Celebrating Careers In Aging Week 2020

Yesterday marked the start of Careers in Aging Week. And although we’ve celebrated this national week many times before, this time is starkly different. We are in the midst of a global health crisis, one that is most felt by all of you on the front lines.

While commemorating national weeks like this one might be far from top of mind with all you have on your plates, I’m heartened to see all of the ways that providers are going above and beyond to support staff regardless.  

A McKnight’s survey showed that providers across the country are doing their due diligence to keep staff in the loop via daily on-site briefings and mass messaging, offering more flexible scheduling and on-site childcare, and implementing a host of perks to keep spirits up. Many are sending employees home with meals for their families and others are bringing in food from restaurants, which also helps to support the local economy. Others are offering yoga classes, meditation areas, early access to earned wages and free rides to work. 

I have no doubt that many, if not all, of you will make an effort to celebrate this week, especially since it’s a great way to promote all of the rewarding opportunities in our field to the now 20+ million Americans looking for work. Here are a couple industry resources to get you started if you haven’t already planned out the week or are looking for additional ideas.  

• The Gerontological Society of America’s website contains images for social promotion, videos, online resources about educational opportunities and more. They even packaged up some materials to help you spread the word and ideas for celebrating at your community in this handy toolkit. 

• Argentum compiled their own list of activities and tips for outreach as part of their Senior Living Works initiative. You can access their resource here.  

Of course, a lot of the ideas for activities are no longer feasible with current social distancing measures. Luckily, video conference sites are the next best thing and allow you to hold engaging virtual meetings. OnShift’s Recruitment Toolkit has some information on virtual meeting tools as well as materials and resources to help senior care providers quickly and easily target those displaced by COVID-19. I encourage you to check it out, if you have not done so already. 

And finally, I want to thank you for your hard work. It is truly inspiring to hear of all that you are doing to support residents and staff during this time. It’s these stories that will show the world how wonderful and rewarding it is to work in senior care. Happy #CareersInAging week to you all.