“There are only four kinds of people in this world. Those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.” Rosalynn Carter, Former First Lady
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that in the year 2010, 54% of workforce employees will provide eldercare for a parent or parents and that nearly two-thirds of caregivers will experience conflict between demands at home and demands from employers.
Today’s employed Baby Boomers are the caregiver generation for their parents. They are finding themselves juggling care responsibilities around their employment obligations. Sometimes employees find they have no option but to take leave from work or use sick time to meet their care-giving demands.
Employers also feel the toll it is taking on their employees. A report by the AARP describes the cost to employers: “Companies are also seeing the emotional and physical toll that care-giving takes on their workers. In one study, 75% of employees caring for adults reported negative health consequences, including depression, stress, panic attacks, headaches, loss of energy and sleep, weight loss, and physical pain. Businesses suffer, too, by having to pay high health insurance costs and in lost productivity. That doesn’t count the promotions or assignments workers turn down that requires travel or relocation away from aging relatives.”
Businesses that don’t offer benefits or address eldercare wind up paying for them. A recent study by the MetLife Market Mature Institute and the National Alliance for Caregiving states that U.S. companies pay between $17.1 billion and $33.6 billion annually, depending on the level of care-giving involved, on lost productivity. That equals $2,110 for every full-time worker who cares for an adult.
Typically, human resource departments work with employees on many issues that may affect their work productivity. There are programs for drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence, illness, absenteeism and child care; but, help with eldercare issues is not normally provided.
However, a growing number of companies nationwide are directing their HR departments to provide resources, education and group help for care-giving issues by:
- Providing materials from community resources such as phone numbers to their local Senior Centers or Area Agencies on Aging.
- Making available brochures and booklets on specific programs and services by eldercare experts
- Providing speakers to educate employees on care-giving options
- Allowing options to use paid sick leave, employee job sharing and flexible hours
- Allowing employee caregivers to use business computers for care-giving research
- Contracting with companies who provide eldercare services to help employees
Eldercare service providers are also reaching out to help employee caregivers by providing informational presentations at the work place during lunch time or other times set up by employers. One such presentation provided information on reverse mortgages, a sometimes controversial instrument, but one which has helped many families cope with the costs of caregiver expenses.
Along this line, our community is fortunate to have an organization, the Kitsap Alliance of Resources for Elders (KARE), that provides educational presentations on such subjects as: Home Care, Elder Law, Reverse Mortgages, Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy/Fall Prevention, Geriatric & Internal Medicine, and Senior Move Planning, just to name a few. For more information on this non-profit organization, you can go to their website at www.kare-wa.com.
Employers, employees and eldercare service providers, working together, can make parent or senior care-giving a workable solution for everyone.
Carl R. Johnson
Certified Senior Advisor (CSA)®
Community Relations Director
Abiding HomeCare
Silverdale, WA
