How employer benefits can ease burden on people caring for elderly loved ones

PACE — Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly — provides free, necessary care to seniors, as well as resources like medicines and other accommodations. PACE also provides a health clinic, urgent care center, home services and offers respite to caregivers in need of a break. Nationwide, there are 273 PACE programs in 32 states. Michigan alone has seven, with two more to be added within the next year or so.

The Castle Center provides adults with dementia in need of assistance care during the day. Open five days a week, the center offers participants meals, medication monitoring, personal care assistance with the help of nurses and volunteers, socialization and activities like arts and crafts. The Center also offers time off for caregivers — like family members — who often care for people with dementia 24/7.

Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides care to elders including adult day care, home health care and supplies like bed rails, eyeglasses and access to medications, while simultaneously providing respite to family caregivers. Studies show PACE program participants have lower rates of hospital use and shorter lengths of stay compared to those participating in other programs or opting for general nursing home care. The PACE centers in Metro Detroit serve 1,600 adults across its seven centers. Statewide, there are 14 active PACE programs across 24 centers.

To prevent burnout and increase employee retention, Ascension Hospitals offers its employees resources like online and in-person therapy, crisis hotlines, incentive pay for holidays and extra hours, mental health check-ins and even tuition reimbursement. These measures help employees feel appreciated and when employees feel taken care of they’re less likely to quit their jobs or leave the caregiving profession altogether.

Caregivers who step up to the plate to care for friends or family members are often overworked and underpaid. To remedy this, several organizations and measures at both the local and national levels are emerging to provide support. For example, the RAISE Family Caregivers Act became law in 2018 and is designed to create a nationwide strategy on how government officials can better support caregivers. On a local level, nonprofits like Team Suzy provide financial support and resources to those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s who can’t afford necessary supplies.

The Partners in Caring Respite program pairs volunteers with people in the early stages of cognitive neurological disorders — like dementia — to offer care and companion programs, allowing them to build relationships and provide respite for family caregivers. Partners in Caring has expended to four counties across the state, serving over 400 families with its 70 on-call volunteers.

The Veterans Health Administration's Caregiver Support Program offers resources to family caregivers looking after veterans, including a monthly stipend, medical services, counseling and mental health care, respite care and coverage for travel expenses. The Program launched in 2011 and by 2014 about 15,600 caregivers had been approved for support — greatly exceeding the Program’s original estimate of 4,000 people.

Worker-owned home-care cooperatives are emerging as an alternative to the for-profit agencies that dominate America's direct-care sector. In these cooperatives, professional caregivers earn an average of $2 more per hour than the industry standard, share in business decision-making, and stay on the job at nearly double the rate of workers at traditional agencies. Patients also stay with co-op agencies twice as long, suggesting higher satisfaction and quality of care.

The PhiferCares Clinic and pharmacy offers its employees and their families free healthcare and prescriptions. Phifer, a global manufacturing company, opened the clinic five years ago as a way to prevent medical bills from driving coworkers into debt and keeping them from retirement. This no-cost access to healthcare has helped 90% of Phifer employees hit their retirement goals, up from about 75% five years ago.

Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development (LA SED) provides culturally relevant programming and services for the area’s predominantly Latino senior community. The Center offers a safe space for seniors to converse in their native language, take English classes, connect with the community, exercise classes, and receive necessary care like vaccinations, food distribution and other social programming and wellness-focused care.