To address our nation’s worsening eldercare crisis, the Alliance will build a caring and competent eldercare workforce, joining in partnership with older adults, their families and other unpaid caregivers – to provide high-quality, culturally-sensitive, person-directed, family-focused care, and improve the quality of life for older adults and their families.
Our Shared Vision
We believe that:
- An essential step in addressing our fragmented health and long-term care system is to adopt care models that provide well-coordinated, person-directed and family-focused services across settings.
- All unpaid caregivers – including family, friends and other caregivers – should be supported and have opportunities to acquire the needed skills, knowledge, and information to care appropriately for older adults.
- Resolving the workforce crisis requires addressing recruitment, retention, training and compensation issues across the direct-care and professional health care workforce-which is essential to improve the quality of care and quality of life for older adults.
Quality Care for Older Adults
We believe that quality care for older adults begins with a focus on the whole person, their family, friends and other members of the care team, often requiring an interdisciplinary team with expertise in geriatrics and gerontology-particularly for those who are frail or have multiple health conditions. High-quality eldercare includes a focus on physical, mental, cognitive and behavioral health, and on ensuring that social supports are present. Care for older adults-who often have multiple complex chronic diseases-should be delivered in a seamless fashion across settings, starting in the home. Our goal is to maximize function and quality of life for all older adults, enabling them to remain independent for as long as possible.
Our Priorities
The National Academy of Medicine, in its critical report Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, called for immediate investments in preparing our health care system to care for older Americans and their families. In response, we formed the Eldercare Workforce Alliance.