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Health Aides Often As Old As Their Clients
In
a red brick rambler in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., Onether Lowery
begins her daily shift as a caregiver. She skillfully helps 86-year-old Rosalie
Lewis into her electric wheelchair, holding her from the back, then bending
over to ease her down.
It's
an impressive feat: Lowery herself is 80 years old.
"My
mother, she was 89 when she passed away," Lowery says. "I took care
of her and I just fell in love with older people. I get along with them very
well."
As
America ages, its 2.5 million home health workers are graying right along with
the clients they care for. And by all accounts, these older workers are
especially well suited to the job.
Lowery
is proud of how she can patiently coax clients to eat — even when they don't
feel like it — how her experience helps her sense what they need. She used to
care for Lewis' sister as well. At one point, the sister needed extra help, and
Lowery says an agency sent younger caregivers.
"Well,
she would always tell me when they wasn't around that they didn't do anything,
not unless she asked them to do it," she says. "But me, I see things
and I do it."
As
a whole, home health aides are largely female and far older than women in the
general workforce. The Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute says more than a
quarter of aides are 55 or older, a share that's expected to rise to a third by
2020.
"A
number of our clients will ask for a more 'mature' worker," says Marla
Lahat, who heads Home Care Partners in Washington, D.C., the agency that
employs Lowery. In this case, "mature" means "older."
"Sometimes
they're a little bit afraid of the younger generation," she says,
"and they know that a worker that's closer to their age is somebody that
they feel more comfortable with and more trusting."
And
in an industry where turnover is high, Lahat says, it's older workers who tend
to stay in the job.
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