Is The United States Ready For An Aging Baby Boomer Generation?

The baby boomer generation is getting old. If they haven't retired as of yet, many of them will in the foreseeable future. Consequently there will be a need for a considerably larger work force to tend to the huge number of baby boomers who will have to be cared for in nursing homes and/or assisted living facilities.

The traditional labor pool that cares for the elderly is mostly comprised of women who are in their mid-20s to their mid-50s. And that segment of our population is not anticipated to grow along with the needs. So, as boomers age and begin to face a host of mental and physical frailties, it will be also difficult finding the people to take care of them.

The potential problems are exacerbated when you consider that the existing labor force that is employed by long term care facilities are generally overworked and underpaid. The result has been that abusive situations have arisen in some cases and there has been a very high turnover rate in the industry.

Currently approximately 3 million people work with elderly patients in the capacity of home health care aids, nursing assistants, or personal care aids.

Experts believe that at least 1 million additional health care workers will be needed in the next decade to keep up with the anticipated demand. By 2030 every surviving member of the 78 million person strong baby boomer generation will be more than 65 years old. Leading experts believe that an additional 3 million health care workers will be needed by that time.

The plight of direct care workers is not good. As of 2005 workers in this industry earned an average of less than ten dollars per hour. And 25% of the people in the health care industry did not have any health insurance.

Then, in 2007, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that under federal law, the one million home care workers in the United States are not entitled to overtime pay. This does not bode well for those in the aging baby boomer generation who would prefer to live in their homes rather than in an institution.

The problems in the health care industry will probably only get worse. Because people in this industry are paid low wages inevitably a lot of undesirable people are hired. As this trend continues it will open the aging population up to further abuse and theft because often direct care workers look at the aged that they are supposed to care for as the "haves" and themselves as the "have nots."

Many long term care facilities today seem to be keeping a blind eye towards their staff as their residents are abused. And it looks like this situation may only get worse.

If you are aware of any cases of nursing home abuse you should do what you can to protect the ones you love.