By Natasha Bryant
The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston is exploring the training and policy infrastructure necessary to develop a new universal home care worker family of occupations that could address the increasing demand for home care workers.
The LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston is working to develop recommendations to support a sustainable and skilled home care profession in California.
The 1-year research project, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, is being carried out in partnership with the Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care at University of California San Francisco, and SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
The project will culminate in a white paper exploring the training and policy infrastructure necessary to develop a new universal home care worker family of occupations. The new occupation category has been recommended by the California Future Health Workforce Commission as a way to address the increasing demand for home care workers.
After conducting a review of both the current literature and existing workforce policies and initiatives, and interviewing a range of stakeholders, researchers will propose a home care training and certification pilot program that could be implemented in a region or locality in California.
BACKGROUND
As the U.S. older adult population continues to grow, the delivery of long-term services and supports (LTSS) has increasingly shifted from nursing homes into the community. This trend has increased the demand for home care workers home care jobs.
Between 2014 and 2024, home care occupations are projected to add more jobs to the economy than any other occupation. By 2030, the nation will need between 2.3 to 2.4 million workers to meet the demand for services.
The California Future Health Workforce Commission’s Healthy Aging and Care for Older Adults Subcommittee has identified a series of priority strategies to help meet this demand.
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
LTSS Center researchers will explore ways to operationalize the commission’s recommendation to establish a universal home care profession. Their work will focus on 3 areas:
Literature Review: Researchers will review the literature documenting successful strategies that other states, regions, or communities have followed to establish the basic building blocks of a universal home care profession, including:
- Developing standards for training and certification,
- Establishing entry level and career advancement guidelines and programs for a universal home care worker family of occupations, and
- Expanding nurse delegation laws to include tasks and job responsibilities that could be assumed by the universal home care professional in California.
Initiative Review: The LTSS Center’s team will also review California state and local initiatives designed to:
- Train and support home care workers,
- Develop career advancement opportunities, and
- Integrate home care aides into broader health and LTSS systems-change efforts at the regional, country, or agency level.
Interviews: Finally, researchers will interview a range of stakeholders about the challenges and opportunities for developing standards related to training, career advancement, nurse delegation, and other issues.
PRODUCING A WHITE PAPER
When the Universal Home Care Profession project concludes in Oct. 2019, researchers will produce a white paper describing previous universal home care worker models, and identifying lessons learned and recommendations for next steps in the development of:
- Standards for training and certification,
- Templates for competency-based job descriptions,
- Tracks for career development and advancement,
- Options for nurse delegation, and
- Mechanisms to pay for and sustain these activities.
The research team also will design a model for a new universal home care professional training and certification program that could be tested statewide, and in various regions of California.