Hattie Brown

Hattie Brown, New Jersey Home Health Aide (HHA), has always preferred providing care for elderly and/or disabled seniors, as she finds immense joy in “bringing some independence back to [clients] and helping [them] in any way [she] can.” This year, Hattie celebrated 10 happy years with BAYADA Home Health Care and is looking forward to many more.

Hattie, having worked in the healthcare industry for over a decade, has never seen anything like the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of last year. Aside from the increased Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and cleanliness precautions she has taken over the last year, she, like many other aides in New Jersey, has faced hardships in other areas as well. Hattie relies on public transportation to get her to and from her client’s homes but has experienced longer wait times and spotty bus schedules since the beginning of the crisis – “It may take 45 minutes by bus or multiple buses. If you miss [the bus], you are late for that client or the next.” Besides transportation issues, Hattie is also experiencing longer and more demanding hours due to staffing shortages: “I thank God for the money, but it seems like I am working more because of others’ retiring early or not wanting to risk contracting the virus.”

In New Jersey and throughout the country, many home health aides like Hattie live well below the Federal Poverty Line (FPL) despite receiving benefits from the state and performing important, physically and emotionally taxing work on a day-to-day basis. This disparity broadened with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine when it came to receiving vital information from the state regarding vaccination procedures for frontline workers. Today, New Jersey is finding it more and more difficult to retain dedicated home health aides to provide care for the state’s most vulnerable residents as aides are turning to less physically and emotionally demanding professions that are showing significantly higher wages.

Hattie has developed close bonds with many of her clients and is dedicated to providing them with the best care possible. However, New Jersey’s Medicaid reimbursement rates are failing to provide enough funding to allow home care agencies to offer competitive pay, so she has been forced to consider her own financial responsibilities when looking toward the future – “We need more money in this industry as a whole, not just ‘we’re going to give you a few extra dollars because of the pandemic.’ The cost of living in New Jersey has increased and the industry should be keeping up.”

Hattie and other aides in New Jersey deserve better wages for the essential services they provide for their patients and their families. Though in-home caregiving is oftentimes treated as a minimum wage job, Hattie (and others) consistently provide much more care than what is outlined on paper. Hattie provides emotional support for patients who haven’t seen their families in months due to the pandemic, she is a companion for patients who live alone, she massages patient’s legs to relieve pain and stress, but most importantly, Hattie is an essential worker who deserves to finally be treated like one.