Employer Funded Caregiving

Speak with a room of 10 or 15 people in their 40s and bring up the topic of caregiving.  Chances are a few of the people currently serve as caregivers.  Ask them about their stress levels.  You will probably receive a resonating chorus of complaints about how these caregivers feel exhausted, they can barely keep track of their schedules, and their hair is falling out.  And if the caregivers have jobs, odds are that they do not have access to a benefit that helps alleviate their stress. 

    As the population in America ages, more people are serving as unpaid, family caregivers to an elderly loved one, but they are receiving no help from employers.  “Why should they?” an employer might ask.  At first glance, the answer seems obvious.   A caregiver benefit would cost a lot of money and would only indirectly help an employee, right?  Not necessarily.  According to The Metlife Caregiving Cost Study done in 2006, each year the cost to employers for employed caregivers in the United States is $33.6 billion, while each employed caregiver costs an average of $2,110.  Because of things like worker absenteeism, workday interruptions, needing to replace and train new employees, and people moving from full- to part-time, employers are losing more because of their caregiving employees.  Clearly, this epidemic is hitting employees directly, and as the population increases and more  workers are thrust into a caregiver role, the financial problem posed by this population will continue to cause headaches for HR executives. 

    So, what can employers do?  The same MetLife study found  “Any funds spent by the employer in helping with caregiving have a payback to the employer of 3 to 13 times the cost.”  This statistic looks quite surprising at first, but think about the room filled with people in their 40s.  Who do you think the most stressed people in the room are?  The caregivers, who are worrying about how to coordinate doctor visits, making sure their loved ones take the right medications, making sure their loved ones even get prescribed the right medications, and wondering why they have no free time, for unpaid caregivers spend an average of 21.9 hours per week proving care.   More disconcerting are the mental and physical health issues that caregivers face.  For example, between 40 to -70 percent% of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression, with approximately 25 to -50 percent% of these caregivers meeting the diagnostic criteria for major depression.   Clearly, employers should be interested in a benefit for caregivers.  As any manager can attest, a happy employee makes a good employee, and an investment in a caregiver benefit is a good investment.

______________________________

  (November 2009). National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP. Caregiving in the U.S.

  Zarit, S. (2006). Assessment of Family Caregivers: A Research Perspective. In Family Caregiver Alliance (Eds.), Caregiver Assessment: Voices and Views from the Field. Report from a National Consensus Development Conference (Vol. II) (pp. 12 – 37). San Francisco: Family Caregiver Alliance.

About The Author

Michael Guanci is a communication specialist at Long Term Solutions. Michael has contributed to the development of WeCare+, a product dedicated to providing resources and support to caregivers while also alleviating stress.  LTS does this by conducting a clinical assessment, developing a plan of care, making care referrals, and providing clinical coordination and consultation.  Send inquiries to MGuanci@LongTermSol.com.