Home Health & Hospice Week

The plight of home care aides in the pandemic is getting more attention.

For example: A study published in the Aug. 4 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine found that home care workers “experienced challenges that exacerbated the inequities they face as a marginalized workforce” when providing care during the pandemic. “Interventions and policies to better support these frontline health care professionals are urgently needed,” concluded researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine.

A survey of 33 home care aides in New York City showed that “despite facing unique challenges during the pandemic, home health care workers have not received the same attention as other front-line providers,” says lead author Madeline Sterling, a physician and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell. “Increased awareness of their role and the challenges they face providing care is needed as more people across the United States cope at home with COVID-19 and need help from paid caregivers,” Sterling says in a release about the study.

See the study at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2769096.

In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has launched the “Your Home is Someone’s Workplace” campaign to raise pay, benefits, and working conditions for domestic workers including home health aides. “We can no longer accept the devaluation of care workers who are mostly women of color in our city,” Lightfoot says in a release. “I grew up watching my mother as a home health care aide and saw her tireless work met with minimal pay and no benefits.”

See more about the campaign at www.chi.gov/care.