Growing demand as a labor pool likely to shrink
The demand for caregivers should increase in the United States while the youngest baby boomers are reaching retirement age, with the need for health care and personal care at home planned to grow by around 21% More than a decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These 820,000 additional positions represent most of any occupation. The need for Nursing assistants and garnish should also increase, by around 65,000 jobs.
Care provision is often poorly paid and physically demanding work that does not attract enough Americans born in the country. Median remuneration varies from approximately $ 34,000 has $ 38,000 One year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nursing homes, assisted living establishments and home health agencies have long fought with high rolling rates and staff shortages, said Smith Sloan, and they are now afraid that Trump’s immigration policies are choking a key source of workers, leaving many older and disabled Americans to help them eat, dress and carry out daily activities.
With the Trump administration Reorganization of the administration for community lifeWho manages programs supporting the elderly and people with disabilities, and the congress considering deep cups in Medicaid, the largest long-term care payer in the country, the anti-immigration policies of the president create “a perfect storm” for a sector which has not recovered from the Cavid-19 pandemic, said the Covid-19 pandemic. Leslie FranetExecutive vice-president of the International Union of Services Employees, which represents workers in nursing institutions and home aid.
The relationships that caregivers have with their customers can take years to develop, said Frane, and replacements are already difficult to find.
In September, the leader called for the federal government To help industry meet personnel needs by increasing the ceilings on work -related immigration visas, by expanding refugee status to more people and allowing immigrants to test professional licenses in their mother tongue, among other recommendations.
But, Smith Sloan said: “There is not much appetite for our message right now.”
The White House did not answer questions about how the administration would answer the need for long -term care workers. The spokesman Kush Desai said that the president had received “a resounding mandate from the American people to enforce our immigration laws and put the Americans first” while relying on “progress made during the first Trump presidency to strengthen our health care staff and increase the affordability of health care”.
Refugees occupy jobs of nursing homes in Wisconsin
Until Trump suspended the refugee resettlement program, some Wisconsin nursing homes have joined local churches and placement programs to hire workers born abroad, said Robin Wolzenburg, vice-president of the Wisconsin management.
Many work in food and households, roles that release nurses and nursing assistants to work directly with patients. Wolzenburg has said that many immigrants are interested in direct roles of care but assume auxiliary roles because they cannot speak English fluent or lack American certification.
Thanks to a partnership with the Wisconsin health service and local schools, Wolzenburg said, nursing homes began to offer training in English, Spanish and Hmong so that immigrant workers become direct care professionals. Wolzenburg said the group planned to deploy Swahili training soon for Congolese state women.
In the past 2 and a half years, she said, the partnership has helped the Wisconsin nursing homes to occupy more than two dozen jobs. Since admissions to refugees are suspended, Wolzenburg said, resettlement agencies do not take new candidates and have paused in nursing homes.
Many older and disabled immigrants who are permanent residents count on caregivers born abroad who speak their mother tongue and know their customs. Frane with the Seiu noted that many members of the great American Chinese community of San Francisco wanted their aging parents to be taken care of at home, preferably by someone who can speak the language.
“In California only, we have members who speak 12 different languages,” said Frane. “This skill results in a kind of care and connections with consumers who will be very difficult to reproduce if the supply of immigrant caregivers is reduced.”
The ecosystem supports a caregiver
Care provision is the type of work that makes other work possible, said Frane. Without external caregivers, the life of the patient and their loved ones becomes more difficult in a logistically and economical way.
“Think about it like removing a jenga stick from a JENGA battery, and the thing is starting to overthrow,” she said.
Thanks to the individual care of Ortiz, Joséphine learned to communicate when she is hungry or needs help. She now takes her clothes and learns to style her hair. With his more under control anxiety, the violent collapses that have marked his weeks have become much less frequent, said Ortiz.
“We live in the world of Joséphine,” said Ortiz in Spanish. “I try to help him find his voice and communicate his feelings.”
Ortiz moved to the New Jersey of Venezuela in 2022 as part of a UA pending program that links workers born abroad to older people or children with disabilities who need a caregiver at home. Fearing political disorders and crimes in her country of origin, she obtained temporary protection status when her visa expired last year to maintain her authorization to work in the United States and stay with Joséphine.