More Than "Warm Bodies": Building a Stronger LTC Workforce

With the workforce crisis in long-term care more dire than ever, providers face difficult decisions on an almost daily basis around maintaining a high level of care while managing a growing shortage of qualified candidates. Robyn Stone – senior vice president for research at non-profit provider organization LeadingAge and co-director of the LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass-Boston – says that the solutions to the workforce problem can't be stopgaps. Instead of just seeking "warm bodies" to fill positions and accepting a kind of institutional mediocrity, Stone argues that leaders need to take bold steps to reimagine the eldercare workforce as we stare down a new COVID normal and the continued aging of the American population. Stone sits down with Susan Ryan to discuss her career in long-term care from Washington to the world of academia, and why reforms need to be based in both solid research and the day-to-day reality of life on the ground for workers, elders, and their families.   Learn more about the LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass-Boston: https://www.ltsscenter.org/ Follow Robyn on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrRobynStone Learn more about The Green House Project: www.thegreenhouseproject.org