Eldercare administrators

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Sr. M. Peter Lillian Di Maria, O CARM. “But there are not always enough people to fill these positions. We’re all vying for the same group of people.”

Sr. Di Maria is a member of the leadership team of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, a congregation that sponsors, cosponsors and serves at more than a dozen eldercare campuses in Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Ireland. She also directs the congregation’s Avila Institute of Gerontology.

She says eldercare facilities are looking for people with a desire and passion to guide the care of the elderly and who have the skill set to do so effectively. “When we find those people, they are a treasure!”

Sr. Di Maria says.

Post-traumatic stress disorder

Jenna Kellerman is director of workforce strategy and development for LeadingAge, an organization representing nonprofit aging services providers. She says it is common in nursing homes for residents and staff to be very close — almost like family — since they spend so much time together. So, when COVID-19 took lives and impaired the health and wellness of residents and staff, the impacts hit administrators very hard.

Kellerman notes that many administrators took on additional roles to fill the gap of vacant positions. Some administrators even slept at the facilities they oversaw. The degree of many administrators’ personal investment made the pandemic especially daunting for them. Research is showing that staff who were on the front lines of COVID19, such as aging services professionals, are at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder due to the trauma they experienced working during the pandemic, Kellerman says. She adds this is contributing to retirements and resignations.

Sr. Di Maria says that stress among health care workers — including administrators — was a problem before 2020 but the extreme pressures brought on by the pandemic greatly increased burnout.

She adds that many of the people who have departed from such roles in the ministry were part of the first generation of laity to be formed alongside men and women religious.

Heavily recruited

Kevin Law is director of talent acquisition for Trinity Health Senior Communities, which has 24 senior living and health care campuses in Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan and North Carolina. He says recent dramatic