A Report on Older Healthcare Workers Conference

By Richard Shank

Health & Medicine Policy Research Group (HMPRG) and the Great Lakes Centers for Occupational and Environmental Safety and Health (University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health) co-hosted a conference focusing on older health care workers and their health and safety challenges.

As the need for health care workers, especially in long-term care, expands with an aging population, so too will the need to address critical shortages in personnel. Many older workers both want and need to continue working.  Recruiting and training older workers while creating opportunities for advancement and making the workplace safer and better able to accommodate older workers can go a long way to meet the needs of both elders and health care workers. 

The Older Healthcare Workers Conference, held in late September 2009, was hosted on campus at the University of Illinois at Chicago and included more than 50 participants.  It was meant to be a stepping stone to bringing together health care employers, labor unions, government agencies, health care policy and research professionals, and advocates for aging workers and addressing the important and growing population of older adult health care workers.

As a result of the conference, HMPRG will facilitate an interdisciplinary work group of conference participants. Others are welcome to join. For more information, please contact Kristen Pavle, kpavle@hmprg.org. Conference highlights and resource information are posted at http://hmprg.typepad.com/health-medicine-hmprg/longterm-care-posts.html.

Comments? Tell us what you think: askaia@matherlifeways.com