Will there be an end to self delusion in the care industry?
It is 2022, and the crisis in care for older people has moved from the concerns of a clamoring crowd to a nationally (and globally) established, measurable, reality.
Listed below are examples of evidence currently ignored by the care industry:
We know that as of March alone the staff shortage grew 52% to 165,000 vacant posts. [1]
The misconception that we can attract care workers from abroad to work in roles and environments that have become un-acceptable to our home grown workforce is finally over. Not only is there a global shortage of care staff [2], but also the negatives of care work overwhelm the rewards.
We know that care is seen in a negative light by 5 in every 6 (83%) millennials and their neighboring generations. [3]
We know that the average person has a highly negative view of aging itself believing that “being lonely is just something that happens when people get old” [4]
Astonishingly, research on ageism has found that those with negative attitudes about growing older live on average seven and a half years less than those who see it in a positive light. [5]
There is now a growing body of research evidencing the real-life consequences that negative attitudes to ageing have on individual health outcomes such as memory loss, physical function, and ability to recover from illness.
Further to this the Royal Society for Public Health reports that the UK workforce is at the point of burnout. [6]
A common misconception is to blame the pay issue, as the Guardian does in an Aug 2022 article. [7]
Pay in fact is a misnomer, as are most standard work benefits. As always with human beings - it is the overall experience that counts - it is our quality of life, our sense of skill, team, and enjoyment of our daily life. In this, the evidence tell us, pay plays the minor not the major role. [8]
“U.S. Department of Labor statistics show the number one reason people leave organizations is that they “don’t feel appreciated.”
Research firm Watson and Wyatt has asked employees to identify “very significant” motivators of performance, and 66% said “appreciation.”” [8]
“The invisible culture reigns supreme: The top factors related to employee happiness turn out to be the intangible ones such as interpersonal relationships, culture, and work environment.” [9]
The facts driving the failure of care for older people are little to do with the wage of the staff. In fact the issues are entirely to do with the reality of being human; how we perceive ourselves and our skills, how we behave toward others, how we are treated by others, the mental modelling we hold of our lives and their meaning, the physical environment in which we must live out our days and the stress v.s. support that environment brings us.
The care industry has, for generations, been complacent about its ability to profit from essentially a captive market. Care providers have consistently failed to set a positive example of old age. They have failed to offer meaningful evidence based, skills based employment within appropriately supportive working environments. They have failed to be popular destinations of choice, despite the incredible work, effort, shows of compassion and the best expressions of human spirit performed within them on daily basis - despite, often, total institutional and environmental apathy.
Yet it is not to the benefit of the industry to be seen in such a terrible light:
[10] having favourable attitudes about nursing homes increased the odds of using subsequent nursing home services by 1.5 and increased the total nursing home length of stay by 17%. In business terms that’s more customers and higher value of sale per customer - the care industry is working against, not just its customers interests, but also its own interests out of sheer laziness and apathy.
The central issue, is that care has not evolved. Its leaders - accountants, businessmen, property developers, financial experts, VC’s and “entrepreneurs” are entirely divorced from the human reality of caregiving. They are simply observing the cash flow as a sign of success.
However, care is fundamentally relationship based and expressly not a standard transactional business. Care involves the entire human condition - it is defined by relationships to one another, to our bodies, to the environment we inhabit and so forth. Those are the experiences through which it builds its reputation, staff and customer base.
Survival in natural phenomena is centred on diversity and evolution - in all things. Everything in nature has many forms. That which does not have many forms tends to die out. That which associates survival with size, dies out.
A system that cannot or does not evolve dies.
Care has barely changed since its modern incarnation - that’s now over 70 years of doing the same thing over and over again while the world around it has entirely transformed. Care is now more or less entirely homogeneous in function and operation. It has associated improvement with size increase - of bedrooms, of corridors, of atria and of whole institutions.
That this situation exists is due to the ‘captive’ market. Once someone needs a nursing home they need one, more or less immediately, whether they like it or not.
The staff however are a different matter.
They have choice. It’s a choice that’s now being felt nationally, in fact globally. Frankly it’s about time.
What is needed is not more words, not a re-branding, not a national advertising campaign.
Caregiving is one of the most natural functions of a human being. What is needed is for the industry to evolve. For it to build, be, look and feel different. So that caring and being cared for are finally the wonderful, awakening, valued and enjoyable experiences they should be.
It is time for care for our older people and for future generations, takes that evolutionary (and yes, scary) step forward. Using cutting edge evidence into the science of human function, cognition and more we have created Maracuja Club to offer that new alternative.
It is irrational not to face our fears of change when the care industry and our country sits here in the eye of this demographic storm.
Madness is to see the problem and simply respond by building and doing more of the same approach to care - especially when there is a new evidence backed option available.
Care is one of the great wins for all - we get it right and it’s a win for investors, a win for the staff and a win for the customers, their families, ourselves, our friends and our futures. - no one loses when we get care right.
We will be writing a series of articles this autumn and winter, exposing our project to transform the future of care and its outcomes. We will discuss the evidence behind it, and the inherent issues with the industry as it exists today that are driving its failure. We will call on objective evidence, providing you with compelling discussion and narrative.
Are you an investor, or know someone who might like to be part of changing the future of care for all of us? Then get in touch as we assemble a syndicate of private and established investors to back the first iteration of Maracuja Club.
1. Samuel, M. Adult social care vacancies up 52% over past year. 2022 July 22, 2022; Available from: https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2022/07/22/adult-social-care-vacancies-up-52-over-past-year/.
2. Schwartz, E. The Global Health Care Worker Shortage: 10 Numbers to Note. 2022 April 6, 2022; Available from: https://www.projecthope.org/the-global-health-worker-shortage-10-numbers-to-note/04/2022/.
3. Environment, T.C.H. Generations X, Y And Z ‘Have Highly Negative Perception Of Care Homes. 2021 JUN 02, 2021; Available from: https://www.thecarehomeenvironment.com/story/35753/generations-x-y-and-z-have-highly-negative-perception-of-care-homes.
4. Ritchel, C. Millennials feel most negatively about ageing, report finds. 2018 07 June 2018; Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/millennials-ageing-ageism-depression-dementia-elderly-rsph-a8388636.html.
5. CGF, R., That Age Old Question. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation & Royal Society for Public Health.
6. Perez, D.F.A., The Public Health Workforce: voicing their concerns on wellbeing and burn-out. 2022, Royal Society For Public Health.
7. Booth, R. Half of care workers in England earn less than entry level supermarket roles. 2022 Wed 24 Aug 2022; Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/24/half-of-care-workers-in-england-earn-less-than-entry-level-supermarket-roles.
8. O.C.Tanner, White Paper Performance Accelerated. O C Tanner Learning Group.
9. TINYpulse, The Broken Bridges of the Workplace
2017 Employee Engagement Report. 2017.
10. Rabiner, D.J., Attitudes toward and use of subsequent nursing home services among a national sample of older adults. National Centre for Biotechnology Information, 1996.