AgeTech opportunities in bettering home care workers

We previously discussed the challenges that home care workers face, we now discuss the opportunities that these challenges present.

The challenges in this field present an opportune environment for innovation. A few opportunities include:

• Better connecting workers and clients — Technology provides new opportunities to better match workers and clients. There are “matching service registries” used in some states that provide a database of workers and clients that can contact each other. Care.com and Carina Care are two matching service registries that are growing in popularity. In other circumstances, technology is being used to better pair a client with a worker that works well with their personality and preferences.
• Enhancing job quality — A series of innovations are rising around improving job quality for home care workers. As one example, Alia Benefits provides individual clients with the opportunity to pay into portable benefits for domestic workers, including home care workers. Many companies are innovating in online training provision — a trend that was accelerated by the pandemic. Additionally, some agencies are experimenting with creating a career ladder through creating roles such as peer mentors or advanced home health aides — providing a higher quality of care and offering room for advancement in order to keep workers in the field.
• Improving scheduling — The home care industry has been slow to implement new technological advances around scheduling because it is such a difficult challenge to address. New software has begun to build the capacity to match workers with clients who are in one area or are closer to their homes — minimizing travel time. While Uber was able to address this challenge in the taxi industry, it is much more complicated in home care. A worker cannot simply be reassigned every time a more conveniently located client is identified because the relationships are so essential to the work. Technology that allows for “cluster care” and otherwise more efficient scheduling for workers benefits workers, clients, and agencies but is a problem that has not yet been fully solved.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

What comes next?

Our home care system will only be successful if it begins recognizing the true value of home care workers. This transition will require clients, agencies, and policymakers to address the challenges outlined in this article in a way that meets everyone’s needs, including older adults, people with disabilities, family caregivers, and workers. At Age Group, we are building an accessible digital universe for older adults — the AgeVerse. We will provide older adults and companies with the opportunity to come together to learn more about these challenges and work together to build solutions.

AgeGroup is building a modern alternative to AARP offering older adults an inclusive and non-political community that betters their today. Visit AgeGroup.io for more information.