As America is shaped by the aging of its populace, so are the workers dedicated to serving it. Over the next 20 years, one in five Americans will be 65 or older, and many will need care either at home or in a residential care or hospital setting.

There will be more direct-care workers needed by 2018 than kindergarten teachers, law enforcement and public safety officers, and registered nurses. We will need 2.5 million healthcare workers by 2030 just to maintain current ratios of healthcare workers to population.

Will there be a supply of eldercare workers to meet the demand? Will they be trained well enough? Will their pay be sufficient to attract others? Will their ethnic backgrounds match those of their patients? Does a potential caregiving workforce exist in the United States, or should we be wooing them from abroad? If so, is there an easy avenue for such immigration?

Our Winter 2010–11 issue of Generations has the answers to these questions, plus poignant personal stories from working nurses and others in the field of geriatrics, discussions of how workforce issues are addressed in the 2010 Affordable Care Act, and solutions for attracting more doctors, social workers and psychiatrists to the field.

Right now, our healthcare workforce is undervalued, underpaid, and often undertrained. It’s a burgeoning issue for our society, and everyone in the aging services field should be up to speed on it. Get informed with the Winter 2010–11 issue of Generations

Interested? Read an article from the issue.