By Geralyn Magan
Read a new blog by Alisha Sanders and check out other articles that caught our eye in May 2021.
Many newly vaccinated older adults are slowly emerging from the grip of COVID-19, while others are still living under the pandemic’s dark economic cloud, according to a recent blog published by Generations.
Blog author Alisha Sanders, director of housing policy research at the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, shares disturbing statistics to illustrate the precarious position in which older renters find themselves:
- More than 100,000 renters ages 65 and older and almost 450,000 ages 55 to 64 report they will likely be evicted in the next two months.
- More than 300,000 people ages 65 and older and 1 million ages 55 to 64 said they were behind on their rent.
- The labor market is still down 8.4 million jobs from pre-pandemic levels, and workers ages 55 and older are short more than 2 million jobs.
- More than half of renters ages 62 and older pay more than 30% of their monthly income for housing costs, and almost a third pay more than 50% of their income.
- Many older adults who lost jobs during the pandemic were lower-wage workers who are less likely to have savings to help carry them through this kind of emergency.
Sanders’ blog appeared not long after a federal judge threw out a moratorium, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which banned evictions nationwide through the end of June 2021. The judge’s order has been placed on hold pending an anticipated appeal from the Department of Justice. However, the CDC ban, and other bans issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and 40 states, are scheduled to expire in the near future. When they do, tenants will be responsible for all back rent and related late fees.
Federal emergency rental assistance programs are available to help older adults struggling with pandemic-related housing costs. Sanders urges providers of aging services to educate older adults about these programs and help them to apply, when needed. State and local governments should also scale their programs so they can process applications quickly.
“The impacts of evictions are too significant to do otherwise,” concludes Sanders.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT CARING FOR A LOVED ONE FROM AFAR
During a recent interview with Guideposts, Verena Cimarolli, director of health services research and partnerships at the LTSS Center, discussed what makes long-distance caregiving so complex and what caregivers say about dealing with their challenges. Cimarolli based her comments on findings from a study she conducted with a team of researchers.
“We’re talking about living at least two hours travel time away,” said Cimarolli about long-distance caregivers. “You can’t just pop by. You constantly feel like you can’t just resolve things quickly. Also … traveling to see the care recipient is causing physical and emotional strain and also it costs a lot of money.”
WHAT COVID-19 INNOVATIONS CAN TEACH US ABOUT IMPROVING QUALITY OF LIFE
Staff, administrators, and community members around the world have a lot of teach us about maintaining quality of life for nursing home residents while reducing spread of COVID-19, according to a JAMDA editorial penned by Barbara J. Bowers and colleagues. The authors share 19 interventions to increase resident social interactions, improve physical fitness, support staff-resident relationships, and promote family-staff communication.
“Although developed as urgent responses to a temporary situation, some innovations could address longstanding quality-of-life challenges and should, we suggest, be considered for permanent adoption,” the authors write.
COVID-19 AND LONG-TERM CARE REFORM
Despite the unprecedented challenges facing the Biden administration and the new Congress, comprehensive long-term care reform must be at the top of the policy agenda, write Walter Dawson and Nathan Boucher in The Hill.
“Our collective COVID-19 response offers a sobering opportunity for real social change,” the authors suggest. “We can create and invest in a long-term care system that truly works—one that covers robust home care, as well as care in high-quality facility settings when needed or preferred. Federal policymakers must act to address system deficits through long overdue, substantive reform.”
INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE THE IMPACT OF CLIENT DEATH ON HOME CARE AIDES
Research demonstrates that client death can cause grief and job insecurity for home care aides, according to a recent article in the Journal of Applied Gerontology. After conducting interviews with leaders of eight New York City home care agencies, the authors concluded that agencies engaged primarily in a range of informal, reactive practices, and relatively few targeted and proactive efforts, to support aides around client death.
“While leaders generally acknowledged a need for greater aide support, they pointed to a lack of sustainable home care financing and policy resources to fund this,” write the authors, including LTSS Center researcher Verena Cimarolli. “We recommend increased funding to support wages, paid time off, and supportive services.”