By Jason Oliva<\/u><\/a> on June 9, 2015 in Home Care<\/u><\/a>, News<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n 944<\/p>\n As the nation\u2019s senior population is projected to swell to enormous proportions in the coming years, the need for home care workers to serve this aging demographic will have to increase by the millions, a recent report portends.<\/p>\n At least 2.5 million more home health and personal care aides will be needed to provide long-term care services to American seniors between now and 2030, according to a study<\/a> by UC San Francisco researchers published in the June 2015 issue of Health Affairs<\/em>.<\/p>\n About 20% of Americans will be age 65 or older by 2030, and by 2050 there will be 19 million adults who will need long-term care services, notes the study which was supported by funds from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n In efforts to accommodate the needs of this segment of the population in the years to come, researchers urge policy makers and educators to \u201credouble\u201d efforts to recruit, train and maintain long-term care workers, especially home health and personal care aides.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of sheer numbers, the greatest need is going to be for home health and personal care aides, with well over one million additional jobs by 2030,\u201d said the study\u2019s lead author Joanne Spetz, PhD, professor at the UCSF Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and associate director for research at the UCSF Center for the Health Professions.<\/p>\n The challenge, Spetz added, is that these are currently very low-paid, high-turnover, entry-level positions.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people in these jobs are living in poverty while working full time,\u201d she said in a written statement. \u201cWe have to figure out how to make them sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent reports this year have indicated that employee\u00a0turnover rates\u00a0for personal care aides have\u00a0spiked as high as 60%<\/a>, all the while other findings have labeled the home health sector among the\u00a0hottest job industries<\/a>\u00a0poised for growth over the next few years.<\/p>\n But even though there is a clear need for greater training and retention strategies for home care aides, there are few states that have any kind of training requirement for these personnel, Spetz noted.<\/p>\n \u201cUnless the system begins to offer these workers a pathway for moving into nursing or case management, for example, these jobs will continue to be a revolving door to unemployment and jobs in other low-wage industries,\u201d Spetz said.<\/p>\n