massive costs associated with caregiving.
“In Geriatrics we always talk about taking the car keys away from the patient who’s not able to drive safely anymore,” said Dr. Periyakoil, “Caregiving is where you’re unexpectedly going to get car keys, and we better be sure as a society that we train the drivers.”
According to Dr.Periyakoil, data in 2021 found that the 38 million American family caregivers provide 18 hours of care per week at a cost of care estimated at 600 billion dollars a year. On average, that works out to less than 3 hours of care a day, which she calls an underestimate of the amount of care that is given.
“If you really think about, 36 billion hours of care at the average value of $16 and 59 cents ….we’re talking 600 billion dollars. “
“That’s not anybody’s pocket change, right?”
The backbone of California’s healthcare system
At the briefing, Renita Polk, Assistant Director of the Office of Direct Care Workforce, California Department of Aging emphasized the critical role of caregiving as California’s population gets older.
Caregivers and home healthcare workers are predominantly people of color and women play a pivotal role as the backbone of California’s healthcare system.
CalGrows Training for Healthcare Workers
The Cal Grows program provides free comprehensive online training for paid and unpaid caregivers and equips them with valuable skills that pave the way for new career possibilities said Polk.
She urged caregivers to take advantage of the free training and stipend funds available at Cal Groves before the program closes at the end of August.
Over 2 million dollars have been awarded in incentives to qualified paid caregiver participants who can earn up to $6,000 when they complete training coursework. Nearly 6,000 caregivers have participated in the program so far and received certificates of completion.
To date, over 25,000 courses have been completed through the program, covering topics such as Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, cultural diversity, food safety, infection control, provider and consumer communication. Courses are offered in nine different languages to help meet the needs of California’s diverse population. Languages include English, Spanish, Armenian Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, Russian, and Vietnamese.
Eligible paid caregivers stand to benefit significantly, with the potential to earn up to $6,000 in stipends upon successful completion of the training coursework.
Polk hopes that some of these courses will be maintained on their learning management system after the program ends in August.
Why We Need Trained Caregivers
In reality, when the job of medicine is done right, with the support of healthcare teams, friends, and family, many people live for many years with chronic illnesses.
Until then, “most Americans can have amazing quality of life, 100% functional status before they die,” said Dr. Periyakoil. “You’re running a half marathon, you’re swimming with the sharks, you know, you’re doing bungee jumping – that’s sort of the ideal that we are working towards.”
But as they age 1 in 2 older adults is going to need some kind of help with activities of daily living like getting showered, getting dressed, toileting, or getting food, just to get through their day.
“I’m not even talking instrumental activities of daily living, which include thinking of the phone, balancing your checkbook,” added Periyakoil. “The number one issue I hear from my cancer patients is they need a ride to their chemotherapy.”
The caregiver gap
Americans living with chronic illnesses and cognitive impairment, and living much longer because of advances in medical science, need someone to care for them.
A huge gap needs to be filled by direct care workers “ the unseen connective tissue that is holding the healthcare system together,” said Dr. Periyakoil.
“The more we invest in their knowledge and education, the more we do by the way of caregiver training, the better the health care system is going to be able to serve you and me.”
“This is an us problem, not a them problem.”
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
