At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in early 2020, about 4.5 million Americans were paid to work in eldercare, most at nursing homes, assisted-living facilities or as in-home aides.
Over the next 24 months, more than 240,000 of those workers left the profession, a decline that made eldercare one of the country’s hardest-hit industries, at least in terms of pandemic-related job losses.
Worse, thousands of the people who “left” eldercare did so because they were no longer alive.
Whatever the cause, the worker exodus helped spark a human and economic disaster. Many nursing homes became COVID-19 hot zones, in part because of short staffing. Some operators, particularly in rural areas, closed their doors. And misery became rampant, as thousands of older people died while receiving barebones care and with no family at their side.
But many experts, in and outside the industry, say that crisis was more than a pandemic-era emergency, it was a glimpse of America’s possible future.
By all accounts demand for age-related health care is about to far outstrip supply, particularly with the coming growth of two demographic groups, people 85 and older and people with Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. And without big changes to eldercare – an issue that experts note is not yet a national conversation – millions of American lives could be upended.
“It’s about a lot of things,” said Joe Diaz, the Southern California regional director for the California Association of Health Facilities, a trade group that represents about 1,200 nursing homes in the state, when asked about the coming squeeze on eldercare.
“But, mostly, it’s about age.”
And, Diaz, echoing others in the industry, added this:
“It’s going to affect everybody, not just older people.”
Age and Alzheimer’s
The eldercare industry has regrouped a bit since the worst of the pandemic. Federal data shows the number of nursing homes nationally grew by about 2% over the past year, to…
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