Direct Caregiving in Older Adults: How Systems of Care Perpetuate the Grand Challenges and What Social Workers Can Do about It

Direct care workers (DCWs) provide personal care, emotional support, and companionship, helping older adults maintain quality lives. DCWs earn low wages, have little training, and experience high turnover rates. While the demand for DCWs grows, real wages continue to fall. Undervaluing DCWs threaten...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health & social work 2021-08, Vol.46 (3), p.218-226
Main Authors: Kusmaul, Nancy, Wladkowski, Stephanie P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Caregiving
Economic inequality
Emotional support
Equal opportunity
Geriatric social work
Home health care
Inequality
Justice
Nursing homes
Occupational roles
Older people
Qualitative research
Quality of care
Real wages
Social work
Social workers
Wages & salaries
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Direct care workers (DCWs) provide personal care, emotional support, and companionship, helping older adults maintain quality lives. DCWs earn low wages, have little training, and experience high turnover rates. While the demand for DCWs grows, real wages continue to fall. Undervaluing DCWs threatens the continuity and quality of care that older adults receive. Through the social work grand challenges lens, this article discusses two qualitative studies, in home care (n = 24) and nursing homes (n = 23), that demonstrate that while DCWs help advance long and productive lives, they experience extreme economic inequality and lack equal opportunity and justice. The article concludes with a discussion of social work’s role in advancing opportunity and justice.
ISSN:0360-7283
1545-6854
DOI:10.1093/hsw/hlab017