Arizona will need around 190,000 long-term care workers by 2030. That’s according to PHI, a national nonprofit that studies this workforce. The challenge is, many Americans don’t want to do this kind of work. Now, a long-term care organization is calling for immigration reform in order to fill vital, caregiving jobs.
About a quarter of the direct-care workforce here in Arizona are immigrants. Many come from Mexico, the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Now, a report from Leading Age, which represents many long-term care organizations, is exploring ways to reform the U.S. immigration system.
Donna Taylor is the chief operating officer with the Beatitudes Campus in Phoenix.
"A statistic that gets shared around pretty frequently is that for every nine caregiver openings here in the state of Arizona, we have about one person, certified and ready to fill that position," Taylor said.
Which means looking at ways to simplify the immigration process so more foreign-born workers can come here and fill those positions.
"The path is still too hard. It's very complex and it's expensive for somebody who has not already done all of the work to come to the United States," Taylor said.
"It doesn't take a lot to look and see the number of people who will be moving into the long-term care environment versus the number of people who are leaving our workforce because they are aging out of the workforce … the numbers just simply do not work," Taylor said.
Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, the association of nonprofit providers of aging services, says we're in a demographic crisis.
“The population of older adults with complex needs is growing by leaps and bounds while the pool of available workers is declining at a dangerous rate — a mismatch that is harming older adults and their families. We’ve got to think boldly; systemic changes are needed to address the shortage of professional caregivers for the long term," Smith Sloan said in the statement.
Ideas include modifying or updating current visa programs and ensuring this population gets help accessing things like housing, food or language assistance.
