Strengthening the Direct Care Workforce
Direct care workers play a vital role in the day-to-day life of older adults, often providing assistance with personal hygiene, light housekeeping, and medication management. Direct care workers serve in a variety of settings (e.g., home care, nursing home, etc.) and often have different names for similar job titles (e.g., licensed nursing assistant, home health aide, community health workers, etc.). Workers help enhance quality of life for older adults through maintaining independence and also provide respite and assurance to family caregivers that loved ones are well cared for.
Yet against this backdrop, New Hampshire faces major challenges. The older adult population is expected to increase exponentially over the next decade, and as people are living longer healthier lives, they want to age at home. This leads to an increase in the growing demand for direct care workers, with some projections suggesting over 24,000 openings by 2028. Due to this increase in demand, many families are struggling to find direct care services. Further, low wages, poor benefits, and a lack of career advancement opportunities contribute to difficulties in recruiting and retaining direct care workers.
