A Vision for Professionalizing the Caregiving Workforce in the Field of Long-Term Services and Supports – Feeling Valued Because The Are Valued! 

By Robyn I. Stone and Natasha Bryant

A report from LeadingAge & LTSS Center presents six strategies for professionalizing the LTSS workforce.

The coronavirus pandemic shed new—and much-needed—light on the valuable work that nursing assistants, personal care aides, and home health aides carry out each day as they provide life sustaining services and supports to older adults who are particularly susceptible to COVID-19.

These professional caregivers—often referred to as direct care workers—have always played an important role in the field of long-term services and supports (LTSS). But the pandemic exacerbated and highlighted the challenges they experience on the job each day. The health crisis also raised awareness of how much consumers and aging services organizations depend on them to provide care, and exposed deficiencies in the LTSS system that are likely to challenge this workforce far into the future.

Read full report here.