NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Paul Gregoline lies in
bed, awaiting the helper who will get him up, bathed and groomed. He is
92 years old, has Alzheimer’s disease and needs a hand with nearly every
task the day brings. When the aide arrives, though, he doesn’t look so
different from the client himself — bald and bespectacled.
"Just a couple of old geezers," jokes Warren Manchess, the 74-year-old caregiver.
As
demand for senior services provided by nurses’ aides, home health aides
and other such workers grows with the aging of baby boomers, so are
those professions’ employment of other seniors. The new face of
America’s network of caregivers is increasingly wrinkled.
Among
the overall population of direct-care workers, 29 percent are projected
to be 55 or older by 2018, up from 22 percent a decade earlier,
according to an analysis by the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute,
or PHI, a New York-based nonprofit advocating for workers caring for the
country’s elderly and disabled. In some segments of the workforce,
including personal and home care aides, those 55 and older are the
largest single age demographic.
"I think people are surprised that
this workforce is as old as it is," said Abby Marquand, a researcher at
PHI. "There’s often people who have chronic disease themselves who have
to muster up the energy to perform these really physically taxing
caregiving needs."
Manchess came out of retirement to work for
Home Instead Senior Care after caring for his mother-in-law, who, too,
had Alzheimer’s and whom he regarded as his hero. The experience, though
taxing, inspired his new career.
Three days a week, he arrives at
Gregoline’s house, giving the retired electrician’s wife a needed
break. He carefully shaves and dresses his client, prepares breakfast
and lunch, cleans the house and quickly remedies any accidents. He does
the laundry and swaddles Gregoline in a warm towel from the dryer, reads
him the sports page to keep him updated on his beloved Bears and
sometimes pulls out dominoes or puzzles to pass the time.
Gregoline
is rather sedate this afternoon, relaxing in his favorite chair while
occasionally offering glimpses of his trademark wit. Asked if he
remembered anything about the Army, he says: "It was a bitch!" Offered
the chance to go outside, he responds: "No! I’ll freeze my ass off out
there!" Describing an abrasive personality of long ago, he offers: "He
followed me around like a bad conscience."
Manchess has worked for
Gregoline for about a year, and the men are at ease around each other.
Past aides to Gregoline have been in their 20s, but Manchess says he
thinks his age is an asset.
"Age can be an advantage," he said,
pointing to the common conversation points and life experience,
including his own health troubles and aches and pains that can come with
age. "We hit it off pretty well. Maybe I didn’t seem to be too much out
of the ordinary."
Around the country, senior service agencies are
seeing a burgeoning share of older workers. About one-third of Home
Instead’s 65,000 caregivers are over 60. Visiting Angels, another
in-home care provider, says about 30 percent of its workers are over 50.
And at least one network, Seniors Helping Seniors, is built entirely on
the model of hiring older caregivers.
Like most occupations, some
of the growth in older caregivers is driven by the overall aging of the
population and the trend of people working later in life. But with
incredibly high rates of turnover and a constant need for more workers,
home care agencies have also shown a willingness to hire older people
new to the field who have found a tough job market as they try to
supplement their retirement income.
The jobs are among the
fastest-growing positions in the U.S., but are also notoriously
physically demanding, with low pay and high rates of injury. Manchess
has had spinal surgery and says he’s especially careful when vacuuming.
He’s not sure how many years he’ll be able to continue this work, and he
acknowledges it can be tough.
"Halfway through my shift, I’m a little weary myself," he said. "It takes its toll."

Manchess
had worked as an Air Force pilot, then in real estate, then as a school
bus driver, before becoming a professional caregiver. As Gregoline
contentedly nibbles on his ham sandwich, Manchess wraps up his shift,
turning reflective when considering his life’s careers.
"I think this is about as rewarding, if not more rewarding, than any of them," he said.
___
Matt
Sedensky, an AP reporter on leave, is studying aging and workforce
issues as part of a one-year fellowship at the AP-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research, which joins NORC’s independent research and AP
journalism. The fellowship is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
and supported by APME, an association of AP member newspapers and
broadcast stations.
___
Follow Matt Sedensky on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sedensky
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