Posted on: Monday, July 19, 2004
Workers grapple with care of elders
By Margaret Steen
Knight Ridder News Service
When most people hear about work-family conflicts, they think of parents trying to make it to their kids' soccer games or tending to sick children. But employers are realizing that workers who care for elderly parents also struggle with practical and emotional issues that can affect their work. And as the population ages, more workers will fall into that group.
In California, for instance, it's estimated that 1.8 million families are caring for someone age 50 or older — and half of the primary caregivers also work outside the home. Nationally, the number of employers that offer workers help with eldercare is growing.
And more than 90 percent of companies expect an increase in the number of employees who are caring for elderly relatives, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
"People are coming in late, they're leaving early, they're spending personal time on the phone dealing with these issues, they're mentally distracted," said Erica Dinger, a research analyst with the AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons) in Washington.
Some companies, including Cisco Systems, are expanding their eldercare offerings from simple referral services to include workshops and more personalized help. Cisco technical writer Deborah Wible and her sister used a conference call with a counselor from the program to discuss their mother's failing memory and emotional health. The counselor helped them assess their mother's living situation and gave Wible and her sister psychological support.
"Just sharing the thoughts with a third-party observer was helpful," said Wible, whose mother and sister live in Southern California.
Eldercare can involve more hands-on work, as well, as Wible discovered soon afterward when her mother-in-law had a heart attack and stroke. She is now living with Wible and her family as she recuperates.
Wible has had to change her work hours somewhat, not staying late at the office as often as she used to. And she says she's grateful to have learned through Cisco's seminars about community resources, such as respite care, that are available if she needs them.
"I never really thought about these things until both our parents needed assistance," Wible said.
The wide-ranging challenges employees face when helping elderly parents make it difficult to design a one-size-fits-all support system. Some have parents living with them; others are providing support to parents in other states or countries. Some workers' parents need round-the-clock care for years; others' live mostly independently, with occasional crises.
Companies and experts say that successful eldercare programs help not only employees but also employers, by allowing employees to concentrate more on work. For some workers, simply having an employer bring visibility to the issue is helpful.
Although employees dealing with elderly parents face similar issues to the parents of young children — both seek flexibility in when and where they work, for example — the emotional backdrop of caring for elders can be more difficult. People expect to make decisions about their children's lives, but not about their parents'. And it's easier to share a funny anecdote about a toddler than a story about a parent's declining health and independence.
Eldercare benefits for workers can take many forms:
Most of these benefits cost money, and it can be difficult to quantify the payoff for companies. But Morrison & Foerster says its backup care program pays for itself.
"If it's an attorney who uses that service and is able to come in and bill hours, that's a direct savings," said Erik Nelson, a human-resources analyst at Morrison & Foerster.
Other savings are not as easy to see, but experts say companies benefit from increased productivity and employee retention.
"Our families are so important to us. If there are issues at home, I'm going to carry it into work with me," said Paul Milioto, a program manager in the U.S. benefits group at Agilent Technologies.
He used his company's free counseling program when he and his brother and sister were struggling with how to help their mother, who is in her 80s. The counseling sessions helped him see his mother's perspective and figure out how he and his siblings could decide when to let their mother make her own decisions and when they needed to intervene.
"By being able to free me of all that, it's bringing me fully into my job," he said.
As baby boomers age, the United States will have more elderly residents, and it's likely that many of them will need assistance, often from people who are also working at other jobs. But the exact type of help they'll need, and when, is less clear.
For example, advances in medical science could add to the number of people needing care by extending their lives — or they could make it easier for older Americans to live on their own for longer. People may also rely less on family members to care for them, and more on paid caregivers, a decision that is influenced both by cultural factors and by finances.
For now, experts say there are benefits for both caregivers and employers when workers can find the right balance between doing their jobs and helping family members.
"Providing care gives people a sense of their own worth, which they can then bring to work," said Andrew Scharlach, a professor and director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at the University of California-Berkeley.
