PHI Massachusetts Policy Director Amy Robins (L) with panelist and attendees

Massachusetts lawmakers were informed of the opportunities and challenges presented by the state’s rapidly growing demand for direct-care workers at a legislative briefing held on May 5.

Massachusetts will need nearly 23,000 more direct-care workers by 2016.

Currently, 100,000 of these healthcare workers — the second largest occupational group in the state — provide long-term services and supports to elders and people living with disabilities.

PHI Director of Policy Research Dr. Dorie Seavey told the legislators that there are two key challenges to meeting the state’s demand:

• fewer women workers are entering the labor force even though the number of people in need of services is rising rapidly,
• and the quality of direct-care workers’ jobs is poor.

The number of women who are entering the workforce between the ages of 25-54 — the age group that typically fills direct-care jobs — is declining, while the number of people in need of services is rising exponentially.

Workers and Providers Discuss Job-Related Challenges

Long-term care providers and direct-care workers were featured on two panels at the briefing.

Among the challenges that workers identified were the difficulty of accessing health care. Independent personal care aides talked about the lack of training and support. And providers discussed the high cost of providing health insurance to their employees, among other topics.

“Legislators need to join together to do two things: ‘raise the floor’ for these jobs in terms of compensation and training standards, and help ‘build ladders’ that offer direct-care workers job mobility, specialized training, and even new roles as part of redesigned care teams,” said Seavey.

“We need to understand more about these workers and their employers in order to ensure that we have the workforce we need to care for elders and people with disabilities,” said State Senator Patricia Jehlen, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs, which co-sponsored the legislative briefing with the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development.

“Direct-care workers play a crucial role in our society, caring for elders and people with disabilities. As legislators, we need to pay more attention to workers like these,” said State Representative Alice Wolf, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Elder Affairs.

“The briefing was an important step toward ensuring that Massachusetts is prepared to care,” said PHI Massachusetts State Director Amy Robins, who organized the briefing and facilitated the panel presentations.

Further Information

The legislative briefing was held in collaboration with PHI; Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts; MassAging; MassALFA (Assisted Living Facilities Association); Massachusetts Council for Home Care Aide Services; Massachusetts Senior Care Alliance; and SEIU/1199.

For more information on the direct-care workforce in Massachusetts, see PHI’s State Fact Sheet (pdf).

Contact Amy Robins to learn more about the briefing.

– by Deane Beebe