Winter is upon us and now is the perfect time to for caregivers of seniors, as well as friends and family, to become familiar with the risks of senior falling. Falling can have serious consequences for seniors so it’s vital to learn more about the risks and the potential impacts on their health.
Aricle source here: Awareness and Fall Prevention Tips for Seniors
Tuesday, December 27, 2016
Thursday, December 8, 2016
The Forgotten Providers
The people who will save American health care likely don’t wear lab coats or perform complicated procedures in operating rooms. They probably don’t have doctorates or years and years of graduate experience. These saviors on average make a tenth or less of what physicians earn each year in salary, and they often perform some of the most thankless tasks of the allied health fields. But as the American population gets older and the health-care system caters more and more to the needs of elderly and disabled people, this growing army of millions of home-care workers will be one of the most valuable elements in keeping the whole system afloat.
Home-care workers are not, however, afforded wages or protections commensurate with their importance, with over a quarter living under the poverty line and more than half reliant on public assistance. That economic vulnerability is especially notable because of just who tends to work in home care: Women of color are the largest demographic group within the home-care workforce. Their vulnerability reflects a long history of exploitation of women of color working in-home jobs, and highlights a growing inequality in the health-care workforce, even as health coverage expands to more and more Americans.
A new report from the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute describes home-care workers as personal aides, independent providers, home health aides, nursing assistants, and even informal networks of family members that provide living assistance, housekeeping chores, medication management, and a host of other services for elderly people and people with disabilities. About 1.4 million of these workers fulfill the kind of formal roles tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—working for firms or insurance companies—while almost a million more are ad hoc “independent providers” who are employed directly by patients or their families. Almost three-quarters of the payment for services provided by home-care workers comes from public-insurance programs Medicaid and Medicare.
The millions of home-care workers operate in one of the fastest-growing fields in the country—one that will add more jobs over the next decade than any other occupation. The American population is aging and the number of elderly people will double over the next 40 years, a spate of growth that will require even more people to enter the home-care workforce.
While the field is rapidly expanding and funded by insurance programs that have been reformed by Obamacare, in many ways it resembles the domestic work that for so long dominated employment options for women of color in the United States. Almost a quarter are immigrants, most did not receive a college degree, over a third are covered by public health insurance themselves, and a quarter have no insurance at all. That point deserves emphasis: A quarter of these people who toil to make the health-insurance system function do not have health insurance themselves. According to a 2008 study, workers across domestic services and home care are subject to exploitation and instability. For many, that exploitation includes assault and abuse, and women of color and recent immigrants often find reporting abuse or seeking legal protection too risky to attempt.
Read more: The Forgotten Providers
Related article: Options of Elder Care
Home-care workers are not, however, afforded wages or protections commensurate with their importance, with over a quarter living under the poverty line and more than half reliant on public assistance. That economic vulnerability is especially notable because of just who tends to work in home care: Women of color are the largest demographic group within the home-care workforce. Their vulnerability reflects a long history of exploitation of women of color working in-home jobs, and highlights a growing inequality in the health-care workforce, even as health coverage expands to more and more Americans.
A new report from the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute describes home-care workers as personal aides, independent providers, home health aides, nursing assistants, and even informal networks of family members that provide living assistance, housekeeping chores, medication management, and a host of other services for elderly people and people with disabilities. About 1.4 million of these workers fulfill the kind of formal roles tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—working for firms or insurance companies—while almost a million more are ad hoc “independent providers” who are employed directly by patients or their families. Almost three-quarters of the payment for services provided by home-care workers comes from public-insurance programs Medicaid and Medicare.
The millions of home-care workers operate in one of the fastest-growing fields in the country—one that will add more jobs over the next decade than any other occupation. The American population is aging and the number of elderly people will double over the next 40 years, a spate of growth that will require even more people to enter the home-care workforce.
While the field is rapidly expanding and funded by insurance programs that have been reformed by Obamacare, in many ways it resembles the domestic work that for so long dominated employment options for women of color in the United States. Almost a quarter are immigrants, most did not receive a college degree, over a third are covered by public health insurance themselves, and a quarter have no insurance at all. That point deserves emphasis: A quarter of these people who toil to make the health-insurance system function do not have health insurance themselves. According to a 2008 study, workers across domestic services and home care are subject to exploitation and instability. For many, that exploitation includes assault and abuse, and women of color and recent immigrants often find reporting abuse or seeking legal protection too risky to attempt.
Read more: The Forgotten Providers
Related article: Options of Elder Care
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