“A Major Issue”: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on How Home Care Leaders Perceive and Promote Aides’ Mental Health and Well-Being

Details

• Personal Author:
  Baron, Sherry L. ; Boerner K ; LaMonica M ; Tsui EK
• Description:
  Home care aides play a critical role in the care of older adults, but they do this under difficult working conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated aides' stress and worsened their mental health, raising the question of how agencies can better support aides. We explore how home care industry leaders in New York perceived and addressed home care aides' mental health and well-being prior to and during the pandemic through in-depth interviews conducted in 2019 (n = 8 agencies) and 2022 (n = 14 agencies). We found that these topics became more central in leaders' thinking, reflected in a range of new internally and externally funded agency actions, albeit limited by ongoing financial constraints. Maintaining a skilled and reliable aide workforce is critical to societal health but will remain challenging without continued investment in aide support of the kind described in the Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Communicable Diseases Home Care Services Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Home Care COVID-19 Home Health Care Job Stress Mental Health Qualitative Methods Stress Well-being Workforce Workforce Development
• ISSN:
  0733-4648
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; New York ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  43
• Issue:
  9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069532
• Citation:
  J Appl Gerontol 2024 Sep; 43(9):1214-1227
• Contact Point Address:
  Emma K. Tsui, Department of Community Health & Social Sciences, CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, 55 W. 125th Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10027, USA
• Email:
  emma.tsui@sph.cuny.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• Performing Organization:
  CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20190901
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Applied Gerontology
• End Date:
  20220831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bcd4f42c5311493fd5277584cc79de4e58556e5b542660a2c4085c3092afe54701c2324b75e530a239f50064ecfbb66d031e888d7b3796f7f5368151019c6135
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/207952/cdc_207952_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 964.65 KB ]