(The Center Square) – A new “roadmap” to improve the state’s taxpayer-funded caregiver workforce was unveiled Wednesday by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
The “Roadmap to Strengthening North Carolina’s Caregiving Workforce” addresses a shortage of direct care workers and support professionals, who serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through publicly funded home- and community-based services. It is a product of a study by North Carolina Area Health Education Centers commissioned by the Health Department.
There is an estimated 182,400 direct care job openings predicted by 2030, the report says, calling it a “crisis level.” Demand for those services is increasing across all caregiving settings.
Only about 13% of those jobs, or roughly 22,900, are expected to be new, with the rest suggesting a need to address turnover rates of 64%-99% tied to low pay and stressful work environments, according to the report.
“Direct support professionals have such a far-reaching impact on all of our lives,” Kelly Crosbie, director of the health department’s Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Services, said in a statement. “They provide the services and supports that enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live integrated lives in their communities that align with their life goals.”
The Area Health Education Centers suggested six key areas of focus to improve the situation: an umbrella system for credentialing direct care workers using new and existing training options; adopting common competencies for all direct care workers; increasing access to training with paid training time; developing administration and oversight of credentialing; connecting training with wage and rate differentials; and wraparound support services for direct care workers.
Most if not all of the suggestions are premised on increased funding from taxpayers and others involved.
The General Assembly in November appropriated $176 million in recurring state and federal funds to increase rates for direct service providers, with the goal of raising the average wage to $18 an hour. The median hourly wage for direct care workers in North Carolina is $12.59, and about 47% live in low-income households, according to the report.
Surveys cited in the report show the direct care worker shortage and high turnover has resulted in 66% of providers turning away new referrals, 34% discontinuing services, and 40% reporting higher frequencies of reportable instances.
The recommendations come as 22 lawmakers from both chambers of the General Assembly are participating in a Legislative Health Policy Fellows program hosted by the North Carolina Institute of Medicine to “dig deep into the data and information necessary to make effective health policy.”
The 2024 cohort of 10 Democrats and 12 Republicans representing districts across the state are meeting regularly with experts in the months leading up to the 2024 short session to discuss “innovative approaches” for improving the health of all North Carolinians.
