Feb. 29--Renee Simpkins never thought her biggest worry at work would
turn out to be caring for her mother.
But since last summer, she has tried frantically to juggle her full-time
job as a program administrator with Boeing with helping her sister take care
of their 78-year-old mother, who has suffered from stomach problems and
cancer, emphysema and a life-threatening bout of flu.
Simpkins has used all her sick leave and four of five weeks' vacation
time. She occasionally has to leave work early and make up the time at odd
hours. While on the job, she makes phone calls checking up on her mother's
care. During Christmas vacation, instead of taking time to recharge, she
drove three hours round trip every day to visit her mom in a Bremerton
hospital.
"There've been a lot of days over the last several months when it's
taken every bit of effort I have to get out of bed and come to work," says
Simpkins, who lives in Kent.
Welcome to the most pressing workplace and family issue since child care.
During the next decade, the National Alliance of Caregiving estimates,
11 million to 15.6 million people -- or about one in 10 workers -- will need
to provide informal, unpaid care for their aging parents or other elderly
loved ones while holding down a job.
Experts say many of those workers will endure serious financial setbacks
and stress-related health problems as a result.
Businesses also face losses estimated at $11.4 billion to $29 billion
annually from absenteeism, work interruptions and replacing employees who
quit to care for an older adult, according to a 1997 study sponsored by
MetLife, the insurance company.
And the need for relatives to provide elder care is expected to grow as
baby boomers age.
"People are living longer with chronic illness. Instead of dropping dead
at 65 with a heart attack, they're living to 90 with arthritis and chronic
diabetes," says Gail Hunt, executive director of the National Alliance for
Caregiving.
Congress is considering several bills to support caregivers. Some of the
more popular ideas would provide tax incentives encouraging people to
purchase insurance for long-term care and encouraging corporations to offer
long-term care insurance to employees.
A few government agencies and most Fortune 500 companies have begun
offering elder-care benefits, occasionally at union insistence, right along
with child care, health insurance and a 401(k).
Simpkins works for one of those companies. Boeing offers special
elder-care services that have helped her, including counseling, research on
long-term-care options and financial advice.
Her boss understands. "If she needs 10 minutes to cry in my office,
that's OK," says Becky Evans, manager of employee services.
"Through all of the budget cuts we've been through, we've learned that
this is an essential piece of our business," Evans says. Supporting employees
who are providing elder care "keeps them productive, satisfied and happy. It
helps in our recruiting efforts, in our turnover and with morale."
More than 22.4 million households -- nearly one in four -- have a member
caring for someone age 50 or older, according to studies done by the National
Alliance of Caregivers and AARP.
And nearly two-thirds of Americans under age 60 think they'll be
responsible for elder care in the next 10 years, according to a 1998 poll
conducted for the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Care needs run the gamut: quick drop-in social calls, visits to the
grocery or pharmacy, transportation to the doctor, managing a loved one's
legal affairs. Sometimes more personal tasks are required, such as feeding,
bathing and diapering.
Caregivers may get up extra early to get Mom to adult day care or to
visit her in a nursing home. They may come in late to work and use work time
to take care of their loved ones' financial or medical business on the phone.
And if they have to take care of Mom or Dad long-distance, it often makes
matters more complex.
To squeeze such responsibilities into an already jam-packed life,
caregiving workers may burn the candle at both ends, according to the 1999
"MetLife Juggling Act Study," conducted for the insurance company by the
Alliance for Caregiving and the National Center on Women and Aging at
Brandeis University.
Caregiving often is viewed as a women's issue, and more than 70 percent
of people who care for older adults are middle-aged women. But more men are
participating because of high divorce rates, the growing number of women in
the work force and changing attitudes about men sharing such
responsibilities.
No matter who is involved, the study says, caregivers often
underestimate the extent of the obligation and how it will affect their work.
Some cut back hours, take unpaid leave, miss out on skills training or
promotions, and eventually quit work altogether or retire early.
The "Juggling Act" report estimates that the study's respondents lost an
average of $659,139 in total wealth over their lifetime -- including lost
wages, Social Security and pension benefits -- because of caregiving
obligations.
Two years ago, John Atchison, a computer technician in Seattle, left a
job he had held for 20 years to start his own small business. Then his mother
died, leaving behind his 90-year-old invalid father, who used a wheelchair
and required around-the-clock care.
Atchison decided to take care of his father at his Northgate home while
his wife, Sue, continued to work. Every day, the son helps his father with
the most basic tasks of life such as dressing, bathing and using the toilet.
He can't leave the house for more than two hours at a time, which eliminates
the chance for much outside work.
The commitment has lasted longer than he expected. But Atchison said
there's a reward, too: the opportunity to spend time with his father. He also
knows his father is getting the best possible care, "as long as we are able
to do it."
The need for elder care began cropping up about 10 years ago in
corporate surveys.
"At the time, in 1989, the dual-income family was growing as well as the
divorce rate. Many issues were being raised all at once. Employees just
couldn't handle it all," says Becky Evans at Boeing.
But elder-care benefits still are the exception rather than the rule.
For example, only 23 percent of companies with 100 employees or more offer
basic resource and referral services on elder care, according to a 1998 study
by the Families and Work Institute.
"If you just go at this as good for our employees, you're missing the
point. It's good for the bottom line too," says Tom Pugh, project officer for
dependent care with the Social Security Administration in Baltimore.
Most commonly, a business will contract with a "work-life benefits"
vendor to provide information and referrals to help employees sort through
options such as home health care, assisted living and nursing homes. Some
companies also offer flexible work hours and the ability to use paid sick
leave to take care of a parent.
Many sponsor brown-bag lunches to educate employees on everything from
how Medicare and Medicaid work to how to draft legal documents such as living
wills and powers of attorney.
Fannie Mae, the nation's largest source of financing for home
mortgages, recently became one of the first corporations in the country to
hire an elder-care case manager on site. The case manager is helping
employees figure out how to take care of their aging parents and to plan for
how they'll take care of themselves in old age.
The Washington, D.C.-based company also has started offering a range of
fee-based services through a vendor -- from checkbook management to lawn
care, housekeeping and transportation -- to help an employee's frail parent
or loved one live independently. Employees can check on a relative's progress
and services via a computerized reporting system -- even if the relative is
in another state.
The employee-activities association at the Social Security
Administration in Baltimore has joined other community partners to open a
nearby adult day-care center. The partners include a nonprofit charity, a
hospital and the county department on aging. The Social Security
Administration also has on-site child care.
Boeing, like several other local employers, contracts with "Working
Solutions," a Portland firm that offers a range of services. Those include
expertise on the complex issues involved in elder care and the services
available in communities around the country.
About 10 percent of Boeing's 130,000 workers nationwide use the service
every year. On surveys, the employees say it saves them more than 15 hours of
time away from work each year.
Working Solutions helped Simpkins and her sister cut down on research
time to find the best living options for their mother. For now, the sisters
have decided to conserve their mother's money and keep caring for her at
home.
"It's always, `What are we going to do down the road? What's ahead? How
are we going to face this?' " Simpkins says.
Still, it helps Simpkins to know she can call Working Solutions and say,
"I don't think I can do this anymore." The company would help Simpkins and
her sister find an alternative.
And, there is always her boss's shoulder.
