A Question of Care

Home care agencies are vital in the care economy, providing essential services, employing workers, and informing government policies and industry practices. However, many operate on tight margins, and face intensified scrutiny as home care jobs remain low-quality nationwide. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza talks to Kevin Smith, CEO of Best in Care, Inc. They discuss how home care agencies sh...

Direct care workers employed in palliative and hospice care play a critical role in supporting individuals with serious illnesses—a sensitive and crucial stage in life. Yet the general lack of good jobs in direct care means that workers don’t stay in this job sector for long. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza talks to Brynn Bowman, CEO of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, about the workfo...

Not enough people know about consumer direction, a policy approach allowing Medicaid recipients to pay family members to provide them with in-home care. Consumer-directed beneficiaries, or "independent providers," are growing in numbers, but not quickly enough. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Corrine Eldridge, President and CEO of the Center for Caregiver Advancement. They discus...

Nursing assistants are the eyes and ears of nursing homes, where many people receive 24-hour skilled care when they can no longer support themselves. As the COVID-19 pandemic tragically reinforced, our society has neglected nursing homes and nursing assistants for decades.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Dr. Kezia Scales, Vice President of Research and Evaluation at PHI. They di...

Direct support professionals are vital to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), as well as their families. While these workers provide critical support, our country has a long way to go in ensuring they are respected and fully recognized. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Joseph Macbeth, CEO and President of the National Alliance for Direct Support Pro...

Home care workers are a lifeline to millions of older adults and people with disabilities, ensuring they live safely in their homes. However, these workers struggle in substandard jobs, often exiting this field frustrated in search of better jobs and leaving critical jobs unfilled. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Helen Adeosun, CEO and Founder of CareAcademy. They discuss the nee...

To stay emotionally and financially afloat, many parents rely on childcare workers. Unfortunately, most working families cannot cover the high costs of childcare. And because this workforce is undervalued, the chances of finding an affordable childcare worker are slim.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza talks to Julie Kashen, Director of Women's Economic Justice and a Senior Fellow at The Cent...

Direct care and childcare workers are the backbone of support for millions of older adults, people with disabilities, and young children, as well as their families. Despite their vital contributions, these essential workers are often undervalued, leading to unsustainable turnover rates. Without prompt intervention, the current challenges in care could quickly spiral into a major crisis. In this ep...

In recent decades, legal cases have incrementally broadened services for older people and strengthened legal protections against age discrimination. Despite these advancements, o our country has a long way to go in extending legal rights to older individuals.   In this episode of A QUESTION OF CARE™, Robert Espinoza is joined by Kevin Prindiville, Executive Director of Justice in Aging, a national...

Death and dying are difficult subjects for most of us. Yet how our country deals with these issues might inadvertently hurt how health professionals approach end-of-life care and serious illness, all of which incurs a significant cost.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Dr. Joseph Shega, Chief Medical Officer at VITAS Healthcare and Co-Managing Editor of Essential Practices in Hosp...

For generations, immigrants have contributed significantly to this country, including our health and long-term care sectors. Unfortunately, our divisive political climate prevents a constructive conversation about the potential of immigrant workers to support people with long-term care needs. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Ai-jen Poo, President at the National Domestic Workers A...

In 2023, an estimated 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's, which will likely double to 12.7 million by 2050. Yet our health and long-term care systems aren't prepared to support this population or their families, many of whom are strained financially and emotionally. In this episode, host Robert Espinoza is joined by expert guest  Jason Resendez, President and CEO at...

Home care workers are a lifeline to millions of older adults and people with disabilities. Unfortunately, many of these workers are walking away from this sector to pursue better-paying jobs. As a result, it’s nearly impossible to find and retain a highly qualified home care worker these days.   In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Dr. Madeline Sterling, a doctor, researcher, and prof...

Due to a lifetime of discrimination, millions of LGBTQ+ older adults struggle economically and face entrenched barriers in employment, housing, and healthcare. They also routinely encounter discrimination in long-term care environments, and the law rarely supports their urgent needs.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with Michael Adams, CEO at SAGE (Advocacy and Services for LGBTQ+ Eld...

Research shows that Black nursing home residents are more often physically restrained and hospitalized than their peers and are less likely to have their pain treated. Black and Latino people also make up a disproportionate number of cases and deaths from COVID-19. Why is that? In this episode, Robert Espinoza sits down with Dr. Ruqaiijah Yearby, a professor at the Moritz College of Law at Ohio St...

Since its onset, COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted nursing home residents, primarily because they live with the types of medical conditions that put them at risk of severe complications. But there are other important reasons that the nursing home sector remains vulnerable to health crises.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with David Grabowski, a professor at the Department of H...

Ageism affects all of us, and yet it is one of the least discussed issues of our time. It’s also expensive—one study found that ageism resulted in roughly 17 million cases of common health conditions, totaling $63 billion in one year.  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza is joined by Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and co-founder of the Old School Anti-A...

High-quality long-term care remains out of reach for millions of older adults in the U.S. Given this challenge, what should we know about our country's caregiving system to fix it once and for all?  In this episode, host Robert Espinoza speaks with expert guest Howard Gleckman, Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute and a columnist at Forbes.com. They discuss the profound challenges facing older adu...

How did one of the wealthiest countries in the world get to a point where it can’t support more than 54 million older adults and twice as many in a few decades? A Question of Care™ explores the many answers to this question with expert insights into our caregiving system and how to solve the growing crisis in care. This podcast is hosted by Robert Espinoza, a national expert and frequent speaker o...