It’s Up to Us
The direct care workforce shortage creates even more challenges for us.
About six years ago, I wrote an article titled “Empty Cubes, Full Houses”. I could see a future workplace full empty cubes because so many employees were out managing their caregiving responsibilities rather than in their cubes completing their workplace tasks.
Certainly, I didn’t predict a pandemic accelerating the impact of the direct care workforce shortage on our growing number of family caregivers. I saw the shortage of direct care workers happening. I saw the numbers of family caregivers increasing.
We all now feel the crisis. Consider these recent articles:
Kaiser Health New: Pandemic-Fueled Shortages of Home Health Workers Strand Patients Without Necessary Care From the article: Janine Hunt-Jackson of Lockport, New York, is authorized to receive 35 hours of home-based care each week. When an aide left in June, she tried to hire someone else. "I couldn’t find anybody reliable,” she said, and turned instead to her 24-year-old grandson for help.
NPR: The pandemic pummeled long-term care – it may not recover quickly, experts warn From the article: At the western edge of the country, in a long-term care facility in Bellingham, Wash., there have been times in recent weeks when nurse's aide Sherylon Hughes was the only frontline staffer who showed up to work when two or three were needed.
Omaha.com: Nursing home closures force Nebraska elderly to ask: Where do we go? In this must-read article, the reporter follows one patient one to his wife’s care.
Because we’re in the crisis, we need to step up our actions. We need to stop funding research about the caregiving experience and instead put money into programs and services that support family caregivers. We need to solve the pain points that the direct workforce endures which includes money but is not only about money.
As family caregivers, we’re already doing so much that we can feel powerless to doing anything more to solve the crisis.
I’ve got two ways we can make a difference:
Ask
We can take two simple questions into every conversation we have about caregiving. We can spark change by asking every physician, health care professional, health care leader and CEO these questions over and over:
What resource can you share that will support me and help my caree?
How can you help me save money on the costs of care?
Our questions can become the pressure on the individuals within the system to create the change we need.
Connect
Host a Virtual Caregiving Town Hall for family caregivers in your community on Caring Our Way, our network on Mighty Networks. During your Town Hall, which you’ll host in our chat room, you’ll gather stories and insights about the challenges family caregivers in your community face.
Our chat room provides an easy and convenient way for you to connect with family caregivers near you to learn about their problems they face. Most important, we can archive your chat to create a document you share with your Representatives which illustrates the problems and challenges and the need for right-now solutions.
Join us on March 9 at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. PT) for a Zoom meeting to learn how you can host a Virtual Caregiving Town Hall to connect with family caregivers in your community. You are the perfect host for a town hall if you are either a former family caregiver or a current family caregiver.
Join our Caring Advocacy & Awareness Volunteers group on Caring Our Way and then head to the Events section to register for our March 9 event. We’ll record our event in case you can’t join us live. Register to be notified when our recording is available.
It’s up to us. We can be the change we need for ourselves and others.
(Image by Pexels from Pixabay.)
Resources
The Caring Awards honor those who make a difference in the lives of family caregivers. We’re currently accepting nominations for these categories: Event or Conference, Product and Work of Art. Your $10 entry fee will be added to our Family Caregiver Relief Fund in order to send $500 to help a family caregiver in need. Details.
Registration is open for The Caring Conference: Our Treasured Transformations. Join us on March 25 for this free day-long event to gain insights into your transformations.