OPINION: Let me stay home: Why caregivers matter more than most people realize

I am a senior, and like many older New Mexicans, I think often about what my life will look like when I can no longer do everything for myself. It is not a pleasant thought — needing help to bathe, dress, use the bathroom or get to the doctor — but it is a reality for tens of thousands of New Mexicans.

What gives me comfort is knowing there are people called personal care services (PCS) workers, caregivers who quietly show up every day to help older adults like me live with dignity in our own homes. These are not luxuries. These are the things that make daily life possible.

PCS caregivers help with bathing, grooming and toileting. They prepare meals and make sure their clients take their medications correctly. They drive people like me to doctor’s appointments.

They offer something just as important as physical care: companionship. They sit and listen.

They notice when something is wrong. They treat seniors like human beings, not burdens.

Because of them, thousands of elders across New Mexico can stay in their own homes instead of being placed in institutions.

But here’s the hard truth: The very people who make this possible are among the lowest-paid workers in our state and across the nation.

In New Mexico, 83% of paid, professional caregivers are women. Eighty-two percent are people of color. And nearly two-thirds of caregivers live at or below the federal poverty level. These are the people we trust with our bodies, our medicines, our safety and our lives — yet we pay them wages that make it hard for them to care for their own families.

This is not because caregiver agencies don’t value their workers. It is because Medicaid reimbursement rates — the funds agencies rely on to pay caregivers — have not kept up with the cost of living or with competitive wages in other industries.

The result? Caregivers leave for higher-paying jobs in fast food or retail. Agencies can’t fill open positions. Seniors are left waiting or forced to rely on exhausted family members who are already stretched thin.

If we don’t fix this, many of us will be forced into nursing homes and institutions, like people were in the 1980s. That thought terrifies me.

I don’t want to live my final years in a facility. I want to sit in my favorite chair. I want to sleep in my own bed. I want to recognize the walls around me. And I know I’m not alone. Most seniors I know want exactly the same thing.

An adequate, stable caregiver workforce is not a luxury or a political talking point. It is the only realistic path to ensuring seniors like me can age according to my own preferences.

Caregivers are the backbone of home-based care. They deserve wages that allow them to live, just as they help us live. And if we truly value our elders, we must start by valuing the people who care for us.

Let us stay home. Support caregivers.

Rick Bela is a retiree who is thinking about funding for long term support services and how it impacts retirees like him.