Comments on: Home Health Care-Juggling work and Caregiving http://healthcarehomestudy.com/blog/2008/10/26/home-health-care-juggling-work-and-caregiving/ Home Health Care Support for Elderly and Family Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:50:28 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Blanche Katz http://healthcarehomestudy.com/blog/2008/10/26/home-health-care-juggling-work-and-caregiving/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Blanche Katz Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:34:48 +0000 http://healthcarehomestudy.com/blog/?p=26#comment-6 The idea of trying to balance elder care and working full-time leads one to having a lot of guilt, which has its effects on the health of the emplyed caregiver. This heavy stress causes the employee to look very carefully at any health benefits available from the workplace where an employer is all ready trying to hold down the costs. What results is that the employed caregiver may even have to reduce the working hours, which in turn, may cause the loss of any health benefits. This whole scene is a lose-lose situation. The turn around for this is for an employer to provide support for the employed caregiver so that everyone will have a win-win outcome. This is accomplished by an employer taking the time to offer a program designed for the employed caregiver to have a proven method for balancing elder care and accessing resources. All this takes planning on the part of the employer to help reduce absenteeism and promote increased productivity. The FMLA is a start in the right direction, but is not always the correct solution needed by many emplyed caregivers. The idea of haiving a plan in place to meet these obstacles is very much like having prepared for a natual disaster that we know will change our lives but we just don't know when. In these hard economic times, it is the opportunity at this time to now prepare for the future. Blanche Katz, ElderCare Educator The idea of trying to balance elder care and working full-time leads one to having a lot of guilt, which has its effects on the health of the emplyed caregiver. This heavy stress causes the employee to look very carefully at any health benefits available from the workplace where an employer is all ready trying to hold down the costs. What results is that the employed caregiver may even have to reduce the working hours, which in turn, may cause the loss of any health benefits. This whole scene is a lose-lose situation.

The turn around for this is for an employer to provide support for the employed caregiver so that everyone will have a win-win outcome. This is accomplished by an employer taking the time to offer a program designed for the employed caregiver to have a proven method for balancing elder care and accessing resources. All this takes planning on the part of the employer to help reduce absenteeism and promote increased productivity.

The FMLA is a start in the right direction, but is not always the correct solution needed by many emplyed caregivers. The idea of haiving a plan in place to meet these obstacles is very much like having prepared for a natual disaster that we know will change our lives but we just don’t know when. In these hard economic times, it is the opportunity at this time to now prepare for the future.

Blanche Katz,
ElderCare Educator

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