Senior Care Sector Could Provide
a Wealth of Employment Opportunities
As America’s population ages,
a new and growing employment market is developing – the senior care industry.
Already an industry which is steadily creating new jobs and new business
opportunities, the increase in the nation’s population over 65 over the
coming years as all the baby boomers retire, is going to peak demand for
senior care services.
At present America is already
struggling to meet the needs of the demand for quality senior care, especially
fully-residential nursing homes, so the need for more wrap-around senior
care services will increase.
A recent study by MetLife
revealed that currently about 10 million Americans age 50 or older are
providing care to one or both of their parents, whereas 15 years ago, the
number was nearer 3 million.
How is the Senior Healthcare
Industry Prepared to Meet this Need for Senior Care Services?
The Senior Healthcare Profession
has already started to raise concerns that not enough new entrants to the
healthcare industry are training specifically in gerontology to meet this
oncoming demand for geriatric care. In addition, there
 |
will simply not be enough
trained carers to deliver quality homecare services unless more people
move into this field.
This will mean that the demand
for meeting senior care needs could continue to fall on families, families
who are already struggling in the current economic climate and families
who are full-time workers without much time for care-giving.
The Senior Healthcare industry
needs to attract more care workers. The Bureau of labor Statistics
(BLS) has predicted that the employment of home health workers will grow
by 50% over the next six years – this makes it one of the fastest-growing
employment sectors.
This should be good news
in terms of employment opportunities for Americans, especially as latest
figures indicate about 10 million Americans are unemployed. |
But the Senior Care Profession
still has a challenge on hand to meet this demand for workers.
How Can We Attract More People
to Work in the Senior Care Profession?
Unfortunately, working in, and
with, geriatrics is somewhat stigmatized – working with ‘old people’ is
just not considered appealing for many. As Denise Scruggs states,
from the Center on Aging at Lynchburg College, “We're seeing a disconnect
among generations, and we see stereotypes that aging is not good, and that
working with old people is boring."
This attitude is changing,
and more people are beginning to be attracted to a career in senior care
services. There are many graduates who have the foresight to see
that a future in gerontology would prove to be a secure and lucrative career
move. And Universities and Medical Institutes are attempting to step
up to the mark by trying to attract more students to gerontology courses.
| Even people in the employment
market are seeking to re-train, realizing that changing career-track for
a future in the senior healthcare services market, could be a very lucrative
move.
The main challenge of the
senior care profession is to make working within the sector appealing.
At present is has a less-then-glamorous appeal, plus it is often associated
with low pay and unsocial hours. The Geriatric Society’s Workforce
Policy Studies Center found that the median salary for a Geriatrician in
2010 was $183,523, this was nearly $22,000 less than a general internist’s
salary and almost $6,000 less than an average family physician’s salary. |
|
Historically people have
typically entered the senior care profession as a vocational choice – those
who care and want to make a difference – it has not typically been a career-choice
governed by money.
The reality now is that a
career in senior care services can fulfill a desire to help people, and
still be financially rewarding, and very importantly, offer security in
work availability.
Nadir Wright has just moved
away from a 10-year career in the financial sector to open a homecare in
New York service. Why? His experience watching his grandmother
battle diabetes, and his mother suffer liver failure, whilst struggling
to find quality in-home care for them, inspired him to move into the senior
healthcare sector. “It was a challenge for us to find in-home care that
was consistent and compassionate”, he states. Wright has just set
up ‘Bright Days Home Care’, which will offer non-medical homecare to around
30 elderly clients in the New York area.
 |
Similarly Charlotte Arbogast,
now a Certified Dementia Practitioner, graduated with a history degree
but pursued a career in gerontology when she witnessed her grandfather’s
battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She realized that many senior care
workers lacked the training to provide more specialized geriatric assistance.
How Will the Senior Care Sector
Impact on Other Employment Sectors?
Meeting the demands of ‘Aging
America’ is going to affect more than the Senior Care Services sector alone.
The “age-wave” is going to have a ripple affect across a range of other
employment sectors. It is likely to create demand for transportation
services, social workers, elder law lawyers, financial planners, geriatric
care managers and even funeral directors.
So as America ages, there
is likely to be a wealth of employment opportunities created, and if you
are unsure about where your career is headed, now could be a good time
to rethink! |
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