| Eldercare Workforce Alliance | |
| Abbreviation: | EWA |
| Location: | United States |
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance (EWA), a project of the Tides Center, is a coalition of 35 US national organizations that came together to focus on short- and long-term healthcare workforce issues relating to older adults.[1] The Alliance helped pass the 2018 Raise Family Caregivers Act, supports ongoing funding for the Title VII Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program, and advocates for including elder care in government and professional policies, including related questions of educating and maintaining the labor force such care requires.[2]
In response to the Institute of Medicine's report Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Healthcare Workforce, over twenty organizations that represent consumers, family caregivers, the direct care workforce, and healthcare professions, joined together with the aim of delivering high-quality care to an aging population. As the baby-boomers retire, caring for the America's older adults will become a growing challenge.[3]
The organization supports additional training in geriatrics for health care professionals, including home care workers and revising the companionship exemption, a provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act that excludes home care aides from receiving minimum wage and overtime protections.[4] In February 2013 the Eldercare Workforce Alliance wrote on this topic in a Huffington Post article titled "The State of Quality Care Demands Quality Jobs".[5]
The Eldercare Workforce Alliance consists of 28 organizations:[6]