The challenges facing the long-term care system, which includes older adults, people with disabilities, direct care workers and family caregivers, are worsening, according to Robert Espinoza, founder and CEO of the new CareWorks Project. Demographic shifts along with rising healthcare and long-term care costs are confounding leaders in various sectors. Against this backdrop, Espinoza, former vice president of advocacy and communications for PHI, founded the project, a consulting studio and innovation lab to provide expertise to nonprofits, governments, the private sector and foundations to help reimagine long-term care, Espinoza told McKnight’s Home Care in a Newsmakers podcast.
The CareWorks Project provides technical expertise on issues such as workforce, caregiving, aging, and long-term services and supports financing. It also supports leaders around issues related to narrative change and strategic communications. And it helps design programs and initiatives related to long-term care, and assists with leadership and organizational development. While wages and benefits are a top need of direct care workers, they also need strong training programs that reflect today's competencies, along with honest career pathways, a wide range of workforce supports from transportation to child care, and respect, Espinoza said. Direct care workers remain largely invisible and society. There was a temporary moving of the needle during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a surge of appreciation for work that direct care workers do, but it did not lead to sound policy changes that materially improve their lives. If he had a magic wand, he’d create a long-term care financing system, along with the creation of policy and structural arrangements that allow people to age in place in their homes and communities. What concerns Espinoza most is the pervasive belief that care is a private burden as opposed to a public responsibility.
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Show contributors:
McKnight’s Home Care Editor Liza Berger and Robert Espinoza, founder and CEO of The CareWorks Project