Balancing Work and Family Care of Older Persons

The UW Cooperative Extension Family Living Programs has developed and piloted the “Employed Caregiver Survey.” This confidential, web-based survey process produces an executive summary and a longer report, which defines the scope and needs of employed caregivers and make recommendations for assistance. For complete instructions on how to implement the “Employed Caregiver Survey,” please visit: [...]

COMING SOON! Short videos addressing “employed caregiving.” These videos tackle issues related to care given to elderly family members by persons who are also employed, either on a part-time or a full-time basis.  The primary objective of these videos is to help employers create work environments that are supportive of families and households simultaneously engaged [...]

On March 27-30, I (Clif Barber) had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the American Society in Washington, DC.  At the conference, the Family Caregiver Alliance released their second annual “Caregiving Year in Review”. The report provides an overview of key developments in 2011, including research focused on caregivers, program changes, legislation at [...]

This website is the centerpiece of the “Family Caregiving: It’s not all up to you” outreach campaign from The National Family Caregivers Association (NFCA) and the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC).  They created this site in 2004 to recognize, support and advise the more than 50 million family caregivers in this country provide care for [...]

This fact sheet from Family Caregiver Alliance provides a quick and easy overview of caregiver definitions, demographics and situations from a variety of sources. Areas covered include: Data on the magnitude of caregiving:  caregivers make up 29% of the U.S. adult population. Information on gender differences in caregivers: 66% are female. Demographics: the average age [...]

These four minute YouTube clips from a PBS video series define, describe, explain and provide suggestions for managing caregiver burnout. Part one: While family caregivers give of themselves out of love, there are real physical, emotional and financial costs associated with caregiving. As we live longer and caregiving becomes a bigger issue in the U.S., [...]

This 2006 study by MetLife estimates the productivity losses to U.S. business of employees who must make workplace accommodations as a result of caregiving responsibilities.  These include costs associated with replacing employees, absenteeism, crisis in care, workday interruptions, supervisory time, unpaid leave, and reducing hours from full-time to part time.

The Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging shares eldercare information through a newsletter.  The September 2011 newsletter highlights Resources for Employers, HR Professionals and Employee Assistance Staff.  You may also get back issues or visit the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging site for their recommended resources and information about the organization The vision of  the Metropolitan [...]

In order to serve a growing senior population, the Administration on Aging (AoA) envisions ensuring the continuation of a vibrant aging services network at State, Territory, local and Tribal levels through funding of lower-cost, non-medical services and supports that provide the means by which many more seniors can maintain their independence.  Their mission is to [...]

The MetLife Study of Working Caregivers and Employer Health Care Costs Demographic trends indicate that a greater number of employees of all ages will assume the role of family caregiver for an increasingly older population. This means that more employees will be dealing with eldercare issues. Using a Health Risk Appraisal questionnaire between 2000 and [...]

This document, published online by the US Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provides best practices that employers may adopt to reduce the chance of EEO violations against caregivers, and to remove barriers to equal employment opportunity.  The entire document (of approximately 8 pages) is footnoted with the sources for the statements made. In general the EEOC [...]

This article describes the challenges of selecting eldercare arrangements for African American elders that lived in pre-integration America.  The author, Paula Span of the New York Times online, was contacted by an adult child wanting to tell her father’s story.  The adult child was looking for residential or home care for her father when she concluded, [...]