Administration’s Focus On High-Skilled Immigration Puts Personal Health Care Services In Jeopardy
In 2017, 26 percent of personal care aides and home health aides were foreign born, and as baby boomers age, the demand for workers in the fast-growing field is only going to increase.
The New York Times:
When The Elderly Call For Help, A ‘Chain’ Immigrant Often Answers
Irma Mangayan was lathering and rinsing a 92-year-old woman in Room 413 one recent afternoon when she received a page from another room. An incontinent resident had an accident, and Ms. Mangayan would have to clean it up. Before her shift was over at Belmont Village Senior Living, Ms. Mangayan would hoist women and men into their wheelchairs, escort residents using walkers downstairs to the dining room and then back and perform myriad other tasks that they once could do for themselves. (Jordan, 3/25)
Kaiser Health News:
Trump Immigration Policies Put Immigrant Caregivers And Their Elderly Patients At Risk
After back-to-back, eight-hour shifts at a chiropractor’s office and a rehab center, Nirva arrived outside an elderly woman’s house just in time to help her up the front steps. Nirva took the woman’s arm as she hoisted herself up, one step at a time, taking breaks to ease the pain in her hip. At the top, they stopped for a hug.“Hello, bella,” Nirva said, using the word for “beautiful” in Italian. (Bailey, 3/26)
