Activities	Assist elderly or disabled adults with daily living activities at the person's home or in a daytime non-residential facility. Duties performed at a place of residence may include keeping house (making beds, doing laundry, washing dishes) and preparing meals. May provide meals and supervised activities at non-residential care facilities. May advise families, the elderly, and disabled on such things as nutrition, cleanliness, and household utilities.
Outlook	Faster-than-average-job growth
Median Income	$20,170 per year in 2010
Work Context & Conditions	The personal and home care aide’s daily routine may vary. Aides may go to the same home every day for months or even years.
Minimum Education Requirements	General High School Program
Skills	Social Perceptiveness, Monitoring, Critical Thinking, Active Listening, Service Orientation, Time Management, Coordination, Reading Comprehension, Speaking
Abilities	Problem Sensitivity, Speech Clarity, Oral Comprehension

Job Category		Personal Care & Service
Job Description		Personal and home care aides help elderly, disabled, and ill persons live in their own homes or in residential care facilities instead of in a health facility. Most work with elderly or disabled clients who need more extensive care than family or friends can provide. Some aides work with families in which a parent is incapacitated and small children need care. Others help discharged hospital patients who have relatively short-term needs. Personal and home care aides provide housekeeping and routine personal care services. They clean clients' houses, do laundry, and change bed linens. Aides may plan meals (including special diets), shop for food, and cook. Aides also may help clients move from bed, bathe, dress, and groom. Some accompany clients outside the home, serving as a guide and companion. Personal and home care aides also provide instruction and psychological support. They may advise families and patients on such things as nutrition, cleanliness, and household tasks. Aides also may assist in toilet training a severely mentally handicapped child, or just listen to clients talk about their problems. In home care agencies, it usually is a registered nurse, a physical therapist, or a social worker who assigns specific duties and supervises personal and home care aides. Aides keep records of services performed and of clients' condition and progress. They report changes in the client's condition to the supervisor or case manager. Aides work in cooperation with other healthcare professionals, including registered nurses, therapists, and other medical staff.
Working Conditions		The personal and home care aide's daily routine may vary. They may go to the same home every day for months or even years. However, most aides work with a number of different clients, each job lasting a few hours, days, or weeks. Aides often visit four or five clients on the same day. Surroundings differ from case to case. Some homes are neat and pleasant, while others are untidy or depressing. Some clients are pleasant and cooperative; others are angry, abusive, depressed, or otherwise difficult. Personal and home care aides generally work on their own, with periodic visits by their supervisor. They receive detailed instructions explaining when to visit clients and what services to perform for them. About one-third of aides work part time, and some work weekends or evenings to suit the needs of their clients. Aides are individually responsible for getting to the client’s home. They may spend a good portion of the working day traveling from one client to another. Because mechanical lifting devices that are available in institutional settings are seldom available in patients’ homes, aides must be careful to avoid overexertion or injury when they assist clients.
Salary Range		Median yearly earnings of home-care aides were $20,560 per year in 2010. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $16,300, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $29,390. Median yearly earnings personal care aides was $19,640 in May 2010. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $15,970, and the top 10 percent earned more than $25,900.

Education Required		In some States, the only requirement for employment is on-the-job training, which generally is provided by most employers. Other States may require formal training, which is available from community colleges, vocational schools, elder care programs, and home health care agencies. Most personal and home care aides receive short term on-the-job training in a range of job functions. Aides are instructed on how to properly cook for a client, which includes information on nutrition and special diets. They may be trained on basic housekeeping tasks, such as making a bed and keeping the home sanitary and safe for the client. Generally, they are taught how to respond to an emergency situation, learning basic safety techniques. Employers may also train aides to conduct themselves in a professional and courteous manner while in a clients’ home. Advancement for personal and home care aides is limited. In some agencies, workers start out performing homemaker duties, such as cleaning. With experience and training, they may take on personal care duties. Some aides choose to receive additional training to become nursing and home health aides, licensed practical nurses, or registered nurses. Some experienced personal and home care aides may start their own home care agency.
Recommended High School Courses		Mathematics, English, Health
Postsecondary Instructional Programs		English Language, Customer and Personal Service, Medicine and Dentistry
Certification and Licensing		The National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC) offers national certification for personal and home care aides. Certification is a voluntary demonstration that the individual has met industry standards. Certification requires the completion of a standard 75-hour course and written exam developed by NAHC. Home care aides seeking certification are evaluated on 17 different skills by a registered nurse.

Interest Area		Social Involves working and communicating with, helping, and teaching people.
Work Values		Company Policies and Practices Treated fairly by the company. Moral Values Never pressured to do things that go against their sense of right and wrong. Social Service Do things for other people.
Skills		Social Perceptiveness Be aware of others' reactions and understand why they react the way they do. Monitoring Assess how well someone is doing when learning or doing something. Critical Thinking Use logic and analysis to identify the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches. Active Listening Listen to what other people are saying and ask questions as appropriate. Service Orientation Actively look for ways to help people. Time Management Manage one's own time and the time of others. Coordination Adjust actions in relation to others' actions. Reading Comprehension Understand written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents. Speaking Talk to others to effectively convey information.
Abilities		Problem Sensitivity Able to tell when something is wrong or likely to go wrong. This doesn't involve solving the problem, just recognizing that there is a problem. Speech Clarity Able to speak clearly so listeners understand. Oral Comprehension Able to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.

Related Jobs		Aide, Physical Therapist, Aide, Occupational Therapist, Optician, Aide, Psychiatric, Technician, Registered, Dietetic
Job Outlook		Excellent job opportunities are expected for this occupation, because rapid employment growth and high replacement needs are projected to produce a large number of job openings. Personal and home care aides held about 1,878,700 jobs in 2010. The majority of jobs were in home health care services; individual and family services; residential care facilities; and private households. Self-employed aides have no agency affiliation or supervision and accept clients, set fees, and arrange work schedules on their own. Employment of personal and home care aides is projected to grow much faster than average for all occupations through the year 2020. The number of elderly people, an age group characterized by mounting health problems and requiring some assistance with daily activities, is projected to rise substantially. In addition to the elderly, other patients, such as the mentally disabled, will increasingly rely on home care. This trend reflects several developments, including efforts to contain costs by moving patients out of hospitals and nursing care facilities as quickly as possible; the realization that treatment can be more effective in familiar rather than clinical surroundings; and the development and improvement of medical technologies for in-home treatment. In addition to job openings created by the increase in demand for these workers, replacement needs are expected to lead to many openings. The relatively low skill requirements, low pay, and high emotional demands of the work result in high replacement needs. For these same reasons, many people are reluctant to seek jobs in the occupation. Therefore, persons who are interested in and suited for this work—particularly those with experience or training as personal care, home health, or nursing aides—should have excellent job prospects.
More Information		National Association for Home Care
References		Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2012-13 Edition, Home Health and Personal Care Aides, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home-health-and-personal-care-aides.htm. O*NET OnLine, on the Internet at http://online.onetcenter.org/link/summary/39-9021.00