ST. LOUIS — Missouri’s nursing homes and home health agencies will need thousands more workers in the coming years to care for the state’s aging population, according to a new report set to be released Tuesday.
The Alzheimer’s Association forecasts that the nation will need 10,000 more doctors for the elderly by the year 2050, and 1 million more direct care workers in the next six years.
“They are gaps and shortages that will only get worse if we don’t act to address them, both in terms of workforce development and retention,” said Morgan Daven, vice president of health systems for the Alzheimer’s Association, based in Chicago. “So hopefully this is really sounding the alarm.”
Missouri families are advocating for awareness of the issue and preparation for the future. And while local schools and nursing homes are working to train the next generation of health care workers, they see a huge task in front of them.
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“The shortage has always been there,” said Louvenia Woods, a 28-year nurse now teaching Ƶ high school students how to work in elder care.
The Alzheimer’s report says the U.S. had about 3.1 million home health and personal care aides as of 2018 and needs 4.1 million by 2028. It had about 5,000 geriatricians, or elder care doctors, as of last year, and will need almost triple that by 2050.
Missouri alone will need 23,000 more home health and personal care aides in just six years, the report says, one-third again more than it has now. And it will need 192 more geriatricians by 2050, or well more than double the current number.
Chien Hung, program director for VOYCE, a nonprofit based in south Ƶ County that advocates on behalf of nursing home residents, said staffing shortages can exacerbate a wide range of problems, from residents waiting longer for their call lights to be answered, to meals served late or cold, to increased risk of medication errors.
The Biden administration in February new reforms aimed at improving quality of care in nursing homes.
Some of the changes include a minimum staffing requirement, promotion of single-occupancy rooms, increased funding for inspections, higher financial penalties for facilities that perform poorly, and increased transparency about facility ownership.
Losing help
Families across the state are struggling to find help for aging parents.
Almost two years ago, Amy Cutrell, 47, of Maryland Heights, started noticing that her mother was struggling more and more with lethargy. Cutrell’s parents still lived in their house in Florissant, and Cutrell began to realize her parents needed more assistance with daily tasks. Ultimately the family agreed to try home health care.
Cutrell found a home health aide through an agency. But after the first week, the agency said the worker had a family emergency, and after three weeks, the agency said the person wasn’t working for the company anymore, and offered to find someone else.
Then, on Dec. 30, Cutrell’s mother was diagnosed with dementia.
The agency found a new caregiver, whom the family also loved. But they could only come in the morning, when Cutrell’s mother was normally sleeping. Cutrell said she talked to the owner of the home health agency, who told her: “We just can’t find people.”
“These people are angels,” Cutrell said. “You just can’t find 100 angels.”
Cutrell’s mother now lives at The Villa at Riverwood, a senior retirement community in Florissant that contracts third party health services, and she is doing well, Cutrell said. Still, Cutrell said she would have preferred home health, if it had been more easily available.
Mark Applegate, 50, who works in IT for senior service provider , had a similarly difficult time finding care for his mother in the Springfield, Missouri, area. After struggling to find consistent home health care, the family started looking at nursing homes, and eventually secured Applegate’s mother a space in the memory care unit of a nursing home.
He said there is high turnover at the facility, especially in the memory care unit.
“They’ve never had enough staffing,” Applegate said. “They do the best they can.”
Training students
A program at a technical high school in Ƶ County aims to prepare students for work as certified nursing assistants.
At Delmar Gardens South, a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, a group of high school seniors have been training to become certified nursing assistants through a program at South Technical High School, a vocational school in Sunset Hills.
The students said they make beds, fill ice cups, take residents’ vitals, and assist with eating and bathing. They typically come three or four days per week, to build up to the 100 hours they need for their certification.
And in the process, Administrator Alisa Santangelo said, the students also help fill smaller tasks, like sitting and holding a resident’s hand, or making sure their favorite blanket is folded the way they want it.
“A lot of those small, minute details aren’t always able to be met anymore, because of the demands of showers, vitals, changing, the more essentials,” Santangelo said. “They are 100% filling that gap.”
The facility just raised its certified nursing assistant wages again, the second time since in about a year, she said, to $17 per hour.
Sydney Slaven, 18, a senior at Parkway West, said she wants to work as a nursing assistant part-time after she graduates high school, and work toward becoming an athletic trainer.
The best part of the work is the residents, Slaven said. The nursing assistants are the health care workers who spend the most time with people, she said, so the students form relationships with the people they care for.
“It’s challenging, for sure, but it’s very rewarding to see how happy residents are when we’re there,” Slaven said.
Emily Perkins, 18, a senior at Oakville High School who is also in the program, similarly thinks she might work part-time as a CNA while working toward becoming a licensed practical nurse.
“I love seeing how happy the residents get when we walk onto their floors,” Perkins said.
The program is already full for next year, administrators said.