The coronavirus pandemic and the fast-moving federal response to it is upending long-standing rules and practices for caring for older adults. Some changes will be incredibly disruptive, while others may increase support for vulnerable seniors. Here are some of the ways they are affecting how we care for our parents. No more nursing home visits. Just a week ago, the [...]
Family members and friends are the bedrock of our system of personal care for frail older adults and younger people with disabilities. Without their support, the nation’s hospitals and nursing homes would be filled to the rafters with very sick, frail seniors. And many of those older adults would die before their time. Those family caregivers often provide assistance with [...]
Nearly all of the Democratic presidential hopefuls have proposed or supported plans to create a federal family leave program that would include those who are caring for frail parents or other relatives. That’s gratifying. It’s too bad that in this week’s debate, all but Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) appear to have forgotten the fact. They were happy to chime in [...]
You are caring for a loved one. On top of everything else, you feel absolutely alone—as if you are doing this tough work with no help. But maybe, just maybe, you have more support than you think. A creative tool called Atlas CareMaps is a deceptively simple but powerful way to identify all the connections in your life. It helps [...]
Are family caregivers—and care recipients--getting younger? Are men more likely to care for parents and other relatives than in the past? Perhaps, according to a recent survey by the long-term care insurance company Genworth. The survey found that about half of family caregivers now are men. That’s significantly higher than the 40 percent in other studies. At the same time, [...]
Tough new rules proposed by the Trump Administration would make it effectively impossible for immigrants to come to the US to work as home health aides or as staff at nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Because at least one million aides (one of every four) is an immigrant, the complex rules Trump proposed over the weekend would dry up [...]
Last week, Microsoft announced it will require its vendors to provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave for new parents. Nice thought, but the tech giant missed an important opportunity. By limiting the required benefit only to new parents, it is ignoring the needs of workers caring for spouses, siblings, or aging parents. In some respects that’s not surprising. [...]
When we think about family caregivers, we usually picture spouses or 50-something adult children. But, it turns out, about one-third of Americans have helped care for an older loved one by age 40. In some respects, those millennials resemble older caregivers: They are as likely to underestimate the need for long-term supports and services in old age and they misunderstand [...]
When Congress and the White House develop health or long-term care policy, they hear plenty from providers, drug or medical device makers, and scores of other lobbyists and advocates for various interests. But they rarely hear from family caregivers—those people in the trenches who struggle every day to assist their loved ones. On Monday night, Congress passed a bipartisan bill [...]
The Trump Administration believes that caring for babies is so important that employers should give their parents up to six weeks of paid leave. It apparently doesn’t believe it is as important, or as disruptive to work life, to care for aging parents or other relatives in need of personal assistance. That, at least, is the message it is sending [...]