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Focus on Direct Care
Mission
Through the Center for Health and Care Work we seek to inform the larger national discourse centered on how to better legitimize, compensate, develop, and regulate direct care work in healthcare and other industries. The Center encourages interdisciplinary research and innovation to influence scholarship, policy, and practice.
Our Goals
- Facilitate interdisciplinary research to address economic and workforce opportunities in the direct care sectors;
- Heighten the profile of the research on healthcare and other care work that is currently being conducted at the University of Pittsburgh; and
- Foster development of training programs and executive education that can apply the research findings of the Center.
What is Direct Care Work?
- Direct care workers are the primary providers of paid long-term care in settings such as nursing homes, residential care facilities, and private residences
- They assist their clients with activities of daily living, such as bathing, eating, dressing, and toileting. These workers also monitor the conditions of their clients, administer medications, and can provide oversight and companionship.
Increased Demand = A System of Greater and More Specialized Healthcare Needs
- The number of people in older age groups will continue to grow faster than the total population
- Advances in medical technology will continue to increase the lifespan of the total population as well as improve the survival rate of severely ill and injured patients
- New technologies will make it possible to identify and treat conditions that were previously not treatable
Supply: Characteristics of the Direct Care Workforce
- Direct care workers are more likely to be women, people of color, and unmarried with children, compared to the general workforce
- Nearly one in five home health aides and 16% of nursing home aides live below the poverty line
- Many do not have access to healthcare for themselves, even less have access for their families (over 40% of home health aides are uninsured)
Critical Workforce Issues: Turnover and Retention
- Most jobs in the direct care sector offer little opportunity for promotion, skill development, or income enhancement
- Between 40-100% of direct care workers turnover in their jobs annually
- Off-the-job factors like child or elder care, access to healthcare, and educational choices can be crucial to keeping professionals with family responsibilities at work and committed to meeting the needs of those in their care