North Star featured in Providence Business JournalNovember 19, 2007
FOCUS: BUSINESS OF AGING Learning to work with caregivers By Natalie Myers PBN Staff Writer
As the primary caregiver for her 93-year-old father and 88-year-old mother, there are certain things Shirley Lucier, a licensed practical nurse at Kent Hospital, can’t do for her employer.
She can’t cover the later shifts if one of the other IV nurses goes on vacation because there would be no one to take care of her parents. She can’t work more than part-time hours. And, though she hasn’t had to take an unscheduled leave, she might have to in an emergency.
Lucier is one of about 44 million Americans, or 21 percent of U.S. households, according to 2004 data released by the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP, who provide care for an adult family member or friend. About 60 percent of those who care for an adult over age 50 work, and a majority work full-time.
The total cost of lost productivity, due to instances such as absenteeism, workday interruptions, unpaid leave and reducing hours from full-time to part-time, for all caregiving employees in the country is about $33.6 billion, or $2,110 per employee per year, according to a MetLife Caregiving Cost Study released last year.
Some employers in the state have taken notice of the needs of an increasing number of caregiving employees, especially as baby boomers get older.
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is one of them. The company is launching two new programs Jan. 1 to benefit employees who take care of children and/or adults.
The first is a back-up daycare program that provides in-home service or other options when the employees’ regular daycare solutions, either for children and seniors, breaks down due to weather or other unforeseen problems.
“We certainly recognize [elder care is] an issue,” said Eric Gasbarro, vice president of human resources for BCBSRI. He added that this is no longer an emerging issue for the 1,140 people the company employs in Rhode Island – “it’s actually here.”
The second program is a paid time-off bank that treats vacation time and sick time the same in terms of scheduling. The program makes it so an employee doesn’t have to call in sick if he needs, for example, to take a parent or child to the doctor’s office and doesn’t want to take a vacation day.
“From the employer perspective, it removes the possibility of unscheduled absences,” Gasbarro said. And both programs play a role in creating a more stress-free and productive work environment, while saving money for the company in the long run, he said. The paid time-off bank, for example, doesn’t cost very much to implement. And the premium for backup daycare costs less than $100,000. It costs employees about $2 to $4 per hour of care given.
In addition, “the number of people that expect or want these benefits, those numbers are growing,” Gasbarro said – so the programs become a valuable tool in attracting and retaining talent.
Smaller companies recognize the same benefit in offering a work environment that honors the work/life balance, including accommodations for working caregivers.
“I think for smaller companies to compete with larger companies, that’s one of the things we can offer and get top talent,” said April Williams McCrory, president and owner of North Kingstown-based North Star Marketing Inc.
But making accommodations for working caregivers is not without its challenges for small companies that rely so much on just a few employees.
McCroy said the challenges include making sure one employee who did have to cut back to three days per week because of elder care and other issues knows what’s going on the days she isn’t at work. And educating clients so that they understand they might not be able to talk every day to the person handling their account.
“A huge challenge is to make sure you honor three days,” she added. “Often companies say you can work three days, but require five days of work.”
Another option for employers is to offer as much information as possible about all of the options for elder care, said Maureen Maigret, a health care consultant who works part-time for Cornerstone Adult Services Inc., which runs four adult day centers in Rhode Island.
“Just looking at the data, [elder care] has a huge impact on businesses, let alone for the family members trying to juggle those responsibilities,” Maigret said. “And people don’t know adult day services are out there or that there is financial help available.”
Maigret said elder care is an even greater issue for Rhode Island workers because there is a particularly large population aged 75 or older, 8.1 percent of the total, versus a national average of 6.1 percent.
Rhode Island also has a higher percentage of people aged 85 and older compared with the national average and the New England average. In fact, the state ranks fifth in the nation for its population of 85 and older and fourth in the nation for its population of 75 and older.
Roberta Merkle, CEO of Cornerstone, said employers probably don’t even realize the costs to their companies, and they should recognize elder care is a huge issue right now.
For Lucier, the adult centers are a blessing on the days she has to work at the hospital. And she qualifies for a state subsidy that brings the cost down to $9 per day for each of her parents.
Lucier said she tries to enjoy the time she spends with her parents, both who have Alzheimer’s, but caring for them is not without its emotional challenges.
“It’s not like caring for children,” she said. “With parents you don’t see them progress in a good way. You know the end is not far away … sometimes I don’t even think of it, it’s just something you do. If you start to think of it, you get very sad.” << Back to News |
