Paul Gregoline lies in bed, awaiting the helper who will get him up, bathed and groomed. He is 92 years old, has Alzheimer’s disease and needs a hand with nearly every task the day brings. When the aide arrives, though, he doesn’t look so different from the client himself: bald and bespectacled.
“Just a couple of old geezers,” jokes Warren Manchess, the 74-year-old caregiver.
As demand for senior services provided by nurses’ aides, home health aides and other such workers grows with the aging of baby boomers, so are those professions’ employment of other seniors. The new face of America’s network of caregivers is increasingly wrinkled.
Among the overall population of direct-care workers, 29 percent are projected to be 55 or older by 2018, up from 22 percent a decade earlier…