As more working adults here opt to care for their aging relatives or friends, theyre discovering that they must modify their job-related tasks to carry out their caregiving duties, geriatric-care professionals say.


Amy Patton, a social worker at Spokane-based Honoring Elders Inc., a company that provides consulting services to seniors and their families, says she has worked with adults who must find additional assistance, cut back on work hours, or quit their jobs to care for loved ones.


We all want to be Wonder Woman or Superman, but we find at some point that something is going to give, she says.


Balancing the responsibilities of working and caregiving creates stress, especially for caregivers who look after seniors with progressive physical disabilities or mental diseases, Patton says. Depending on seniors health, they might require much more time from their caregivers than what the Family Medical Leave Act or a companys sick-time or vacation-time policy allow, she says.


Findings from a study conducted for the Bethesda, Md.-based National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP support Pattons conclusions. The national telephone survey, funded by the New York City-based MetLife Foundation and released earlier this year, polled 1,247 unpaid caregivers age 18 or older throughout the U.S. and highlighted data collected in seven states, including Washington.


The survey found that nearly 60 percent of the 44.4 million caregivers in the U.S. either work or have worked while providing care.


About 291 of the 400 caregivers in Washington polled for the survey, or about 74 percent, said they work. Of the working caregivers, 53 percent said theyve arrived late, left early, or taken time off during the day to provide care. Also, 16 percent said theyve taken a leave of absence, 10 percent said theyve switched to a part-time position or taken a less demanding job, and 5 percent said theyve given up working entirely because they needed to provide care.


Patton says about 70 percent of the roughly 30 unpaid family caregivers with whom Honoring Elders works are employed. That percentage is increasing gradually partly because of the so-called sandwich generation, or baby boomers who now are raising children and taking care of their parents at the same time, she says.


Nick Beamer, executive director of Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington, says more adults in that group are taking care of their elderly loved ones themselves or finding other informal options to reduce caregiving costs.


Paid caregivers in Washington recently joined the Service Employees International Union and gained the right to be paid at least $8.43 an hour, Beamer says. That wage change makes a 24-hour caregiving plan prohibitively expensive for some adults, prompting care recipients to ask family members for help or to try coping without assistance, he says.


Caregiving can impose a heavy financial burden on adults who work, especially if care recipients dont qualify for Medicaid, Beamer says. Even then, new assessment rules that the Washington state Department of Social and Health Services has implemented in the Medicaid Community Options Program Entry System (COPES) program might limit the number of caregiving hours Medicaid will cover, he says.


Caregiving anxieties


Besides monetary pressures, caregiving can create anxiety for adults who try to squeeze those obligations into their work schedules, Beamer says. Caregivers often worry when separated from their care recipients, even if those recipients are being tended to by someone else, he says.


When you have to go to work, youre always concerned about if whoever is there can take care of the person the way youd like that to happen, he says.


In the National Caregiving Alliance and AARP survey, 23 percent of the caregivers in Washington said they need more information about how to keep the person they care for safe at home. Also, 33 percent of those caregivers said they would like help finding time for themselves, and 29 percent said they need to balance work and family responsibilities.


Holy Family Hospital offers elder-care information resources and respite for caregivers at its three adult day centers in the Spokane area. Through that program, Holy Family provides activities, medical and rehabilitation services, and lunch to seniors from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.


Jennifer Schroeder, a social worker at Holy Family Adult Day Centers, says many caregivers with jobs use the program to ensure that their loved ones receive proper care while theyre at work. Most of the employed caregivers she has worked with are middle-class, educated women, though more and more men are assuming the role, she says.


Nearly all caregivers who work do so full time, but after theyve taken on those duties, they find themselves sliding down a slippery slope, Schroeder says.


They think they can help out one or two hours on a weekend, she says. But before they know it, theyre stuck and it becomes more invasive.


Some caregivers who work can manage juggling both responsibilities until they become eligible for early retirement, Schroeder says. Others, however, must continue working to take care of all of their dependents, she says.


I dont think everyone is lucky enough to be able to quit, she says.


Spokane-based Corkery & Jones Benefits Inc., motivated by some clients who voiced concerns about employees missing work to take care of parents, recently started offering to customers a benefit that provides elder-care resources to employers and their workers.


Mark Newbold, employee benefits broker and consultant at Corkery & Jones, says the program gives clients employees one hour of consultation services, paid for by the employer, with an Honoring Elders representative. Since Corkery & Jones began offering the benefit about six months ago, several businesses have expressed interest in it, and some already have enrolled, including Northern Quest Casino and the Inland Northwest Blood Center, he says.


Newbold says Corkery & Jones wanted to make the benefit available to clients because many baby boomers now face difficult circumstances related to caregiving and need information and support to fulfill both that role and their job responsibilities.


Parents are living longer than they did in the past and thats a good thing, but it requires more commitment on the part of families to make sure their parents are receiving the quality care they require as they get older, he says.


Employers typically offer the elder-care benefit separate from employee assistance plans, which might address caregiving issues, but to a limited extent, Newbold says. A few businesses here also have caught on to another developing trend that allows employees to set aside pre-tax money as reimbursement for caregiving expenses through a Section 125 cafeteria plan, he says.


Morgan Jannot, compensation and benefits manager at Northern Quest Casino, says the Kalispel Tribe of Indians offers the elder-care benefit to the casinos nearly 700 employees on a confidential basis so they can keep their personal matters private. After the first consultation, employees can arrange for additional services from Honoring Elders on their own, but the casino doesnt track that information, he says.


The casino, which began offering the benefit about four months ago, enrolled in the program to provide assistance to its employees and their dependents without intruding into their home lives, Jannot says.


We want to help team members, but cannot get personally involved from a human-resources standpoint, he says.


Beamer says some employers also offer flextime or adaptable work hours, which allow employees to take their care dependents to an adult day center or to doctors appointments. He says he hopes businesses eventually will provide adult day-care services, much like the child-care centers some large companies maintain.


Patton says that aside from assistance offered by employers, working caregivers can obtain information about other resources in the free Spokane-area senior directory distributed at the four hospitals here. They also can attend a number of support groups throughout the Inland Northwest, she says.


Whatever the source of help, the earlier caregivers can find assistance, the better prepared they will be to juggle work and caregiving responsibilities at the same time, Patton says.


Instead of waiting to get to the point where youre overwhelmed and your options are limited, seek help before it becomes a crisis situation, she says.