As someone in community care for nearly 20 years, I want to thank Andy Castillo for reporting on the challenges of being a home health aide (“Overworked and underpaid,” July 10).
This is of vital interest to everyone as their loved ones age. It’s important to know that these services we provide happen even as home health aides are challenged to make it from paycheck to paycheck. It’s important to know because of these challenges and other factors that the need for the services is already far outpacing the availability in the industry.
Additionally, our lack of compassion and leadership in dealing with immigration will only compound the problem significantly.
The plight of everyone making minimum wage today in Massachusetts is troubling. The $15 per hour minimum wage will make a very real difference in the lives of the people dedicated to this work, too.
Yet, for these women and some men knowing they have improved the quality of life of the people they helped today is powerful. It’s in sharing our compassion for others in need that drives us daily. Beyond the dollars and cents, it is our compassion to help others that we want to share, from the younger generations with disabilities who need a little assistance to stay home all the way to assisting elders through the hospice process.
Our elders who have gone before us did their best to maintain the quality of life we enjoy today, among the best in the world. Now our task is to return the favor.
Michael Archbald
West Hatfield
The writer is owner/administrator of Collective Home Care in West Hatfield.