It’s 7 am. Keith Gurgi makes sure he’s awake, a home health assistant helps him bathe and change clothes, then lifts her out of bed and puts her in a wheelchair before leaving for the day.
A 30-year-old Gurgi was paralyzed from shoulder to bottom due to a diving accident in 2009. He needs 24/7 support, but he can’t find anyone to meet the shift, so he spends the next 12 hours without an aide. This is a regular event for Gurgi, whose aides have quit, called for illness, and, as has recently happened, are banned from overtime by their agencies.
Currently, he receives about 20 hours of care a week. He hopes to find another aide to cover them soon.
“We don’t have a pool of pullers right now,” said Gurgi, who lives with his parents at a family home on Lake Katrine, a suburb of Kingston. In recent years, both nurses, Linda and Richard Gurgi, have either retired or got a part-time job to help care for their son.
This situation is reflected in countless families in New York and across the country. Home care workers often have lower wages, lower benefits, and are out of the field because they cannot pay invoices than fast food workers. Some people with disabilities sleep in wheelchairs at night instead of being transferred to bed because they don’t know if they can get up in the morning.
Meanwhile, spouses, parents and other families are forced to sacrifice college, parenting, careers, dreams and free time to ensure quality care for the elderly and loved ones with disabilities. It has been.
“There is this resistance in societies where informal caregivers are retired or not working because of the shortage of home care workers and the low wages of those around them,” says Keith Gurgi. I did. “They are tied up because the system is not catching up.”
The impact of COVID remains
COVID-19 exacerbated these situations as social closure, quarantine periods, and fear of illness kept many aides away from work. Even in facility environments such as group homes and nursing homes, the number of direct specialists has decreased.
“The staff are crying because they know they don’t get the quality care they deserve. It breaks your heart,” said Julie Martinez, associate nurse at the Dunkirk Rehabilitation and Nursing Center. Said.
Nationwide, millions of baby boomers will be in their 70s and may need more help at home, so the home health industry will be in 2025 to meet the demand for services. By then, an additional 450,000 home medical assistants will be needed.
But the workforce trend is moving in the opposite direction, Caring, a Jewish political director for racial economic justice and a coalition of advocates for the elderly, families, paid caregivers and the disabled. Rachel McCullough, co-director of the majority, said.
The hardest hit New York
New York is projected to have the most serious home health aid shortage in the United States, followed by other Mid-Atlantic and Midwest states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. In New York, 74% of the elderly and disabled were unable to retain home care staff in 2021, according to a report from the New York Consumer Support Association.
“The state is paying poverty wages to home care workers, who are rushing out of this sector,” McCullough said.
The crisis has led to widespread attention to raising wages for home care workers in New York, an industry where millions of people can avoid nursing homes and age with dignity in the process. We are raising awareness of.
The home health sector faces a more serious version of the labor shortage experienced by most industries after the peak of the pandemic.
Home health workers suffered further losses as other industries raised wages to lure workers into understaffed restaurants, stores and call centers. “The pandemic really pushed our sector to the limit,” McCullough said.
Poverty wages
According to a 2020 report by PHI, a direct care research group, more than 45% of direct care workers, including home health assistants, personal care assistants and long-term care assistants, live in or near poverty due to wages. increase. About half rely on public assistance and there is a shortage of affordable housing.
“In most parts of the state, you can do more work at McDonald’s and Amazon than you can take care of someone,” McCullough said.
Proponents of New York saw it as a legislative solution to this problem: a fair home care law that guarantees that all home care workers are paid 150% of the local minimum wage. I advertised the payment.
Proponents can initiate a proposal through funding the American Rescue Program, which will ultimately free home care workers from public assistance, get them into higher-paying jobs, and generate further economic growth. Insisted that it would be rewarded on its own.
Governor Kathy Hokul urged the budget proposed in January not to include the bill, but to fully include it in the state’s final budget, holding rallies in Albany several times a week for a 60-foot-long waiting list. Deployed. The number of individuals waiting for home care.
The state’s final budget, approved in early April, includes a state-wide salary increase of $ 7 billion for home care workers, which is equivalent to a salary increase of about $ 3 per hour per worker. To do. But supporters say it’s not enough to change the flow of labor problems facing the industry.
“As New York’s population ages and home care workers continue to flee this sector, it’s clear that a significant salary increase (150% of the minimum wage) is the only solution to stop the home care shortage.” McCullough said in a statement. The budget was fixed in early April.
The wage gap between home care and other industries is evident daily for Lori Edinger, 51, who is unable to earn income for her family on an annual salary.
“If I try to live with this, I’ll have to get another job,” she said – and she stays in the Hudson Valley for a week, caring for two different individuals. I work for 50 hours.
She earns $ 13.20 an hour in one job and $ 14.75 in another. She could earn between $ 15 and $ 17 an hour to serve fast food, or $ 21 an hour to drive a bus.
Edinger’s husband supports major household expenses and provides family health insurance for full-time work. This allows her to survive her passion for helping people stay in a familiar home environment, regardless of age, illness or disability.
One of her clients is a man in his thirties with quadriplegia. The other is the mother of her friend in her 80s, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and dementia. In either case, Edinger helps them go out for a walk. She drives them to work, doctor appointments, or advocacy events and generally keeps them together through her shifts.
She said her job is key to allowing male clients to experience many aspects of life and the community.
“I’m at the height of my life and I work with a man who wants to get out without getting stuck in a nursing home,” she said.
But in the meantime, he couldn’t find other home care workers to cover many of his shifts during the week, and they’re working hard to make sure he gets what he needs. So I put stress on Edinger and other aides. Still, there are times when he is alone at home to check him only by his family, she said.
“We couldn’t hire anyone … some people are interested in calling and knowing the wage rate. They get angry with him,” Edinger said.
This situation forces many families to make enviable decisions about whether to take care of their loved ones themselves or to find a suitable nursing home or other care facility.
“Sometimes I’m so tired that I can’t do this anymore,” said Karen Ai, a resident of Chautauqua County and the primary caregiver of her husband, who suffers from Lewy body dementias that affect one’s thinking. Chelberger, 65, said. Memory and movement.
He was eligible for 80 hours of care per week through Medicaid, but Ichelberger can now find an aide to cover about a quarter of that.
Recently, Eichelberger’s husband went to the hospital, and she had a hard time finding help at home, so he would have to go to a rehab facility for an unknown time after his admission, She said.
In recent months, she has advertised on Facebook and the neighborhood website Next Door, offering to pay $ 1 an hour more than what the state currently offers to home care workers, individuals. I paid from my income. To attract her aide, she said.
“I’m worried that I’ll get sick and can’t take care of my husband, so I’m ready to hire someone who hasn’t been vaccinated,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s worse than I’m burned out and can’t take care of him.”
Maggie Ornstein’s mom, Janet, receives about 40 hours of care a week from a home care worker at Queens’ home. But “it’s embarrassing that it’s not enough yet,” said Ornstein, saying it’s hard to see workers taking care of their mothers when they know they’re being paid such low wages. Added.
Janet suffered from a cerebral aneurysm 26 years ago and was in a coma for 5 months. She then spent time in hospitals and nursing homes before she returned home. There, due to traumatic brain injury, regular care from Ornstein or her aide is required.
Ornstein was 17 at the time, but now 44, he has set aside the possibility of having children or doing a full-time job. She is a part-time college professor, taking care of Janet for the rest of her time and advocating in the areas of home health policy in Newyork and beyond. Her salary is fully used to pay for health insurance.
Caring for sick and elderly families, even with home care workers, puts a great deal of mental and financial burden on caregivers, according to Ornstein.
However, increasing the attractiveness of the home care sector by increasing wages and benefits means that New York is helping both home care workers and family caregivers, and home care is a viable option for older New Yorkers and people with disabilities. Will send a message that there is.
“When we don’t prioritize them, we can’t expect people to treat their work like a priority,” Ornstein said.