PHI New York Policy Director Carol Rodat

The Allegany County Community Partnership on Aging joined with Alfred University and Alfred State College to mount its Sixth Annual Conference on Aging, entitled “Dynamic Aging.”

The conference (pdf) was held in Alfred, New York, on May 27.

The conference planners, the Allegany/Western Steuben Rural Health Network, Inc., invited speakers from a variety of disciplines and organizations to provide creative ideas for three tracks:

• Healthy Aging
• Workforce and Lifelong Learning
• Community Engagement

Workforce Strategies

PHI New York Policy Director Carol Rodat presented on “Solutions for a Long-Term Care Workforce,” which included specific strategies for rural areas to pursue in order to create the workforce needed for the aging demographic.

“There is no magic solution,” Rodat said, adding that “only by employing a variety of techniques and strategies can you improve your workforce for the aging and disabled. This means support for family caregivers, unique transportation alternatives, robust registries, supports for consumers who have chosen to direct their own care, and better wages and benefits for home care aides.”

Projections for Care Gap in NY

Rodat explained that in 2008, there were over 317,000 direct-care workers in New York State, and the demand for these workers continues to grow. New York State is projected to need significantly more of these workers by 2016 in every job category:

• 38 percent more home health aides
• 35 percent more personal care and home care aides
• 11 percent more nursing aides and orderlies

Resource on Workforce in Rural Communities

Rodat provided participants with a variety of resources, including Strengthening the Direct Service Workforce in Rural Areas, a 2009 brief that PHI helped develop for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center.

Approximately 200 people from a variety of organizations attended the conference, including the local departments of social services, county offices for the aging, Total Senior Care (the first rural PACE program in New York), Visiting Nurses Association of Western New York, and other home care companies.

– by the PHI Policy Team