As ‘Baby Boomers’ reach their senior years and require more medical attention, the pressure on the elder-care industry in this country is reaching a critical impasse and rapidly approaching the ‘Elder Care Cliff.’ Stella Nsong, facilitator of the 100-nurse millionaire movement has created a program to improve the elder-care experience, and to lessen the financial impact on corporations whose work force is struggling to keep jobs while dealing with the challenges that face the elderly.
Today, if Stella Nsong was to reproduce the “Silent Scream” public service campaign (AARP designed the silent scream campaign to raise awareness of the emotional toll of caregiving) , it would go like this; it would show an employee who is a family caregiver turning off a loud alarm clock at 6am then hurriedly getting kids ready for school and then rushing to check on the mother in-law who is suffering from dementia and the effects of a stroke and then getting on the phone highly stressed while driving and wondering how to keep the mother in law safe because the caregiver did not show up. After five phone calls, no one to provide the care and arriving to work late, there would be multiple interruptions trying to care over the phone while trying to do her job.
According to the AARP public policy institute, 64% of caregiving employees arrive late/leave early, 68% experience at least one change in employment due to caring for a senior, 10% give up work entirely and 7% receive warnings about performance, while many are clinically depressed and go undiagnosed and untreated.
Lou Basinal, a Registered Nurse and Senior Care Specialist in Sacramento, and owner of Age In Place Sacramento is working to solve the elder care crisis in Northern California. Lou also serves as the Area Director of the Northern California Care Planning Council.
“I am part of the elder-care nursing program in California. We are working to prepare individuals to better handle senior citizens within their own families and advocate for the elder care system as it nears the ‘Elder Care Cliff.’
When a parent, or loved one needs care, it places a tremendous burden on the families. Yet, jobs are important, and we all have to work.
Entrepreneurs must attend to their businesses to maintain their incomes. Employees of corporations try to juggle both family care giving, their jobs and their careers. Children’s ball games and school activities still need a parent to be in the stands. All the while, the caregiver needs to assure their aging mother, or father receive the right care.
“Part of our advocacy is for family members, or children. It’s more difficult for them to play the dual roles of caregiver and family member. Difficulties arise when children try to do both.”
“We see these professionals juggling their work requirements with caregiving. The same is true for middle management and employees of larger corporations which results in absenteeism, lower productivity and unacceptable performance, that eventually impacts the bottom line of the company.”
Through her agency ‘Age In Place Sacramento,’ Lou provides nurse-managed care for the elderly and caregiving solutions for their busy adult children. Existing nursing homes and long-term medical care facilities have been overrun by COVID and the ever-growing number of aging Americans. When a chronically ill patient is released from hospital care, two questions must be asked, where will they go and who will take care of them?
“Not only the elderly, but also seriously ill patients that can no longer stay in a hospital are seeking to skip the nursing home, but are experiencing service gaps in the care, due to the lack of time a caregiver, or family member can devote to their care every day.”
Lou and Stella’s programs have a four-pronged goal;
Help older adults to get home, stay home and thrive regardless of any life limiting condition.
Help caregiving employees to access accredited and quality care, that delivers positive and measurable stress relieving results for the caregiving employee.
Help corporations to educate and train managers on how to support and supervise caregiving employees in ways that promotes productivity and employee engagement.
Help corporations improve retention and reduce healthcare costs of having caregiving employees who suffer from stress related disorders associated with family caregiving.
With the labor shortage in our country right now, corporations are finding it exceedingly important to keep their employees. They are looking for ideas to offer flexible working situations for their employees that are caregivers for their family members
The current Employee Assistance Program only provides a list of local nursing homes, or rehabilitation facilities, as well as transportation companies, but their help stops there. Human Resource departments aren’t equipped to help employees with caregiving responsibilities which places more pressure on the employee with attendance and productivity requirements.
For this reason, Stella Nsong created the ‘Care Work Learn’ platform to provide a one-stop resource for caregivers, that are already loaded with responsibilities at work and at home.
“There isn’t an APP, or easy way to deal with caregiving. There isn’t one number to call, or website to visit that will give caregivers answers to the questions they have about attending to their loved one. Care Work Learn identifies the care giving issues and provides the tools need to create an all-encompassing plan of care.”
Satisfied that everything is in place, the caregiver can give more attention to his/her own family and job. The corporation benefits from a less harried employee, plus the resulting improved productivity. ‘Care Work Learn’ is providing an answer for American businesses to offer one-stop caregiving service to their employees.
“When you care for your employees, they will care for your business and your business will care for itself.”
Care Work Learn is the only platform that helps a caregiving employee to create a complete caregiving program and plan for their loved one, plus corporate managers are given the tools, training and support to properly supervise their employees that are dealing with caregiving situations at home.
One very big problem with caregiving is that many families do not have a plan. Research shows that when we plan, we save time, we save money, we reduce heart aches, and we achieve our desired outcome quicker and easier.
Benefits of CARE WORK LEARN
–CareWorkLearn.com provides all the information needed in one location
-The employee can sign up for themselves, or their family member
-Training programs are available for caregivers and HR managers
-Productivity and Profitability for the business increases
By the year 2030, when the oldest ‘Baby Boomer’ will reach 85, there will not be enough nurses and long-term medical facilities to adequately care for the aging population. There is a large gap now and it will only grow as it takes four to five years for nurses to graduate and gain the experience to properly attend to patients.
There is more need than ever to address the ‘Elder-Care Crisis’ in this country. Corporations are experiencing the largest work force shortage, since World War II and to maintain productivity and profitability a corporation must keep their qualified employees. Losing an employee due to caregiving duties away from work can be avoided.
Care Work Learn offers a method for businesses to help their employees and assure their corporate health in the future.
To find out more and learn how Care Work Learn can help your business visit: https://careworklearn.com/.
Learn more about Age In Place Sacramento on their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ageinplacesacramento/
We enjoyed our conversation with Lou and Stella. You can listen on iTunes or watch on YouTube.