Mechelle Lagasse, a certified nursing assistant, works with a resident at a nursing home in Presque Isle. | Photo by Maine Center for Economic Policy
Reposted from the Maine Beacon
Due to a shortage of direct care workers in Maine, thousands of older adults, people with disabilities, and people who need behavioral health care are not receiving the services they qualify for.
According to a new report released this week by the Maine Center for Economic Policy, Maine needs to hire more than 2,300 full-time care workers to provide adequate services to these people. Currently, over 23,500 hours of home care for older adults approved through state-funded and MaineCare programs go undelivered each week.
Attracting and retaining direct care workers has been a challenge, though, because of low pay and poor benefits in the field. According to the report, as of 2022, direct care workers in Maine have earned an average of $1.92 less per hour than workers in occupations with similar entry-level requirements.
Mechelle Lagasse, a certified nursing assistant, was making $14.75 per hour when she started working at a Presque Isle nursing home several years ago. By the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she was making $18 per hour when the base rate for care workers was increased to $20 per hour.
While she still earns this rate, so do CNAs with less experience, which Lagasse says doesn’t feel fair.
“I’ve been a CNA for nine years, but now I’m getting paid the same as someone who’s been a CNA for nine days,” she says. “That’s really frustrating. It makes me feel like all the experience I have doesn’t mean anything. The skills I bring to the table are lessened because it’s reflected in how I’m paid.”
Lagasse says many of her colleagues have left the field because of low pay as well as the intense workload and schedule. Being understaffed often means being called in on her days off, she says.
Being overworked is partly what led Emily Curry to leave the direct care field, where she had almost 30 years of experience as a certified residential medication aid and direct support professional. The assisted living facility where she worked in Portland changed ownership last year and promised raises and bonuses were ignored, causing 90% of the staff to quit.
“There were very few days when I worked only eight hours, and I often couldn’t take any kind of break because my wing was single staffed,” Curry says. “There were so many days that I would leave in tears, feeling like I had failed my residents, because I was set up to fail. The system is just so broken. It feels like they will just use and abuse us until we’re all dried up and we’re just husks.”
As the number of direct care workers in Maine continues to dwindle, the need and demand only grows, MECEP reports. The number of Mainers aged 65 or older is projected to grow from 22% in 2020 to 29% by 2050, while the national average is expected to be just 21% by then. And already, thousands of people are on waitlists for behavioral care services and the number of nursing homes in Maine continues to decrease.
While efforts have been made at the state and federal levels—such as $120 million in bonuses distributed to direct care workers in 2022 through the Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan—MECEP says more needs to be done. The organization says direct care workers’ median wage should be at least 140% of the minimum wage to be competitive and attract new workers. It also recommends improving health, retirement, and education benefits for workers, and providing stronger training and professional development programs.
Lagasse, whose workplace will be permanently closing this year, says it’s past time her profession is valued as it should be.
“At some point in their life, every single person is going to need someone like me,” she says. “I don’t think that a person who has this important of a job should have to stand in line at the food pantry. I don’t think we should be struggling, trying to figure out if we’re going to pay our electricity bill or get groceries.”
The Maine Beacon
COMMUNIST PARTY OF MAINE 