How to address Maryland’s shortage of home health care workers | READER COMMENTARY

All older adults in Maryland deserve entry to high quality well being care and group assist. Nonetheless, that is at present not attainable as there’s a blatant mismatch between the availability of dwelling well being aides and the demand. The truth is, we’re quick 40% of aides to fulfill the wants of our group and as such are within the midst of a house well being care disaster (”Nurses on pandemic entrance traces look to refill their ‘empty cup,’” Might 6).

The basis reason for this disaster is two-pronged.

First, with the advances in public well being and medication, extra people are capable of dwell to an older age. By 2040, Maryland is projected to have over 1.8 million residents who’re 60 years and older. Primarily based on a research performed by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, upon turning 65, over one in 4 males and one in three ladies require at the very least a number of years of long-term helps and companies. For Maryland, this might imply as much as 500,000 older adults (which might fill over 10 Camden Yards) requiring help with their each day duties and persistent well being situations.

Second, dwelling well being aides have excessive turnover and burnout charges on account of poor monetary, occupational and psychosocial struggles. In Maryland, dwelling well being aides earn a median hourly wage of $13 and a median annual revenue of $22,700. They’ve lengthy been undervalued and overworked, and their workforce inequity has solely been magnified all through the COVID-19 pandemic. This lack of a protected working setting is just not solely hazardous for the employees but additionally jeopardizes the standard of care delivered. Thus, this urgent situation must be promptly addressed because it impacts our inhabitants’s well being and is unsustainable.

I suggest two coverage alternate options that would assist stabilize the workforce and supply higher healthcare for our older adults.

First, we have to present that we look after and worth our staff by means of elevated wages. Research have proven that rising pay can even enhance the recruitment and retention of staff. Greater than 20 states have moved towards this purpose by implementing a Medicaid wage pass-through program for direct care staff, which sees as a lot as a 12% enhance in compensation per hour and promotes a extra sustainable workforce. By supporting our staff, we can even enhance the variety of older adults who’re capable of age efficiently in the neighborhood and reduce the general well being expenditure for Maryland by means of decreased nursing dwelling admissions, hospitalizations, and psychosocial struggles.

Second, the latest 2022 state legislative session handed and enrolled Home Invoice 625/Senate Invoice 440 to create a fee to review the well being care workforce disaster in Maryland. Though it is a nice step ahead, analysis research merely present evidence-based information to assist inform change. As such, we have to carry this momentum ahead and maintain the duty pressure accountable for not solely performing a radical research, but additionally translating their findings into actionable insurance policies.

In the meantime, we have to increase consciousness that the house well being aide scarcity will proceed to worsen over time and sustaining the established order is just not solely unsustainable, however can also be unsafe for the employees, older adults and our group.

Tanya Chotrani, Baltimore

The author is a graduate pupil in public well being at Johns Hopkins College.

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