Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Throughout the United States, home health aides and nursing assistants care for some of our most vulnerable neighbors. They help people get out of bed, bathe, eat, take their medications and use the bathroom.
So what happens when the person fulfilling this role suddenly loses authorization to work?
For a lawyer-turned-certified nursing assistant who fled Haiti after members of a criminal group attacked her home in 2022, that question is no longer hypothetical.
The consequences won't be felt by Haitian workers alone. In Florida, where Haitian immigrants make up an important part of the healthcare workforce, nursing homes and home-care providers are warning that losing these workers could deepen an existing labor shortage and disrupt care for elderly and disabled Americans.
Put more simply: Washington may be making an immigration decision, but nursing homes, healthcare workers and the patients who depend on them could be left dealing with the consequences.
"The loss of this significant part of the workforce means that people with disabilities [and] older folks are going to lose people that they rely on for some of their most basic functions, whether it's bathing, helping feed themselves, or even helping take their medicines," said Dr. Giridhar Mallya, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Those warnings, no longer hypothetical, extend beyond Florida.Even across New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, health care providers have already begun confronting the loss of Haitian workers.
For an industry that has struggled for years to recruit and retain enough caregivers, the challenge isn't simply replacing one worker with another. Home health aides and nursing assistants often develop relationships with patients over months or years, learning their routines, medications and individual care needs.
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So what happens when the person fulfilling this role suddenly loses authorization to work?
For a lawyer-turned-certified nursing assistant who fled Haiti after members of a criminal group attacked her home in 2022, that question is no longer hypothetical.
The consequences won't be felt by Haitian workers alone. In Florida, where Haitian immigrants make up an important part of the healthcare workforce, nursing homes and home-care providers are warning that losing these workers could deepen an existing labor shortage and disrupt care for elderly and disabled Americans.
Put more simply: Washington may be making an immigration decision, but nursing homes, healthcare workers and the patients who depend on them could be left dealing with the consequences.
"The loss of this significant part of the workforce means that people with disabilities [and] older folks are going to lose people that they rely on for some of their most basic functions, whether it's bathing, helping feed themselves, or even helping take their medicines," said Dr. Giridhar Mallya, a senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Those warnings, no longer hypothetical, extend beyond Florida.Even across New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, health care providers have already begun confronting the loss of Haitian workers.
For an industry that has struggled for years to recruit and retain enough caregivers, the challenge isn't simply replacing one worker with another. Home health aides and nursing assistants often develop relationships with patients over months or years, learning their routines, medications and individual care needs.
Ending Haitian TPS Is Already Straining America’s Caregiving Workforce
Ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians could deepen an already-strained caregiving shortage, leaving elderly and disabled Americans caught in the middle.
