The Caring Class: Home Health Aides in Crisis
Richard Schweid
Abstract
The number of elderly and disabled Americans in need of home health care is increasing annually, even as the pool of people — almost always women — willing to do this job gets smaller and smaller. This book takes readers inside the reality of home health care by following the lives of women training and working as home health aides in the South Bronx. The book examines home health care in detail, focusing on the women who tend to our elderly and disabled loved ones and how we fail to value their work. They are paid minimum wage so that we might be absent, getting on with our own lives. The boo ... More
The number of elderly and disabled Americans in need of home health care is increasing annually, even as the pool of people — almost always women — willing to do this job gets smaller and smaller. This book takes readers inside the reality of home health care by following the lives of women training and working as home health aides in the South Bronx. The book examines home health care in detail, focusing on the women who tend to our elderly and disabled loved ones and how we fail to value their work. They are paid minimum wage so that we might be absent, getting on with our own lives. The book calls for a rethinking of home health care and explains why changes are urgent: the current system offers neither a good way to live nor a good way to die. By improving the job of home health aide, we can reduce income inequality and create a pool of qualified, competent home health care providers who would contribute to the well-being of us all. The book also serves as a guide into the world of our home health care system. Nearly 50 million US families look after an elderly or disabled loved one. The book explains the issues and choices they face. It explores the narratives, histories, and people behind home health care in the United States, examining how we might improve the lives of both those who receive care and those who provide it.
Keywords:
home health care,
home health aide,
income inequality,
health care providers,
South Bronx
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2021 |
Print ISBN-13: 9781501754104 |
| Published to Cornell Scholarship Online: September 2021 |
DOI:10.7591/cornell/9781501754104.001.0001 |
