Aging Services Workforce Now Campaign Continues at Federal Level

Posted on April 13, 2023 by Libbie Chapuran

Our national partners at LeadingAge continue to push forward with the Aging Services Workforce Now advocacy campaign launched last year. A recent member workforce poll conducted by LeadingAge showed the shortage of caregiving professionals across aging services is still a true crisis that is not improving. That's why it's critical that we tackle our workforce challenges at every level of government, including in Washington, DC.

According to LeadingAge, they have hosted a Congressional briefing and more than 1,600 advocates have engaged in a Day of Action, but our work is not even close to done. In fact, LeadingAge Minnesota staff and members are going to Washington, DC next week to engage in advocacy and meet with their elected officials on the federal level. 

About Aging Services Workforce Now

Here are some Aging Services Workforce Now campaign activities LeadingAge is undertaking:

• Building a big-tent coalition of stakeholders to solve staffing challenges—initially focused on developing a framework for an immigration proposal that addresses the need for frontline caregivers.
• Advocating for robust immigration and workforce advocacy programs, including directing unused EB-3 immigrant visas to nurses and physicians, developing a guest worker program with a pathway to citizenship, and reintroducing recent immigration proposals that address essential workers, “Dreamers,” and pathways to citizenship for undocumented individuals.
• Elevating our Get Real on Ratios proposal call for staffing ratios that are only mandated under a specific set of commonsense criteria, which was supported by advocates who sent 1,300 messages to policymakers.
• Supporting a range of legislation to increase the supply of aging services workers, including a permanent authorization of the Registered Apprenticeship Program, and $1 billion in five-year competitive grants for recruiting, retaining, and training approaches for the direct care workforce.
• Working with the Disability and Aging Committee (DAC) Workforce Coalition to create a major investment to raise wages and benefits for workers in all long-term care settings.
• Proposing to the Administration a White House strategic policy leadership approach to centralize leadership and cross-government coordination to address the needs of older adults and families—including a healthy workforce to provide care.

Learn more and get engaged

See how we are collectively continuing the critical work to build our caregiving workforce and follow the campaign–and get involved–at LeadingAge.org.