Closing the Gap for Working Caregiver Job Continuity
Have you considered that your most productive and career-focused years might coincide with the aging Baby Boomer caregiving crisis? If so, consider exploring creating a Caring Place for your business as an alternative to working from home.
Currently, over 50% of every business is comprised of working caregivers for this aging demographic. It’s critical to begin breaking down preconceptions about roles, set clear boundaries, and enable employees to keep their jobs while fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities for aging family members.
As innovators in the care economy space, CareWise Solutions is focused on protecting jobs and careers while fulfilling aging family care roles on average for 5 ½ years.
Imagine Jane. Her grandfather broke his hip, and they are now on the way home after a successful surgery. Jane felt confident with her care discharge instructions from the medical center, but when she talked with her siblings about the “care” responsibilities, she panicked, and so did everyone on the perceived care team.
How would it be possible to maintain work, family, and commitments? She never knew that discharge meant handing over a comprehensive set of duties to her or others.
What could she do? How could her employer and others help her out of this conundrum?
Now, Jane faces her own work and family care crisis. It’s only possible to do some of what seems to be her new responsibility.
The Sandwich Generation
She cringes when people laugh and say she is now in the sandwich generation.
- Why would this ever be considered a joke or a reasonable condition?
- How is she expected to put her life on a shelf?
- Why does her employer consider this to be a family problem?
She wants to get to work but has few options. So she succumbs to what most of the 65.7+ million (as reported by the National Alliance for Caregiving) working caregivers do. She took an unpaid leave of absence.
Almost half of the individuals receiving care are 75 or older and lack caregiver support.
CareWise Solutions Caregiving Benefits
CareWise Solutions enhance the overall health, emotional, and mental well-being of family caregivers and those they care for by providing caregiving benefits. This helps aging family members achieve greater independence at home, which allows family members (like Jane) to keep working. CareWise Solutions play a crucial role in filling this support gap.
Our approach centers around a revolutionary idea that family and work should not be separated. We aim to educate employers on supporting their employees who have aging or sick family members.
The CareWise Solutions “Work and Caregiving” strategy involves advocating for healthcare accountability and services in home and community-based centers. This advocacy effort is particularly challenging due to the need for a 7.2 million-person professional caregiver workforce.
Our “Work and Care Anywhere” Platform bridges the gap between employees and employers. It’s a model to build on as the care economy struggles to attract those 7.2 million workers to fill the growing number of nursing jobs in the home.
Imagine Jane’s Caring Place Alternative to an Unpaid Leave of Absence
Jane was prepared for the possibility that an aging relative or friend might face this challenge. Her employer and primary care physician had talked with her Grandad, and he spoke with his family about what he might need in this type of emergency.
They knew about the Caring Place Hub and the gap it filled between healthcare and family care management. They understood their roles and had access to the necessary resources to establish greater independence at home for Grandad and keep an eye on what was happening with new tools she could use at work or on the road.
Instead of a Leave of Absence, she brought care management to work. She had access to a Caring Place Hub to confidentially conduct calls with care providers, Grandad, and her siblings. A quick exit from her workstation to the Hub minimized disruption on the job, increasing her confidence that things were under control.
Cascading Impacts of Caregiving on the Workplace
CareWise Solutions fully recognize the impact of caregiving on the workplace. Employers who approach it as a challenge to their workforce and productivity decrease stress and enable employees to fulfill their caregiving responsibilities. Employers also enhance their organization by implementing innovative tactics, improving the work environment, and training their entire team to navigate this generational shift.
CareWise Solutions offers a unique online and on-premise platform that expertly tackles the difficulties of juggling work and caregiving responsibilities. Our groundbreaking platform facilitates exceptional communication between healthcare providers and families, ensuring that employers can demonstrate unwavering respect and support for working caregivers and their colleagues in a highly cost-effective manner.
This solution offers valuable relief to families who want to care about their loved ones instead of having to care for them. Let’s discuss how we can make this possible for your business.
If you’re interested in installing a Caring Place Hub in your business, please get in touch with Jeannette Galvanek today.
