Workforce challenges plague social care and ageing services across the globe. The challenge facing all countries is the same: who will provide care for our ageing?
Ageing services is in the people business, and we need people to provide care and services to those in need of support. Without a sufficient and trained workforce, and available family caregivers, there is no care for older adults—a full stop. Whether the issue is in the recruitment pipeline, skills and training, public perception, wages, or an insufficient number of people willing to work in the sector—we are facing a crisis.
The Global Ageing Network (GAN) is hosting a Social Care International Workforce Summit on the afternoon of September 6, during the Global Ageing Conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Speakers from around the world will explore these workforce issues—and other critical issues and solutions—with a focus on strategies to attract and retain workers, training, immigration, addressing biases against the sector, and more.
The Workforce Summit keynote speaker De Leon Geffen, a family physician and lecturer at the Samson Institute of Ageing in South Africa, will share his unique perspective on workforce challenges and needs as a doctor and researcher. Attendees will gain from his insight, including:
- the skills and attributes that are needed;
- training and support that is essential;
- importance of a care team that includes family members; and
- widespread, essential, and underappreciated role of unpaid family caregivers. In many cases, they are the only caregivers—they are the workforce.
As Geffen is quoted, “We are living in skipped generation societies where family caregiving is so important … and often the family caregivers are older persons themselves … Older persons are major contributors to our health resources, including our health care workforce challenges.”
Dr. Robyn I. Stone, senior vice president and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center @UMass Boston, is widely known for her work as a social scientist in ageing and will close out the Workforce Summit. Stone has a particular passion for workforce issues and calls on us to honor the direct care professionals who are already committed to our organizations and to our sector.
These direct care professionals are the aides who show up each day to do their jobs, the best way they know how. They love their work and the people they serve. They are the backbone of our organizations and our field. We can honor them by making it easier for them to stay in the jobs they love by providing them with robust training, ongoing support, and—most important—a living wage.
As a global community, these are issues we must understand and commit to work together to address. The workforce is fundamental and foundational for aged care and services. We must seize the opportunity to learn from one another, share successes, overcome challenges—and by working together—avoid missteps and make a difference.
That is why you need to be at the Workforce Summit. I hope you can join us.
