How many Long Term Care Workers will we need in the next 15 years?

According to an article published in the June issue of the Journal Health Affairs, “at least 2.5 million more long-term care workers will be needed to look after older Americans by 2030”. “Even if 20 percent of elderly patients move out of nursing homes into home health care, which would be huge change, the projected increase in demand for long-term care workers would only drop from 79 percent to 74 percent,” study author Joanne Spetz, a professor at the Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a university news release. “Filling these jobs will be a big challenge under any scenario,” she noted. Spetz is also associate director for research strategy at the Center for the Health Professions. Policy makers and educators need to “redouble” their efforts to recruit, train and maintain long-term