The Wall Street Journal today ran an article on Mary Barket, a 66-year old widow with a degenerative muscular disorder and no family to help her. She has had seven different caregivers come through her house in the last six months. On a recent Saturday morning, the home care agency called her and told her the caregiver wasn’t coming that day and they had no substitute. Ms. Barket had only one meal to last her until Monday when the next caregiver was scheduled to arrive. “My hands don’t work. I can’t even open a box. It’s a very tenuous situation, Ms. Barket told The Journal. She has ALS and can’t survive without help. The median turnover in 2021 was about 65% last year, according to Home Care Pulse. This is an improvement from the peak of 81.6% in 2018, but is still a huge number. At Family inHome Caregiving, we are fortunate to have one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry. We do this by supporting out caregivers with training and financial incentives like bonuses, insurance, a profit-sharing plan and an annual thank you dinner. It’s still difficult to recruit caregivers given the tight market. However, hanging on to the excellent caregivers is a huge priority for us.
