DENVER — There is no single, promising action on the horizon as it relates to the workforce crisis in the long-term care industry, according to LeadingAge. But the association is working to assemble a variety of puzzle pieces focused on bringing solutions to the problem.
LeadingAge Senior Vice President for Policy Ruth Katz led a policy update panel discussion Wednesday during the final day of the LeadingAge Annual Meeting + Expo in Denver.
She said there is cause for optimism despite the challenges facing the workforce: the economy, COVID-19, monkeypox, the growing aging population, worker migration patterns, and an increasing need for healthcare workers
“We’re going to keep working on it,” Katz said. “At some point, policymakers will have to take action.”
Opportunities in 2023
There are 11 million job openings in this country but only 8.5 million people available to fill them, Katz said.
“We don’t have enough human beings in the United States to fill the jobs that we have a need for, particularly in long-term care,” Katz said.
One way LeadingAge is working to address this challenge is through “unrelenting pressure for immigration reform,” she said. That manifests in new and broader coalitions with other aging services, social services, health and immirgration-related organizations to highlight workforce challenges from multiple perspectives.
“We need to continue to expand those partnerships,” Katz said. “The bigger we are and the louder our voices, the more likely we’ll be able to make change.”
Advocacy for a “whole of government” approach to workforce solutions is another angle the aging services association is taking. Along with advocating for an Office on Aging in the White House, Katz said, LeadingAge is advocating for the Department of Labor, the Department of Education and other federal departments to be at the table to address the problem and work together on solutions.
“The highest levels of government need to be thinking about how to pull together all that we do to address the problem we’re having in healthcare and long-term care,” Katz said.
Legislative efforts to address workforce
Workforce and Technology Policy Director Andrea Price-Carter addressed several legislative avenues that LeadingAge is pursuing to address workforce issues, including the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act, the H-2B temporary guest workers program, the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act and the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act.
Those legislative efforts support LeadingAge’s Aging Services Workforce Now! campaign, which calls on Congress to alleviate industry staffing issues by helping to offer a living wage for direct care workers, incentives to retain and attract employees, expand training and advancement opportunities, and enact equitable long-term care financing.
Vice President of Housing Policy Linda House said that LeadingAge’s policy committee may encounter a host of new faces and new priorities in 2023, depending on the outcome of the midterm elections.
“In all that risk and in all that change, what we see are opportunities,” Couch said. “What we see are points of new people, new passions and new ways to get this work done.”
The meeting ended Wednesday.
