The Growing PCA Workforce Crisis
“I strongly support Virginia Personal Care Assistants forming a professional association. As a consumer, I think that PCAs need better pay, health benefits, and training from a disability rights perspective."
-- Loree EriksonThe demand for services that allow people with disabilities and senior citizens to stay in their homes as long as possible is projected to rise dramatically in the next decade. Now is the time to fix problems with high turnover of personal care assistants and difficulties consumers have navigating the system to ensure quality home care for seniors and people with disabilities in the years to come.
Problem: High Workforce Turnover
One of the problems faced by consumers of personal care services is the high turnover of qualified workers, due to a lack of benefits, training, and a livable wage. To have quality care for seniors and people with disabilities, consumers and their caregivers must be able to build relationships and establish continuity of care. With turnover rates in home care averaging 40 to 60 percent, the continuity of care for consumers is jeopardized.
Personal care assistants (PCAs) provide hands-on care to consumers, yet they do not have health insurance for themselves or their families, nor do they receive standard benefits that other health care workers receive, such as sick days or vacations. While PCAs receive hands-on instruction from the consumer on the consumer’s day-to-day care, they do not receive formal training. PCAs have no voice in the system.
Problem: Difficult for Consumers to Navigate
Currently, the consumer in the PCA program is solely responsible for outreach efforts to find a PCA, coordinate employment, and train the worker. If their PCA becomes sick, the consumer is often on their own to find a replacement or respite care worker. The difficulty that consumers face in finding and retaining qualified attendants cannot be overstated.
Currently, there is no coordination of the PCA program that would help match consumers with workers, offer referrals and respite care, oversee employment issues for the workforce, or coordinate recruitment or training for the PCA workforce. There is no statewide Directory of workers. This coordination is urgently needed.
Problem: Rising Demand, Impending Workforce Shortage
The shortage in PCAs providing direct care is projected to become more severe as the population ages.
Virginia ranks 45th in wages for PCAs nationally. The state is expected to need thousands of additional direct care workers in the coming years as the Babyboomers age. As the elderly population increases in Virginia, the supply of potential direct care workers, already stretched to its limits, is expected to decrease.
- The US Census estimates that by 2030 Virginia's elder population will increase 132.7%.
- By that year the traditional caregiving workforce (women aged 25 to 44) will increase by 15.9%.