It endorses the reimbursement of time and expenses to employees. But, she noted: “There is good evidence from the behavioral economy that offering money signals taking risks. These vaccines are really safe and effective, so we don’t want to solidify people’s fears. “
Although Covid-19 cases and deaths are declining in long-term facilities, even those with high vaccination rates will need to be on guard. New residents arrive continuously and employees leave; turnover among nursing staff in nursing homes is extraordinarily high, an annual average of 128%, a new study has found. This means that after one year, all of the original members of the nursing team will be gone, as will 28% of their replacements.
Probably the most thorny problem is to vaccinate the largest segment of direct assistance workers in the country, the approximately 2.3 million people who work in private homes.
“It’s going really badly,” said Vicki Hoak, executive director of the Home Care Association of America, which represents 3,200 home care agencies. Although home care workers have priority vaccination in all states, they are struggling to get it, she said.
Like the rest of the direct care workforce, home care workers are mainly women of color, many of them immigrants. With an average of $ 12.12 per hour in 2019, they are the most underpaid group, according to research and defense group PHI. Almost half depend on some form of public assistance, such as Medicaid or food programs.
Without a central workplace, they will be more difficult to reach, educate and vaccinate than assistants in nursing homes and assisted living centers. (Some, hired privately by individuals and families through the so-called gray market, do not work for agencies.)
“Vaccination hesitation is absolutely a factor, but even more so is the lack of easily accessible opportunities to get vaccinated,” said April Verrett, president of SEIU Local 2015, the union representing nearly 400,000 home care assistants in California.