Employees More Likely to be Caregivers

Talk to any baby boomer and chances are likely they have personal experience in assisting an aging parent or elderly relative in some way. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, 54 percent of the work force will be caring for an elder by 2008.

But why should employers be concerned about employees who take care of older relatives?

Quite simply because eldercare issues directly impact the employer’s bottom line to the tune of billions each year. A 1999 report by the MetLife Mature Market Institute “estimated that U.S. companies lose $11 billion to $29 billion a year in reduces productivity;” an upcoming report is expected to show those losses as even greater (AARP Bulletin, May 2006).

Caregiving Issues Multi-Faceted

Human resource departments are finding elder caregiving issues are complicated; there are two distinct sides to the equation. First, there are the practical concerns – those related to safety, living arrangements, medical costs, insurance coverage and/or assistance, managing doctor’s appointments etc. Then, there’s the issue of what impact caregiving responsibilities have on the employee – stress and the resulting negative influences on health and well-being.

While companies have recognized eldercare as a productivity problem, the focus has been on finding resources for the family member, not in addressing the mental and emotional health needs of the employee doing the caregiving. Fortunately, this is changing.

Re-Focusing EAP Services to Meet Caregiver Needs

A recent Wall Street Journal article (June, 21, 2007, page D1) reported “…in the first shift in elder-care benefits in years, a few employers are offering elder-care programs aimed at the health and well-being of the workers themselves. By encouraging workers who have eldercare duties to take better care of themselves, employers hope not only to raise productivity, but to scale down healthcare costs.”

The Ease@Work employee assistance program has been an leader among EAPs, offering eldercare assistance to caregivers in both – community resources aimed toward the needs of the geriatric family member and for the health and well-being of the employee. The Ease team of eldercare specialists have expertise focused on the separate sides of the eldercare issue; employees seeking assistance through Ease@Work have access to the support they need personally as a caregiver in addition to up-to-date resources and practical information.

“Caregivers are usually working and keeping up a house, and they are on-call 24/7 and feeling overwhelmed,” said Margaret Chesler, an eldercare specialist with Ease. ” That puts caregivers at high risk for depression and health problems.”

It is clear with an increasingly aging population, more and more of those in the work force are going to be responsible for an elder family member’s care. The solution for employers begins with a comprehensive EAP that includes an awareness of, and the ability to address, eldercare and caregiving as an integrated issue.