Family caregivers are enablers.
Because you care, someone who no longer drives still goes shopping once a week, someone still lives in his own home although he can’t fix meals or clean house, and someone still has the safety and comfort of familiar surroundings although she would otherwise be in an institution.
The myth is that family caregivers voluntarily heed the call when a family member is ill or disabled but does not yet need to be institutionalized and would rather stay at home. The truth is, the reason your "family patient" remains at home may have little to do with her needs, what other options are affordable and desirable, or whether you're prepared to volunteer.
American family caregivers provide a $257 billion dollar annual contribution to the medical industry and to society as a whole.
Family caregivers are used to :
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Enable medical facilities and nursing homes to make the best use of their staff and resources.
Enable private insurance companies to save money.
Enable our government to pay out much less in Medicare and Medicaid, keeping these benefits available when otherwise they would have already been discontinued.
American family caregivers enable an entirely new age in home care.
Consider that by being family caregivers, we enable an entirely new facet of the medical industry, that which delivers, right to our doorsteps, all the medical paraphernalia and portable machinery needed to do an astonishing number of medically necessary tasks.
Kidney dialyses can be done at home. Fluids and medications can be given intravenously at home. A patient can live at home and take nourishment through a tube in her stomach.
The list of surgeries, chemotherapies and other medical interventions that are done as out patient procedures increases with each passing month.
Worldwide, family caregivers are a transparent, cost effective workforce. It's no secret that in the Untiied States, every effort is being made by the medical community, by insurance providers and by our government to capitalize on our "obligation" to serve.
Government Agencies
ORGANIZATIONS
READING ROOM
Search Results at Amazon
This month at Amazon: Search results of keyword: ACTIVISM, list 1540 titles.
Everyone wins except the family caregivers.
We, as caregivers, are constantly juggling the needs of our families against the needs of our “family patient” against the needs of our employers against our personal needs. The decisions that we make in order to rearrange our lives, effect not only ourselves, but everyone who depends on us.
Because of our additional responsibilities.
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We cut back our hours at work or take time off without pay or we have to quit working altogether.
We use up sick leave and vacation time because of other people‘s illnesses.
We lose out on promotions and other opportunities.
We take on more debt.
We quit adding to our children's college funds.
We stop contributing to our IRA's and 401k plans.
We pay high penalties for making early withdrawals from our retirement accounts or if we are able, we opt for early retirement, accepting a lower social security benefit or using up annuities years before we ever thought we would.
If we don't claim early retirement, we still may receive a much lower social
security benefit because of earning less income and we have less ability to build
an independent retirement fund in the meantime.
We also run an emotional gamut of intangible costs: Exhaustion, Stress, Anxiety, Fear, Guilt.
Family caregiving has been accepted as a medical risk factor in everything from cardiac arrest to depression. We suffer from a host of injuries directly caused by giving care. Add to this that many family caregivers because of their unique circumstances are either underinsured or completely uninsured.
Notice that I have not yet mentioned the substantial costs of child care, gas, and commercial travel expenses if we have to commute over long distances.
And we are not the only ones who lose. The latest statistics report that US corporations report annual losses of almost 11,000,000,000 dollars . . . 11 billion dollars . . . due to employee lost time and benefits paid out caused by family caregiving responsibilities. Keep in mind that these figures are known because US corporations are able to deduct such losses on their tax returns.
Family caregivers know why they need to actively advocate the interests of their family members yet many of us will shrug off any suggestion that we are the ones who need advocates.
Why do we need Advocacy?
We are a large, highly diversified demographic and often our numbers are misunderstood, miscalculated or ignored.
Despite the inarguable value of the service we provide, the government’s not letting us deduct our costs from our taxes, isn’t going to subsidize our missing paychecks, doesn’t forgive the penalties we pay for withdrawing our retirement funds and, insurance companies aren’t rushing around offering us low premium individual policies.
Oh, and another thing. When the decision is being made whether a patient should be sent home to you -- whether you can afford it -- whether you have the time -- whether your family can survive the stress -- Hey! Guess what! Nobody’s asking.
Why do we need Activism?
We are a force. We are 54 million voices strong and we don’t have to be asked in order to be heard. 80% of home health care is provided by family caregivers. We are the enablers that make this new age of at-home care feasible. Together, we are more than capable of enabling the changes necessary to protect our own interests.