The senior citizen population in America is growing enormously, with 10,000 people a day crossing the threshold of their 65^th birthday. On the face of it, this increase in life expectancy is very much a positive development, but the offshoot of people living longer is the increasing burden being placed on the healthcare industry to provide the care that is needed for the elderly population.

It’s not that the healthcare industry is in decline or even stalling – far from it. This is a sector worth $84 billion in the USA alone, with a workforce of 1.7 million people and enormous growth projected in the next decade. The main difficulty is that the growth of the industry isn’t quite keeping pace with the increase in people requiring care, as America’s senior population is expected to stand at roughly 84 million people by the end of 2016.

Another factor in the struggle to meet the demand for home healthcare is the increased regulation of the industry, with providers of healthcare being required to meet higher standards of care than ever before. It is unarguable that patients deserve the best of care, but when licensing for healthcare becomes stricter, the pool of suitable providers gets smaller, and the demand for care is even less likely to be satisfied.

To see more about the current status of the homecare industry, read the infographic below from Be Independent Home Care (http://www.beindependenthomecare.ie/our-services/private-home-care.html).