Great Bay Community College’s Business & Training Center (BTC) is leading the way in addressing projected caregiver shortages in the home care arena. Supported by a grant from The International Longevity Center, Great Bay will be offering a seven week, 40-hour certificate course - Personal Care Attendant Training starting in February 2011 to prepare participants for work in the field of elder and disability care as personal care attendants.
Demand for caregivers is high and growing: personal care and home care aides are in the top 10 fastest growing jobs in the country. According to Department of Labor statistics, by 2020, the number of trained in-home caregivers needed will nearly double. The New Hampshire Employment Security, Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau projects health care support occupations to show a 26.8% gain in employment over the next 10 years.
Currently, family caregivers and friends provide 90% of all home care, but that will change as baby boomers age. Not as many family caregivers will be available to care for baby boomers because boomers had fewer children and 12 % had no children. Boomers are also more likely to be divorced and to live alone as they become elderly. The dwindling source of caregivers makes it clear that the demand for paraprofessional caregivers such as personal care attendants will become even more urgent in the coming years.
Medifecta Healthcare Training, developers of the course curriculum, has been recognized by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the National Hospice Foundation for its quality programs. The course will include instruction in infection control, safe wheelchair use, positioning in bed, personal care, measuring vital signs, fall prevention, fire safety, and more. It will include both classroom and simulated skill practice.
According to Lin Tamulonis, Associate VP of Corporate and Community Education for Great Bay, “creating training programs to develop workforce capacity in our region is our goal. We make sure our programs meet professional standards so that employers know that our students have the skills and knowledge that the occupation demands.”
Christopher Lawrence, Director of Community Education at the BTC, emphasizes that “the population over age 65 in NH is increasing at twice the rate of the rest of the population putting these skills and occupations in the ‘high demand’ area.”
The first scheduled course will meet on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:50-8:30PM starting February 23, 2011 at Great Bay Community College located in Portsmouth at the Pease International Tradeport (320 Corporate Avenue). For more information or to register, contact Mickey Pike at 603-427-7654.
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