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Professional or formal caregivers are individuals identified and formally classified by the US department of Labor as direct care workers. role may include personal care aids, home health aids, nursing assistants.

The formal caregiver sector comprises roughly 5.4 million care employees that is broken down into 3.2 million home care workers, 687,000 residential care home workers, 492,000 nursing home workers, and over a million individuals employed throughout hospitals.

Tasks of formal caregivers include assistance with ADLs such as bathing, dressing, transportation, feeding, hygiene, toileting, housekeeping. As well as some medical tasks such as wound care, medication management, vital monitoring, physical therapy, and more.

(PHI, 2025)

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-Women account for 87% of all home health aids

-42% of home health aids are migrants

-53% are white, 29% are Black/African American, 24% are Hispanic/Latino, 14% are Asian

(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics et al., 2024)

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-Enjoy the work/being with older adults (60.7%)

-Unable to find other work (31.7%)

-Experience for additional health related occupation (8.2%)

(Lindquist et al., 2012)

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Nurse Next Door Home Services shares stories, faces and experiences of some their nurses as they care for aging and older adults. They inquire about their 'why' for being a caregiver, their advice for others, and highlights from their career.

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Thanks For Caring - Our Nurse Next Door Caregivers’ Stories | Nurse Next Door

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Aged Care Employee Day nationally recognises the many ways in which Caregivers are making an impact to meet the needs of our ageing population.

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Challenges and Stressors for Paid Caregivers

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Challenges and Stressors for Paid Caregivers

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The most stressful and challenging parts of formal caregiving were reported to include: physical exertion or lifting (24.5%), dealing with the behavioral or psychological symptoms of dementia (24.5%), depression/mood changes of patients (18.4%), dealing with feelings regarding death and passing of patient (8.2%), lack of sleep (4.1%), lack of free time and limited connection with outside world (3.1%)

(Lindquist et al., 2012)

As a result of low annual earnings and pay, 36% of the formal caregiver workforce lives near the federal poverty level and 49% rely on some kind of public asistance program such as SNAP or food stamps (PHI, 2025).

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Meet United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, a nonprofit organization that aims to help individuals in communities by focusing on issues such as "educational success, financial wellness, healthy living, housing stability, and homelessness"(United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, 2025).

United Way offers assistance for direct care professionals in the form of: financial and personal support for pre employment requirements, free caregiver training and education materials, professional development opportunities, as well as monthly support groups and 'Dementia Friends' trainings (United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona, 2024).

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Bureau of Labor Statistics & U.S. Department of Labor. (2025, August). Nursing Assistants and Orderlies. Occupational Outlook Handbook. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/nursing-assistants.htm

Center Forward. (2024, October 3). Caregiving in Crisis: Understanding the U.S. care Economy shortage. https://center-forward.org/basic/caregiving-in-crisis-understanding-the-u-s-care-economy-shortage/

Lindquist, L. A., Tam, K., Friesema, E., & Martin, G. J. (2012). Paid caregiver motivation, work conditions, and falls among senior clients. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 55(2), 442–445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2012.01.008

National Association of Social Workers. (2025, September). Nursing Home Social worker salary. https://joblink.socialworkers.org/salary/nursing-home-social-worker#:~:text=How%20Much%20Does%20A%20Nursing,Roxboro%2C%20NC

PHI. (2025, September 15). Understanding the Direct Care Workforce. https://www.phinational.org/policy-research/key-facts-faq/

United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. (2024, October 30). Direct Care. https://unitedwaytucson.org/direct-care/

United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. (2025, July 1). Mission and Impact. https://unitedwaytucson.org/about/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, & United States Department of Labor. (2024, November). In 2023, the majority of home health aides and personal care aides were women. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2024/in-2023-the-majority-of-home-health-aides-and-personal-care-aides-were-women.htm#:~:text=Home%20health%20aides%20and%20personal%20care%20aides%20were%20more%20likely,the%20nation%20(23%20percent).

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CNAs: $19.00/hr (Bureau of Labor Statistics & U.S. Department of Labor, 2025)

Home health aids: $16.77/hr (Bureau of Labor Statistics & U.S. Department of Labor, 2025)

Registered Nurses: $45.00/hr (Bureau of Labor Statistics & U.S. Department of Labor, 2025)

Nursing Home Social workers: $25.60/hr (National Association of Social Workers, 2025)

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As the US older population continues to grow, the strain on the caregiving sector and professional caregivers does as well. As of 2023 there were 1.8 million vacancies in professional caregiver roles. Additionally professional caregivers hold a high turnover rate of 40-60%, continually cutting the available workforce in half (Center Forward, 2024). With not enough individuals to fulfill the roles required it places increased stress on existing direct care workers as well as familial and informal caregivers to pick up the ever growing slack.