Developing Resilience in the Aged and Dementia Care Workforce

Developing resilience in the aged and dementia care workforce is animportant element of support given their high demand environment. Jn this chapter,we outline the key known factors relevant for resiliency of aged and dementia careworkforces, focusi ng on direct care workers who provide health care and physical,emotional , and social support to older adults and people with dementia as part oftheir job roles. We describe workforce characteristics, job demands, and resources,as well as personal and emotional responses lo work with international comparisonsmade where in formation is available. Several theoretical constructs in social andorganizational psychology are overviewed and applied to the investigation ofresilience in care work contexts. Organisational psychology can help the aged caresector prepare for the increased need to attract and retain a resilient workforce.Occupational communion is one of the several new theoretical constructs thatprovide potential for ·trategies for interventional support and training. Our worksuggests chat measurement models should be developed that consider positivecoping speci fic to the social nature of caring and the ncurodegcnerativc conditionssuch as dementia, as well ac; the characteristics of the workforce