Debra Whitman was traveling for work when her father was suddenly admitted to the hospital in serious pain.
She jetted home to Maryland and took several days off to care for him in his rural community in eastern Washington state and to set him up with a motorized lift chair that would help him stand up.
“Instead of having to take all my vacation, I could take several days of caregiving leave while I was out there,” Whitman said. “That’s been a huge godsend for a lot of my staff.”
The average caregiver spends about six hours a day caring for aging loved ones, according to Meghan Shea, vice president at New York Life Group Benefit Solutions, which provides life insurance and helps administer leaves of absence for employers.
“The challenge is that leave isn’t unlimited,” Shea said. “The average caregiving role spans about six years. So really, it’s a life change for these employees, and they need to figure out how to balance responsibilities in a new way, and that’s very stressful.”
In addition to the law not applying to all workplaces, it does not account for people who can’t afford to take unpaid leave.
“Many people have to quit their jobs in order to care for somebody, and that not only affects their income but their retirement benefits, and then there’s a loss of productivity for the employer who may have lost a great person,” Whitman said. “Finding ways to support family caregivers is a huge employment issue right now.”
To meet growing demand, some companies and organizations have started offering a variety of caregiving benefits, including flexible scheduling and help finding resources. Here are some ways to determine if a workplace is supportive of caregivers.
Shea recommends asking the following questions during job interviews, if paid leave and other caregiving benefits are important to you.
How much caregiving leave am I entitled to?
Do I have to take it all at one time?
Can I take it in multiple increments?
Is it paid? Is it unpaid?
What leave benefits am I entitled to at a federal and a state level?
What do you offer employees in addition to that?
For any caretaker, time is a valuable — yet scarce — asset. Employers that provide paid leave for caregiving typically offer two to six weeks, and some provide as much as 12 weeks, said Meghan Pistritto, a vice president in Prudential Financial’s group insurance division.
“Caregiving is a reality for a significant portion of the workforce,” Pistritto said. “The positive news is that employers are stepping up and they’re supporting their teams here. We’re seeing a lot of growth both in the employer-provided as well as in state-mandated paid leave programs that are showing up across the U.S.”
AARP gives eligible employees up to two weeks of paid time off per calendar year to care for family members or domestic partners with serious health conditions or who are at least 50 years old and need help with activities such as meal preparation, appointments and managing finances.
“Comprehensive paid leave is just the starting point. Genuine caregiver-friendly employers also provide practical resources such as access to counseling, backup care services, and caregiver support groups,” Pistritto said.
Some employers offer access to “care concierges” who specialize in helping employees find health care providers, understand state and federally mandated benefits, and to navigate complex systems such as Medicare.
Whitman tapped such a benefit offered by AARP to obtain a list of caregivers in her father’s area who could help him at home in her absence. “Just having that list was a really important step,” she said. The concierge can also help workers figure out where to find durable medical equipment or do home modifications, Whitman added.
If time off work isn’t feasible, a growing number of electronic devices are available to help caregivers keep an eye on loved ones while managing their paid jobs.
Susan Hammond lives across the street from her mother, who has dementia, in rural Vermont. Hammond spends four to five hours a day helping her mother prepare meals, take medication and shower, while also running War Legacies Project, a nonprofit organization that works to address environmental and health consequences from wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
For the hours when she is working or sleeping, Hammond set up cameras and motion detectors in her mother’s house that alert her on her watch or phone if the front door opens. Her mother sometimes meanders outside, believing she’s in the wrong house.
“The concern really is wandering. And she has said to me, ‘Why am I here? I’ve got to go home.’ At times from the camera, I can see she’s trying to get out and leave the house,” Hammond said.
Her job requires traveling within the U.S. and Asia, and when she’s away, she monitors her mother from afar while her siblings help with daily caregiving. Her mother once had a health issue while Hammond was away. When emergency medical technicians arrived to help, the monitoring software allowed Hammond to talk with her mother, to provide reassurance, and the medical staff, to answer questions.
“I can always know where she is just by looking at my watch,” Hammond said. “Because we can monitor the cameras and monitor the alarms, I know she’s safe.”
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AP Business Writer Dee-Anne Durbin contributed to this report.
