Elderly caregiving opens new career options
Several businesses open to assist aging population
Home Helpers, a Lawrence caregiving business, is one of the several establishments to assist the elderly to open in Lawrence in the past year. People are living longer lives, which creates a demand for programs for senior citizens.
By Matt Erickson (Contact)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Megan VerMaas found a part-time job this year that gives her a window into the past — but it may also give her and other students a window into the future.
VerMaas, Lincoln, Neb., sophomore, works as a caregiver for an elderly Lawrence woman, helping the woman with meal preparation, housekeeping and other tasks. She works for Home Helpers, a new Lawrence business that provides in-home caregiving to senior citizens and others who need it.
The Douglas County Health Department’s Project LIVELY is a care management program for senior citizens. Elderly caregiving is growing as a career choice for students.
VerMaas said she enjoyed hearing the woman’s stories about her life and her family.
“It puts your life in perspective a little bit better,” VerMaas said.
Her job is in an area that will likely provide careers for many young Americans: caring for older Americans.
As baby boomers retire and people live longer than ever before, careers in aging could explode in the near future, said Sandra Kelly-Allen, coordinator of the Douglas County Health Department’s Project LIVELY, a care management program for senior citizens.
“It’s just going to boom,” Kelly-Allen said. “I don’t know how it couldn’t.”
She said Home Helpers was one of several Lawrence caregiving businesses to open in the last year. But the effect of aging people’s needs will reach beyond caregiving, she said. New careers dealing with the elderly could arise in the fields of medicine, social work, computers, communication technology and law.
The School of Social Welfare began a program this year to encourage its master’s in social work students to specialize in aging-related work with the help of a three-year grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation, an organization that aims to ensure care for the nation’s older population.
After completing their first of two years of the master’s in social work program, students in the aging program receive internships with stipends at local aging-related agencies.
When students have a chance to work with older people, they’re able to debunk those myths. They find it a very rewarding experience.
- Doreen Higgins
Doreen Higgins, a doctoral student who coordinates the program, said the national population of adults older than 65 years old, currently about 35 million, was projected to double by 2030.
She said the need for social workers to work with the elderly was compounded by many people’s misconceptions about older people: that most older people are mentally incompetent, live in nursing homes and feel miserable all the time.
“When students have a chance to work with older people, they’re able to debunk those myths,” Higgins said. “They find it a very rewarding experience.”
She said studies had shown that only about 5 percent of people older than 65 live in nursing homes.
VerMaas said she applied for her job with Home Helpers partly because she was a nursing student, and she wanted to make sure she was fit to enter a caregiving profession. The job has helped her feel more confident in her career choice, she said.
Julie Mettenburg, director of the Lawrence Home Helpers franchise, agreed that elderly caregiving jobs could be a good career step for students of social work, nursing or other caregiving occupations.
“You learn really the challenges that the elderly are dealing with, from legal to financial,” Mettenburg said. “It’s a real eye-opener when you work with them.”
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.
— Edited by Lisa Tilson
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