The input from the Listening Sessions provides a rich source of information that is useful for identifying key interests, concerns, observations, experiences and recommendations of the participants. The success of efforts to recruit, train and educate, retain, and maintain a workforce to care for older adults is dependent on a variety of interrelated factors. One important influence on individuals' decisions to enter into and remain in fields serving older adults such as gerontological social work, nursing, or case management is how society values those jobs.13 Conditions in the labor market are also important influences in the decision by individuals to enter the older adult care workforce.
The future demands placed on older adult care systems will not only include a need for a greater number of workers, but may involve changes in the way services currently are provided to people needing care. Workers will need to develop new skills and learn new procedures. Sensitivity to the needs of older adults will be important in training and education settings.
Workforce training and education issues include planning for and preparing a workforce to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate care; identifying strategies to recruit/retain and train a workforce to deliver high-quality health, long-term community-based care, and other services; ensuring equal access into professions working with older adults for people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds; and identifying funding for more education in aging studies. A major gap that was identified was the limited training, education and opportunities for advancement for paraprofessionals serving older adults in a number of settings, including home care, home health care, and long-term care including institutional settings.
The social work profession was singled out by Listening Session participants as a key discipline for ensuring adequate and coordinated services are provided for older adults and their families; at the same time, this discipline was identified as experiencing shortages in qualified professionals with training and education in gerontology and geriatrics. Nursing was identified as having shortages in qualified practitioners, and medicine was another discipline that has been losing geriatricians due to unfavorable reimbursement and lengthy specialized training.
There was a lack of clarity from participant responses about the relative value of education and training in and of itself, and in ensuring quality care service delivery capacity. Mixed responses pointed to the lack of consensus about certification or credentialing as a means to improve the quality of care, since what they involve is so unclear -- yet it was clearly supported that workers (professional and paraprofessional) providing direct services to older adults, as well as those with supervisory roles in the aging services network, should have core knowledge about aging.
Funding for advanced education and the need for strategies by government to promote a qualified workforce to serve older adults now and in the future also were highlighted.
Other comments included the need for a more diverse workforce in aging, and the need to provide supports in the way of scholarships and loan forgiveness, especially for minority health professionals and their clients.
Overall, the objectives of the Listening Sessions were met. The analysis of Listening Sessions' data points to the continuing challenges for the various disciplines serving older adults and their families in New York State. Workforce development and support will be vitally important; through curriculum development and continued education and training, a variety of methods may be employed to raise the bar on workforce development in the fields of geriatrics and gerontology. Continued across-sector activity around workforce education and training in aging, as well as active engagement of academic institutions, provider organizations, and government, acting in concert, will be critical to continued development of an adequate workforce that is prepared to work with older adults into the future. Focused, collaborative efforts are needed to ensure an adequately educated and trained workforce - of social workers, geriatricians, nurses, therapists, case managers, geropsychologists, etc., to serve a growing older adult population and their families.
This section of the Report identifies strategies and suggested solutions put forth by Listening Session participants. The concepts are intended to foster focused attention and facilitate further discussion and clarification about key considerations for improving workforce training and education for working with older adults in New York State. To this end, these are presented in bulleted form, without additional narrative or justification. The solution ideas are presented within three groupings:
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