On October 6, a story by the Philadelphia Inquirer examined the challenges faced by Karen Goroncy (pictured left), a 51-year-old home health aide in Pennsylvania without health coverage.
The next day, Garrison Keillor (pictured below), best known for his radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” and his stories of Lake Wobegon, referenced Goroncy’s situation in a a story for his nationally syndicated column.
Keillor commented in his usual folksy way:
“In Philly, a woman earns $10.30/hour to care for a man brought down by cystic fibrosis. She bathes and dresses him in the morning, brings him meals, puts him to bed at night. It’s hard work lifting him and she has suffered a painful hernia that, because she can’t afford health insurance, she can’t get fixed, but she still goes to work because he’d be helpless without her. There are a lot of people like her. I know because I’m related to some of them.”
As the crisis in long-term care grows in severity, it’s encouraging to see the plight of direct-care workers drawing the focus of media and to see the importance of direct-care work being publicly recognized. Public recognition of the problem is an important step along the path to achieving the fundamental change we all know is necessary if America is to be prepared to meet the challenges presented by its rapidly aging population.
Aaron Toleos, Online Communications Director
atoleos@phinational.org
The issues around the Direct Care Workers are not new. Inadequate training,poor wages and lack of benefits has led to chronic turnover and a critical shortage of people willing to take these jobs.
With the aging of the baby boomers the need for qualified well trained Direct Care Workers to take care fo elders and disabled individuals will continue to increase.
We as a society need to rase the status of Direct Care Worker,improve the qulaity of these jobs,while changing the long term care system .Unless this is done people who need care and services will never be able to obtain quality care.
I currently am on the board of the Direct Care Alliance the national voice for Direct Care Workers. We bring together workers, employers and consumers to improve the qulaity of jobs while improving care.
What we need now is a puplic person who would be willing to assist us by taking on this important issue . Our nation appears to be in denial about our own aging process and needs to be educated about this critical problem and called to action to raise the staus of the Direct Care Worker and improve the quality of care.
Would you consider talking with me further about this matter?
I look foward to hearing from you.