Iowa direct-care workers with State Senator Jack Hatch (D, Des Moines)

Forty-five direct-care workers and their supporters participated in the Iowa Caregivers Association’s (ICA) annual Direct-Care Worker Day at the State Capitol. Read the full story

New direct-care workers in training

Two direct-care occupations — home health aide and personal and home care aide — top the list of both the fastest-growing jobs and the occupations expected to generate the most new positions in the U.S. economy over the next decade, according to projections released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Read the full story

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis’s keynote remarks at the 2009 National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP) conference were music to the ears of advocates for quality care through quality jobs. Read the full story

A new report commissioned by the National Institute on Aging and issued last month by the U.S. Census Bureau examines the demographic and socioeconomic effects of the unprecedented rate at which the world’s population is aging. Read the full story

The Senior Resources Agency on Aging has released a report titled “When No One Cares: Why We Need to Save Connecticut’s Direct Care Workforce” (pdf) that argues for increased investment in the state’s direct-care workforce in order to ensure access to quality care.

“Folks, we’re brewing the perfect storm,” said Lisa Reynolds, one of the report’s authors. “If you don’t have the staff, you can’t serve the clients. And if you can’t serve the clients, then you don’t have a business” (“Aging population, health worker shortage creating ‘perfect storm,’ advocates say,” Norwich Bulletin, May 22). Read the full story

The Sacramento Business Journal has launched a three-part series about aging in America, and the inaugural article paints a troubling picture of a nation that is medically and economically ill-prepared to deal with the challenges posed by an aging boomer generation.

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