Keep grandma’s helper on the job

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive order put in place by President Barack Obama — which protects undocumented young people brought here as children — officially ends March 5. President Trump, who once said he badly wanted Congress to reup the protections, is now attaching a host of other policy conditions to their renewal.

The fate of thousands of New York Dreamers hangs in the balance — but so too does the well-being of the many frail, medically vulnerable and elderly for whom they care. Grandma’s caregiver is probably an immigrant; she may well be a Dreamer.

One in five Dreamers works in education or medical fields, many of which provide services in hospitals and the community including hospices. In New York, more than two-thirds of the estimated 300,000 home health aides were born outside the U.S. Nationwide, of nearly 900,000 direct care workers, almost a quarter are immigrants and, 44% are noncitizens.

Suspension of DACA will likely force many of those in these caregiving positions to abruptly leave. The loss of these trained and skilled individuals will disrupt the lives of countless New Yorkers who depend on them.

Caregiving jobs are very challenging, often thankless yet desperately needed. As the current population ages, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 38% growth in employment for home health aides between 2014 and 2024, accounting for nearly 350,000 jobs. Yet it’s becoming more and more difficult to fill these positions.

It takes a special person to be a caregiver. Hours are long and the work is hard. Yet many Dreamers have risen to the challenge. They work in these modest-paying jobs and deliver a high quality of care and attention to our parents and grandparents, and sometimes to pediatric hospice patients.

They help patients manage chronic illnesses; recover from surgeries; bathe, eat and use the bathroom. They are there for our patients at their most vulnerable, especially those who are at the end of life. And they are often bilingual, which is especially important in cities like ours.

Our organization, like others, is in the caring business — we’ve been doing it for more than a century — and see the important contributions Dreamers make every day. Taken together, they keep our patients — a population that is frail, elderly, medically vulnerable, diverse and often isolated — safe, comfortable, engaged and as independent as possible.

I can personally attest to the bonds formed between caregivers and their patients. Our patients, especially those with dementia, need consistency and familiarity. Losing a favorite and trusted certified nursing assistant or licensed practical nurse can cause seniors to suffer depression, confusion and other health declines.

Indeed, patients who have the same caregivers day after day have clinical advantages over those whose caregivers vary. Several recent studies highlight the importance of consistency in a home health provider’s ability to deliver effective treatment. Research has even shown that care provider consistency can be tied to improvements in the daily lives of patients. As with any job, it can sometimes take a while for a patient and caregiver to establish a wonderful rhythm and routine and for the caregiver to understand the patient’s unique and evolving likes, dislikes and quirks. For patients with dementia, the bonding experience is even more tenuous.

If a large part of our staff were suddenly destabilized, it would impose a tremendous burden on other members of our caregiving teams throughout the city — and more seriously, would undermine our ability to help our most vulnerable population.

The immediate threat here is the end of DACA, but the problem goes beyond that. As it happens, we have about 25 staff members at just one of our centers for rehabilitation and nursing care who will be impacted by similar changes.

The current administration announced it is ending in 2019 a humanitarian program, Temporary Protected Services designation for Haitians, originally created to assist those affected by the 2010 earthquake that displaced thousands of families. That will also uproot hundreds if not thousands of caregivers.

We owe our parents and grandparents better than this.

Immigration upheavals will hurt seniors