Caring Across Maryland is a broad coalition of advocates, workers and patients in nursing homes, assisted living, and home care fighting for a more caring healthcare system.
Our fragmented care infrastructure has driven millions of care workers - mostly women of color– out of the workforce, resulting in our current health care worker staffing crisis. The staffing crisis impacts the entire care continuum, overburdening our emergency rooms with needless admissions, and resulting in 30,000+ waiting list for home care services.
Direct care wages have been too low for too long-- the direct result of the legacies of sexism and racism, our historical under-investment in long-term care services, and the undervaluing of caregiving work and those who provide it.
As the state’s population of adults over the age of 60 explodes by 40% by 2030, the need for care workers and quality care is urgent. It’s time to urge Maryland’s General Assembly to
address the staffing crisis in our nursing homes
bolster job quality for care workers,
improve financial transparency in the long term care industry, and
work to prevent private equity firms from degrading quality of care
Now is the time to invest in our care infrastructure, because care can’t wait!
