Hi! I am Mary Alexander from Home Instead Senior Care, and today I am talking about
avoiding caregiver burnout. In this video, I will show you that you are not alone when
it comes to facing the challenges of being a family caregiver.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 50 million people
provide care for chronically ill, disabled, or aging family member or friend during any
given year.
30% of caregivers are themselves aged 65 or over. Another 15% are between the ages of
45-54. While there is no reliable estimate of the number of family caregivers, at least
7 million Americans are caring for a parent at any given time. If you are a woman watching
this video, it comes as no surprise, the National Alliance for Caregiving found that the typical
family caregiver is a 46-year-old woman caring for her widowed mother who does not live with
her. She is married and employed. In fact, approximately 60% of caregivers are women.
As the American boomer population ages, the need for caregivers will increase in the years
ahead. People over the age of 65 are expected to increase at a 2.
3% rate, but the number of family members available to care for them will only increase
by less than 1%. That is expected to result in added stress on the family caregiver, who
simply might not have others to help them with caregiving duties. Already, millions
of working adults are juggling the competing demands of caring for a chronically ill or
disabled parent, raising a family and managing a career. Working caregiver sacrifice leisure
time and often suffer stress related illness.
Negative effects on working caregivers include time lost from work, lower productivity, quitting
a job to give care, lost career opportunities, and lower future earnings.
According to a recent study done by Home Instead Senior Care, caregivers comprise about 13%
of the workforce. Nearly 20% of family caregivers are providing 40 hours of care a week or more.
As a result, some 10% have to go from full-time to part-time jobs because of their caregiving
responsibilities. All of this is having a negative effect on wages. The American Council
of Life Insurers found that during the year 2000, the typical working family caregiver
lost a $109 per day in wages and health benefits due to the need to provide full-time care.
Eventually, some 12% of caregivers quit their jobs to provide care full-time. The MetLife
Mature Market Institute found that American businesses can lose as much as 34 billion
each year due to employees' needs to care for senior loved ones. Both male and female
children of aging parents make changes at work in order to accommodate caregiving responsibilities.
That includes modifying their schedules, coming in late or leaving early, or altering work-related
travel.
Although, hard research does not exists to prove it, researchers in the field think that
only 2% of employed family caregivers actually take advantage of the benefits their companies
offer.
So let's talk about some common employee support programs, so you can learn if they are available
through your employer. First, some employers offer Cafeteria-Style
Employee Benefits, which allow employees to select supplemental dependent care coverage
to reimburse costs for in-home care or adult daycare. Benefits might also cover therapeutic
counseling for the employee to help cope with the stresses of family caregiving.
Human Resource or Employee Assistance Program staff can provide information on helpful Internet
sites, local information, and referral services or resource centers.
Some larger businesses organize in-house caregiver support groups or coordinate with local community
groups or hospitals, so that employees can attend an outside support group.
One of the most critical benefits for an employee with caregiving responsibilities is time.
Flexible work hours, family illness days, and leave time are necessary. So be sure to
ask if you can modify your own work schedule to accommodate your family caregiving needs.
If you work for a company that has 50 or more employees, it must comply with the Family
and Medical Leave Act, also known as FMLA, which allows for up to 12 weeks of unpaid
leave to care for a seriously ill parent, spouse, or child, while protecting job security.
Some smaller firms also use the FMLA guidelines to provide support for individual employees.
It's important that you take the time to learn what is offered by your employer. Doing so
could alleviate some of your stress.
Speaking of stress, in the next video we will talk about some of the physical and emotional
signs that show you are overstressed.