November is Home Care and Hospice Month

Sotera Digital Health joins the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) in calling upon all Americans to commemorate the power of caring, both at home and in their local communities, by celebrating November as Home Care and Hospice Month.

This month, we honor the millions of nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who make a remarkable difference for the patients and their families. In the home care industry, we recognize that caregivers are heroes—they are dedicated to their patients, compassionate about their work, and devoted to providing the best possible care for those in need. They are also an integral part of our healthcare system.

We believe that caregivers need to be well-supported by the organizations they work for and by the communities in which they live. They deserve a good wage, benefits, and opportunities for career growth. According to a 2015 study on Caregiving in the US by the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child.

Family caregivers  – who provide the overwhelming majority of long-term care in the United States– also currently lack resources to maintain their health, well-being, and financial security while providing crucial support for others.

Supporting Family Caregivers

Each year, roughly 53 million people provide a broad range of assistance to support the health, independence, and overall quality of life of a person close to them needing assistance as they age or due to a chronic health condition or disability. Millions of older adults and people with disabilities would be unable to live in their communities without this essential support, and replacing it with paid services would cost an estimated $470 billion each year. 

When family caregivers do not have training, support, and opportunities for rest and self-care, their health, well-being, and quality of life suffer. Their financial future can also be put at risk – lost income due to family caregiving is estimated to be a staggering $522 billion annually.

The NAC reports that almost half of caregivers report experiencing symptoms of mental distress such as depression, anxiety, and stress. In addition to these emotional strains, family caregivers face physical health problems at rates more than double those seen among non-caregivers over age 60 in the United States. For example:

• 27% have trouble sleeping at night due to worry about their loved one's well-being (compared with 14% among non-caregivers);
• 37% have difficulty walking or climbing stairs without help (compared with 22% among non-caregivers);
• 42% have had physical pain lasting three months or more within the past year related to caring for someone else

When family caregivers can no longer provide support, the people they care for often are left with no choices except to move to nursing homes or other institutions, the cost of which is typically borne by taxpayers.

In September, the US Department of Health and Human Services, through its Administration for Community Living, released the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. This highlights all actions the federal government will take to support family caregivers in the coming year, as well as steps that can be adopted at other government levels and across the private sector in building a system of support for family caregivers.

Supporting Home Care and Hospice Staff

The demand for home care is snowballing. According to AARP (2021), 77% of people ages 50 and older say they want to age in place. This trend has been reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting how institutional care increases dangerous exposures to infectious diseases for patients (and the resulting isolation from the outside world). This increasing interest in receiving care at home indicates a shift over previous decades, as home health care has become a larger and more effective means of caring for those who need assistance than institutional care, such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

With 10,000 Americans turning 65 every day, the need for health care will continue to rise, and costs will continue to skyrocket. This is where home care and hospice come in. As the preferred choice for most patients, it also offers the greatest cost savings. For example, Medicare pays nearly $2,000 per day for a typical hospital stay and $450 per day for a typical nursing home stay. Meanwhile, home care costs less than $100 a day and helps many U.S. seniors remain independent at home, enrich their lives, and keep in touch with those they love.

In every state, an undervalued home healthcare workforce—overwhelmingly composed of women, workers of color, and immigrants—is paid extremely low wages to perform vital work for the nation’s older adults and people with disabilities. Home healthcare workers typically make less than $12 an hour in the lowest-paying states. Even in the highest-paying states, average wages top out below $18 per hour.

The more than 1 million additional home health care workers needed by 2029 will add to a system already straining under worker shortages. At the same time, 1 in 6 home health care workers lives below the poverty line, in many cases using government safety net benefits to make ends meet. Raising pay for home healthcare workers to a livable wage would make home healthcare jobs more attractive and decrease the reliance of these workers on the social safety net. Studies also suggest that stabilizing the home healthcare workforce could improve the quality of care, strengthen economic growth, and allow family members of individuals needing the care to return to the workforce.

Wages for home health care workers matter, not just to ensure that these workers earn a living wage but also to decrease their reliance on the social safety net, improve the quality of care, and attract more people to this rapidly growing industry.