Confronting the need for long-term care

PSARA members are invited to participate with the broader community at the Seattle Care Congress from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, February 11, at the Greenwood Community Senior Center, 525 N. 85th Street in Seattle. Lunch will be provided.

Our country and region are facing a severe and growing “care gap.” The number of persons needing long-term care services is expected to reach 27 million by 2050, while the current direct care workforce is only 3 million. PSARA has joined a national campaign to address this ticking time bomb. No one wants to age in an institution if it is possible to receive the necessary care in one’s own home.

Today individuals and families across the country are struggling to find dependable, affordable quality care that meets the full range of their needs. That goal will not be achieved until the direct care workforce is protected by labor laws that assure them they can achieve a decent living for themselves and their families.

Today, nearly half the direct care workforce earns less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level. In addition, there are neither uniform training standards nor a meaningful career ladder to provide opportunities for advancement.

Moreover, many direct care givers are immigrants who lack documentation. Without a pathway to citizenship, these care givers are pushed into the underground economy, where they live in constant fear of deportation.

The Caring Across Generations campaign is based on the principle that all members of our society deserve a dignified quality of life and dignified quality jobs. To achieve that goal, we must:

• Create sufficient jobs to meet the growing demand for direct care.

• Transform the quality of today’s direct care jobs by ensuring fair wages, access to health insurance, and protection of health and safety.

• Create a rewarding career path and linguistically and culturally relevant training programs for undocumented care workers and their families.

• Create training and certification programs that provide a path to legal status and citizenship for undocumented care workers and their families.

• Support individuals and families who hire direct care workers by providing access to Medicaid/Medicare and by creating tax credits to assist with the costs of direct care.

• Support individuals and families who are providing unpaid kin care by establishing Social Security care-giving credits, paid family leave, and childcare subsidies.

This multi-year national campaign recognizes that caring for the aging and for people with disabilities is a national responsibility. Please join us on February 11 as we launch this campaign in the Puget Sound region.

-- Robby Stern