LifeWorkx has an opinion about the word Caregiving, it’s used and how it needs to go the way of the dinosaurs!

It is a term that dates back centuries when the family was readily available to provide for an aging family member or person with disabilities. The caregiver is a general term used by your doctors, pharmacists, maybe even your family!

Maybe you have taken it on because everyone else calls you one?

Do you have a job and are expected to be a caregiver?

Continue to Read on to know more…

LifeWorkx is focused on supporting Employee-Caregivers and influencing their Employers to address and meet head on the challenges faced daily, as they grapple with the conflicting demands and pressures of their dual caregiving and worker roles.

When the hard-hitting impact of employees’ caregiving roles causes major care-related disruptions to the business, everyone has a part to play to achieve Win-Win.

The LifeWorkx goal is to provide the understanding and resources needed by employee caregiver and organizations to: Keep employees on the job, make sure that family care needs are met! Prepare the workforce/teams and create a pro care environment…

We begin the EMPLOYMENT AND CAREGIVING journey by focusing on the “big” picture. This provides some of the key information and understanding that is the foundation for win-win solutions for everyone involved.

It’s a journey and we look forward to having you on board.

If you have aged, ill or disabled parents, children, relatives or friends the chances are that you are already providing some form of “care”.
Maybe you are even caring for more than one person. Such as your elderly mom and dad? A Caregiver is a person who provides caregiving support. This person could be either paid (e.g. a home health nurse or aide) or this Caregiver could be unpaid (e.g. a family member). A person needing care typically has significant medical, social and financial challenges and needs assistance in these activities of daily life (ADL’s).

Let’s talk about unpaid and paid caregiving… These are two common ways to categorize caregiving.

We do not explore the paid caregiver role but we do provide information about it and how to obtain those paid services if you choose. LifeWorkx understands and appreciates the role that these workers perform.

However, as paid workers they face a different set of caregiver challenges those faced by their family caregiver cousins.

In this course, the focus is on the roles, responsibilities, and challenges faced by unpaid/family caregivers as they manage the life-work-social-family and other challenges that they face at each step along their caregiving journey.

It’s what families and friends do when the call comes. Let’s call it family caregiving. This family caregiving is sometimes referred to as “unpaid caregiving” Because this is what it is in the USA at least!

For example… Maybe you don’t consider yourself a Caregiver when you…

•  Help with tasks such as: regularly doing mom’s household chores because she isn’t doing them properly.
• Take mom or dad shopping once a week
• Take them to the movies and for a pizza because they don’t get out much anymore.
• Cook meals to last them the week.
• Look in on your friend and neighbor who is becoming very forgetful and soon won’t be safely able to look after himself.
• Help your family understand that your wife and their mother really does need extra care at home.
• Leave work early to take your dad for his regular doctor’s visit and rushing home on short notice to take care of a medical or behavioral emergency again!

But there you are an unpaid (family) Caregiver! 

Traditionally we consider that women take the lead role in family caregiving. You are probably surprised to learn that today, men are approaching the 50% mark of Family Caregivers.

Caregiving does not favor any one of us family members of all ages, in all jobs or not in sickness and in health can be touched by the caregiving commitments.

As aged parents become more and more dependent… or dementia strikes… or a son or daughter returns injured from a war zone… the tasks gradually creep onto the family’s agenda.

As an unpaid Caregiver, you find yourself providing informal (i.e. not paid) care to a family member or a friend in need.

Most likely you also have a paid job (like 80% of family Caregivers) which seems to be rapidly becoming your second job!

For many but not all EmployeeCaregivers it is a labor of love.
But even the most dedicated find that there are emotional ups and downs as the pressures and demands can feel and often are relentless. It often becomes an emotional, financial, social and employment roller coaster.

For some, it is an unwanted duty and they can feel resentment, anger, impatience… and experience a range of other strong and associated behaviors that impact on their health and wellbeing.

The reality for most family Caregivers is that they find themselves on a continuum of commitments that will continue to grow from entry level to advanced care.

For Example: 

Caregivers may find themselves increasingly occupied typically for:

• A 5½ year average for Caregivers of elderly parents, relatives of friends.
• A lifetime for the care of people with developmental disabilities.
• For the rest of their lifetime for wounded warriors.

Based on sheer numbers, caring for aged relatives is the most common form of care provided by most family Caregivers.

With this group, LifeWorkx is challenging the generally accepted concept of this role by family members.
We want to make the point that limitations in physical health and functioning,

Mental health, and/or cognitive functioning not age are the primary reasons why older adults need help from others.

Living longer, however, often means living with impairments that may affect one’s ability to perform daily activities. Whether rates of disability among older adults will increase significantly in the future is uncertain.

Although the prevalence of major chronic diseases including dementia, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, lung disease, and stroke are expected to increase among older adults (Gaudette et al., 2015), research suggests that future disability rates may not (NIH, 2010).

People with developmental disabilities require a lifetime of care. (Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Intellectual and learning disorders, Spina Bifida, Muscular Dystrophy, hearing and vision loss

Here is the LifeWorkx list. If you are a Caregiver maybe you can add to this list? Caregivers will each have their personal list. These facts are not gathered in most informal caregiving publications. This list keeps growing as more medical care is transferred to the home so that many Caregivers find themselves having to do more with less.

One of the first Caregiver challenges is to locate the services and support that is available for those they care for…. And for Caregivers. This often requires an ongoing relationship with the family doctor and an expanding list of service providers all depending on the challenges of each situation.

For example, if dementia is emerging, then understanding the possible progression of the disease and what it may mean for the family member and for the Caregiver is an important starting point.

This brings with it a need for many arrangements including:

• Detailed information for health care and lifestyle decision making purposes understanding the family member’s wishes, concerns, needs, fears…
• Contacts with service providers Taking care of finances, the Will, Enduring Power of Attorney…
• Arranging family discussions which can lead to or cause family differences to surface about the care and financial arrangements to name just two common areas of disagreement The list goes on…

Let’s consider the LifeWorkx list of tasks sixty-five percent of spousal Caregivers perform medical/nursing tasks:

• Operate medical equipment: e.g. mechanical ventilators, oxygen, tube feeding equipment, home dialysis equipment, suctioning equipment)
• Operate durable medical equipment: e.g. hospital beds, lifts, wheelchairs, scooters, toilet or bath chairs, geri chairs, for example)
• Use incontinence equipment, supplies, administer enemas
• Use meters/monitors (thermometer, glucometer, stethoscope, weight scales, blood pressure monitors, oxygen saturation monitors), administer test kits, use telehealth equipment
• Do wound care (bandages, ointments, prescription drugs for skin care or to treat pressure sores or postsurgical wounds) and ostomy care Prepare food for special diets Help with assistive devices for mobility like canes or walkers Manage medications, including IV use and injections.

• Entry Level Caregiving
• Moderate Caregiving
• Advanced Caregiving.

Moderate caregiving means that as well as Level I tasks, they participate in home cleaning, outdoor home maintenance, take on family bills and payments.

They become the schedule of appointments, accompany the family in medical appointments and participate in healthcare decisions. Over time, they take on a primary coordinating and problem resolution role with medical, insurance and government agencies. They seek out support programs and community programs, reach out for spiritual.

This entry level role typically happens over a period of time as family and friends notice a decline in daily functioning or a medical condition presents.

Typical duties include grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning, laundry, picking up prescriptions, transportation and occasionally talking with the medical team. The time commitments vary but may be estimated at 2-5 hours per week.

Support and try to decrease isolation. Commitments may range from 5-25 hours per week.

This advanced caregiving role includes help with household tasks and/or self-care such as bathing, dressing, eating, toileting, or mobility.

Health or functioning limitations typically need a full range of supports including emotional support, help with medical/nursing tasks, and care coordination.

They require oversight of most decisions regarding care provision. They also need full support for personal resource management including financial, legal planning and more.

These roles require full-time commitment…. At least until the person requires full-time residential care supported, and therefore productive, workforce.What this means can be a complex interaction of many factors including: 

• The workplace physical and cultural environments.
• A culture that builds employee engagement and job satisfaction.
• Effective management practices.
• Employee collaboration and involvement in problem-solving and decision making.
• Pro-employee policies and procedures.
• Use of up to date technology.
• Excellent training; great health care and leave benefits.
• Other effective employment practices.

Businesses adopting these practices are seen as being “employers of choice” and attract and retain dedicated and productive employees. These employment and management practices generally apply to all employees across each company.

Some companies go the extra mile to accommodate Employee-Caregivers who need additional consideration.

Effective health care plans are one popular option as are flexible working arrangements and a focus on achieving work outcomes rather than being present from nine to five!

Employee-Caregivers have a great interest in having more workplace flexibility and support to help juggle the conflicting demands of the workplace and home.

This is good business sense when embedded in a pro-employee culture and when it is aimed at attracting and retaining talented employees that contribute to the success of the business.

This means that they are usually very motivated to work with employees to create win-win workplace arrangements.

At the moment, legal mandates on employers to accommodate family Caregivers are still evolving. With the exception of the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), most decisions on scope and scale of family Caregiver benefits are left to individual employers.

This material is just one window into the challenges facing family Caregivers in and out of the workforce. There is so much more to know, understand and do! So please see this as a starting point, not an endpoint… And one window into this challenging subject. 

Hopefully, you will be back soon. Feedbacks are always welcome! Please contact me personally with your comments and suggestions. At LifeWorkx we are always looking at ways to improve our resources. Your feedback will be carefully considered.