Caregivers are essential when it comes to a good quality of life for seniors. They help seniors with tasks that we don’t even think about. Things like getting dressed, bathing, housekeeping, and more things that most people do without a thought. Both New Hampshire and Vermont are facing a caregiver shortage though.
Caregiver Shortage
The problem in both states is that the elderly population is growing bigger than the workforce that can assist them. There is also an extremely low unemployment rate, around 3 percent in both New Hampshire and Vermont.
Another struggle is the low pay rate and hard work that’s involved in caregiving. Most companies offer under 15 dollars an hour so that the elderly can afford to get help. So the amount of people willing to do the work for that pay is small. This leads to competition between companies to keep and gain employees.
In health care, the shortage has forced employers to offer nurses and nursing assistants flexible hours, loan repayment, on the job training, and opportunities to continue to work part time after retirement. Nursing homes have had to turn to traveling nurses for extra help.
The problem with traveling nurses is that they tend to be more expensive than local employees and they leave. This disrupts the care and can leave seniors lonely if they grew close to the nurse.
The Aging Population
In New Hampshire, residents 65 and older will make up almost 30 percent of the state’s population by 2040. The residents aged 25 to 64 will drop from 54 percent in 2015 to 45 percent by 2040.
Vermont faces similar problems. People 65 years and older will be 27 percent of the population by 2030.
Access Issues
Another tough aspect is that many seniors are on Medicaid or Medicare. People who are on these programs are actually more lucky than most. Medicaid will pay for someone to come to their home to help them for a certain amount of hours. But they may not qualify for enough hours that they need.
People who don’t qualify for Medicaid are in a rock and a hard place. They don’t have enough money to afford care, but they don’t have little enough to be on Medicaid.
How You Can Help
If you want to help, feel free to apply to be a caregiver with us! We help seniors of all walks of life. We will work with you to find the right senior to match with you. We offer competitive pay and are never short of gratitude for those who work with us. We know your value.
If you know of someone who needs help, feel free to send them our way. We would love to help them with either service or advice. We just want to give seniors the best quality of life as possible.
Read more about the shortage here.