Elder Care
Co-ops Unite to Support Worker-Ownership in Home Care
by Jim Johnson, GEO Collective
Consumer Cooperatives | Cooperative Financial Institutions | Credit Unions | Cross-Sector Alliances | Elder Care | Healthcare | Home Work (cleaning, personal care, etc.) | Networking & Collaboration | Producer Cooperatives | Support Organizations | Worker Cooperatives | United States | Articles
Past issues of GEO have reported on the emergence of a particular type of worker cooperative, the home care cooperative. In the 1980s, the federal government followed the lead of state governments like Wisconsin and acknowledged that elderly and disabled people who need help in day-to-day living are best served by in-home assistance. Medicare and Medicaid funding that would have otherwise been used only for nursing homes would now be applicable to home care services. With "the gray tsunami" of aging baby boomers looming, demand is only going to increase for the next few decades.
