Working caregivers get relief
By LORRI HELFAND
Published January 7, 2007
Fran Sosa needed help. After her mom died, she started caring for an older relative she knows as "Uncle Freddy."
Sosa, 49, couldn't stay home from her job as a physical therapy tech or pay someone to care for her 78-year-old cousin, Alfred Vila, who has diabetes and brain damage from a childhood injury. She ended up finding adult day care for Uncle Freddy, but only by chance.
"If I didn't have that, I'd be forced to stop working," said Sosa, who lives in Seminole.
She's not alone. More baby boomers are trying to work and care for their aging parents, leading to problems at home and in the workplace.
Now Neighborly Care Network, the innovative social service agency that invented Meals on Wheels nearly four decades ago, is launching a program to help both desperate caregivers and their bosses.
With its new Employee Assistance Program, Neighborly will help Pinellas employers assess the needs of their workers. The companies pay $5 per month for every employee who participates. In exchange, Neighborly provides counseling, referrals and discounts on adult day care.
Neighborly has long been on the forefront of senior care, opening the nation's first adult day care center in the late 1960s. It also branched into senior dining programs, transportation services and health care. And in 2004, before Medicare's Part D prescription program began, Neighborly opened a nonprofit pharmacy to sell drugs to uninsured seniors at wholesale cost.
Now the agency hopes to lead the way again by launching a model program to support working caregivers who often don't know about services that can help them. Down the road, the agency hopes to branch out and offer this service in other Florida communities, said Marsha Coke, adult day services director for Neighborly Care Network.
"Most people come about us by accident," Coke said. "They say, 'Where have you been? I have been going crazy looking for your services.' "
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Neighborly's Employee Assistance Program is designed to help businesses as much as workers.
"Corporations need to look at what this is costing them," Coke said.
One study estimates that 21 percent of the U.S. population provides unpaid care to friends and family. Most of those caregivers work, and most of their loved ones are older.
And the resulting lost productivity costs business up to $33.6-billion per year, according to a recent study by MetLife Mature Market Institute, an information and policy resource center on issues related to aging.
Absenteeism is one of the biggest costs.
Another is replacing employees who quit because of conflicts between work and their responsibilities as caregivers, said Scott Melton, associate state director for AARP Florida Southwest.
Employers don't just lose employees, Melton said. They lose those workers' experience, contacts and knowledge. Replacements require training and time to develop their predecessors' savvy.
About a third of larger companies have programs to support working caregivers, but smaller businesses often can't afford the same type of programs.
Still, Melton said, companies can mitigate expenses just by making information and referrals available.
Research indicates that companies get a $3 to $13 return on every dollar they invest in programs that support employees with caregiving responsibilities.
But the benefits of providing services for employees who are caregivers aren't just financial, Melton said.
"It's good faith," he said. "If you put that effort into your employees, you get that back in loyal employees."
Coke said more companies will need to provide such services or suffer the consequences.
There are now about 36-million Americans 65 or older. By 2030 the population older than 65 is projected to double to about 71.5-million, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
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If more businesses offered support to working caregivers, it would help a lot of people, said Sosa, who started taking care of her cousin about a year and a half ago.
"I can't explain how your life drastically changes," said Sosa, who found Neighborly's adult day care program one day while driving to work.
"To not have this help, I don't know where I'd be," said Sosa, whose cousin attends adult day care five days a week.
Even with support, her new role is stressful. Her three children are grown, and her husband, Jose, is often busy, trying to start a painting business.
Early on, Vila would wander out of their apartment or throw tantrums if she served him broccoli or barbecue when he wasn't in the mood for it.
But she's learned to cope. Now, after work, she often spends hours running errands with him to help him wind down. And she knows to be firm when he's difficult.
Sosa dreams of having more time for herself. But Uncle Freddy's childlike smile and expressive eyes remind her she made the right choice.
"It's worth more than everything," Sosa said. "He's definitely an asset to my family."
Times staff writer Lorri Helfand can be reached at 727 445-4155 or lorri@sptimes.com.Help for working caregivers
Here's how Neighborly Care Network's new Employee Assistance Program works:
- Companies interested in participating in the program first have their employees take a free anonymous online survey to help assess their needs.
- If a company decides to partner with Neighborly, the nonprofit agency charges $5 per month for every worker who participates.
- In exchange, those employees would get guidance on services - such as Meals on Wheels, transportation or home health care - available for their loved ones. Participants also would be eligible for 10 percent discounts on adult day care, which generally costs $8.75 to $10 an hour.
To learn more, Marsha Coke at 573-9444, ext. 348.