Governor Tony Evers formed a caregiving task force on Monday, which looks to solve Wisconsin’s shortage of caregivers.
The task force is made up of 29 people who will find ways to bring personal care workers and CNAs to the state, whether it is in the nursing home setting, group home, or in home care.
Kathy Bernier is one of those members and says that she is excited to be working on something that she is very passionate about.
“The task force is set up to discuss how we can attract and retain personal care workers, whether they be CNAs or otherwise,” Bernier said.
According to Bernier, Wisconsin has been facing a personal care worker shortage for the last five years, mainly in nursing homes.
“The fact of the matter is, we created family care in order to keep people out of the nursing homes,” she said. “Now we have been successful at that and now we don’t have enough people in the nursing homes who are able to pay for their care and then they’re entirely reliant on Medicaid.”