My Experience with Home Care

Thank you SEIU for sponsoring this post.!

In-home care is so important for so many people, whether you are elderly, living with an illness or disability, or recovering from a serious surgery. Home care workers are essential front-line workers who provide skilled, dedicated care to seniors, people with disabilities, and millions of others who rely on them to live safely and independently at home.

My children may one day have to hire an in-home health care worker for myself or my husband, which is why this is so important to me.

I have experienced the absolute privilege to see these amazing human beings at work through a family friend. Their in-home care worker always goes above and beyond to make sure that the patient is well taken care of and that the family is as well. They become sort of like an extended family member since they live with the person or are there 3/4 of the day.

Did you know that nearly 90 percent of home care workers are women, more than 60 percent are people of color, and more than 31 percent are immigrants?

These people dedicate their lives to helping others, yet they are in one of the lowest-paying professions of the highest demand. I have seen someone take on the long hours of care when their patient has been in the hospital after a potentially life-threatening incident that relates to their disability/illness. It is heartbreaking to learn the statistics behind their profession. I remember in high school being told that in-home care and CNA were some of the top needed professions and watching all my friends work towards their certificates and licenses. Some of them today are working in this profession and always rave about how that one person is now a permanent part of their life.

Nationally, the median hourly wage for in-home health care workers is $12.12 and the median annual wage is $17,200.

Home care workers are the cornerstone of our community, providing care to someone who may know or even to a family member. They deserve to be paid fairly but also for their care to be affordable too. So many people have to leave their high-paying jobs to be unpaid home care workers for a family member such as their parent or grandparent. I see it happening in my own family, and it is so heartbreaking! With home health care, you can continue your career and know that your loved ones are safe and cared for. They are in perfect, capable, trained hands with in-home health care workers.

This also isn’t a profession just for women! My friend’s favorite in-home health care worker was a male. And I think it’s time we break that narrative.