You are a working family caregiver if you are managing a career or job on top of caring for your care recipient.
According to the Caregiving in the US report, 61% of the 53 million family caregivers in the US also work.
Podcast Episodes
Paying for Long Term Care
Jason van den Brand managed end-of-life care for his grandmother and father for over eight years. This experience led him to start his own company, Wellahead, which helps families get matched with the best way to pay for long-term care. In this episode, we talk about how Jason managed care from a 3,000-mile distance, how his family paid for long-term care for his family members, why millions of dollars in veterans benefits for care goes unused, why you shouldn’t wait to use long-term care insurance, what to avoid when paying for care, how owning your a home provides long term care payment options for consideration, and how his family values posted in his office inform how he celebrates his successes.
Remote and Long-Distance Caregiving
Paula Muller helped care for her grandmother and has a lifelong passion for technology applied to healthcare. Paula grew up in Chile and was very close to her grandmother and remains close to her mother. Her passions for family and technology came together in her product that we learn about called CareLink360. In this episode we discuss the caregiver guilt that comes with living from a distance from those requiring care, ideas to create connection with verbal and non-verbal care recipients, methods to infuse joy and energy into life, and ways technology can be a part of a caregiver’s care team.
Creative Care
Loretta Woodward Veney cared for her mom Doris, who lived with dementia, as well as for her aunt, sister, and husband. Loretta’s care experiences prompted her to write a few books, become a trained LEGO Serious Play facilitator, and inspire others through her speaking events and engaging workshops. In this episode, we talk about how creative play with Legos can help care partners connect and remain calm, why identifying those in your care village is critical to your success, the financial strains of caregiving and frustrations around the Medicaid Waiver process, how her faith community surrounded her with goodness after the loss of her husband, and why Loretta’s current self-care mantra is ‘stay and play’.
- Board Member Activist – Belva Denmark Tibbs
- Recovering from Burnout – Usha Tewari
- Starting a Business – Alyse Dunn
- Balancing Career & Caregiving – Elizabeth Miller
- Using FMLA Benefits – Joe Vazquez
- Financial Self-Care – Kimberly Whiter
- Starting a Non-Profit – Amanda Clark
- Inspired to Start a Business – Bianca Padilla
- Working Daughter – Liz O’Donnell
- Working While Caregiving – Elizabeth Miller
- Looking for a Job While Caregiving – Angela DiAnna
White Paper - Importance of Supporting Working Family Caregivers
Articles
From Our Gift Shop
- Just for You: a Daily Self-Care Journal
- Working Caregivers: The Invisible Employees by Selma Archer and Zack Demopoulos
- Working Daughter: A Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents While Making a Living by Liz O’Donnell
- First Things First by Stephen R. Covey
Other Resources for Working Family Caregivers
Training
Research
- How Employers and States Can Support the Essential Workforce of Family Caregivers (Sage Journal, 2021)
- Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers – Working While Caring: A National Survey of Caregiver Stress in the U.S. Workforce Key Findings (Sep 2021) & Working While Caring: Innovations and Interventions to Support Caregivers in the Workplace (Jan 2024)
- MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers (2011)