Health

HEALTH • Fall 2016 21 up. David Price, owner of Milford-based BrightStar Care, another franchise company, said most of his employees rely on public benefits to supplement their wages, but he can't afford to pay more. "My cost is all labor," he said. "I'd love to pay my aides more. I'd just have to charge my clients more." Home care as a stepping stone? One way to encourage more people to join the home care workforce is to re-define the jobs as part of a professional career path. University of Massachusetts Medical School is working with six state community colleges and the Department of Higher Education to develop a curriculum to do just that. "What we are trying to do is create career ladders for direct care workers," said Leanne Winchester, project director of the Direct Care Workforce Development project at UMass. "Core competency training and home care are one of the ways a direct care worker can get where they want to be." Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) in Worcester is among the colleges offering courses using the new curriculum. Kathleen O'Connor, coordinator of the school's home health care pro- gram, said QCC has offered courses in both English and Spanish to prepare students for work as per- sonal care aides. She said the Spanish class has been particularly popular, reflecting an industry in which many workers are immigrants. For graduates of that course who want to con- tinue their education in health care, O'Connor said the school offers classes that can help students learn English while also learning health care-spe- cific customer service and math skills. "Some of our students who were in the personal care aide program, they came to us for additional training and became nurse assistants," she said, adding that some of the students are now training to become licensed practical nurses. Winchester: Immigrant outreach is vital Winchester said the project includes supports that target limited-English speakers, often new immigrants, with materials available in four languages. 0 .5M 1M 1.5M 2M 2.5M 3M Personal care aides Home health aides Nursing assistants Licensed practical nurses Registered nurses 2014 2024 Number of health care occupations and percent growth, 2014-2025 1.8M 2.2M .91M 1.3M 1.5M 1.8M .72M .84M 2.8M 3.2M 26% 38% 18% 16% 16% Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Home care workers and other health care occupations are among the fastest growing careers. Here's how they're projected to grow in the next ten years. HOME CARE JOB GROWTH Beyond bringing much-needed workers into the home care field, Winchester said reaching out to immi- grants can help the industry benefit from workers who have advanced degrees or licenses in health care from their home countries but need a path to regain their footing as health care professionals in the U.S. Another reason to recruit more bilingual immi- grants and English learners into home care is that some older people speak a language other than English. James Fuccione, director of legislative and public affairs at the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts, said that will be a bigger issue in the future. "The elder population now tends to be English- speaking," he said, "But some of the population that's aging into the point that they're going to need this kind of care is bilingual." Already, Fuccione said, there are home care agen- cies in some parts of the state that focus particularly on matching clients who speak Portuguese, Russian, Cambodian, or Spanish with workers who speak their language. Hayley Gleason, assistant director of the Home Care Aide Council, based in Watertown, said turning home care into a real career path, would attract more young people—including both immigrants and U.S.- born workers—to the field. She said the Council wants to see pay rise for all home care workers. But Gleason also envisions a system where young workers start out as homemakers, taking care of housekeeping tasks for clients, and move up to more advanced, better-paying jobs as they gain experience and train for more complex tasks. She said the chance to advance, eventually becoming a supervisor who trains other home care workers or going on to be a nurse or a doctor, can make up for the fact that starting wages really don't reflect how important these jobs are. "The reality is we're never going to pay them what they're worth," Gleason said. "Fifteen dollars an hour is wonderful, but it's never going to be enough."

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