Utah Commission on Aging
Focuses
On Caregiver Work/Life
Balance
Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. convened the
state’s first Commission on Aging last year. Among
other policy issues, the Commission is focusing on
ways to support work/life balance for employed
family caregivers.
In an interview with
Elder Care/Work
Balance© , Lorna Koci, assistant to
Commission executive director Maureen Henry,
explained that the Commission began its work by
identifying several areas that affect the quality of life
of older people. It then formed committees to look
into each of the areas. Some of the topics included
financial security, healthy aging, community-based
care, healthcare, education, mental health, economic
development, and caregiver support. The
committees focused on ways to fill short-term gaps
in each area, as well as needed policy changes.
Regarding the work of the caregiver support
committee, Koci said “People don’t understand the
nature of caregiving. They’re unaware of services
that are available. And they’re really not tuned into
the demands on the caregivers and on the
employers. That’s why we wanted to craft a pilot to
try with some employers and see if we could get
some results from them focusing on these issues.
We know that so many of the caregivers are
working.”
“We have a couple of audiences for the pilot
project: one is the caregiver who is an employee. If
the caregiver can become aware that he or she is a
caregiver and understanding what resources are
available to help, we have accomplished a lot. But
we don’t want to stop there.
“We also want to help employers understand the
needs of caregivers. For example: I happen to be a
caregiver for an older person. And I don’t have any
little children at home any more. As a state
employee, I can take sick leave to take my child to
the doctor but I can’t take sick leave to take my
parents to the doctor.
“We want to help employers understand that the
needs of caregivers are all around them. We’ve
shared the statistics on lost productivity and
turnover. If we can educate the management, so
that they might look at some of their policies, like
sick leave for parent care, perhaps we can help some
caregivers who would otherwise lose their jobs. I
come from a strong private sector background and
realize you’ve got to balance the needs of the
company with the needs of the people,” said Ms.
Koci.
The Commission has provided an information packet
for employers, including a sample employee survey, a
questionnaire for the employer to help assess how
caregiver-friendly their workplace is, ideas for
training managers, a list of resources to be included
in a caregiver library, and a description of a proposed
pilot program with Utah employers.
Through the pilot project, the Commission is working
with three employers, one each from the high-tech,
non-profit, and financial services sectors. Each
company is assessing its needs, policies, and
practices in regard to caregiving/work balance.
Because the companies have a variety of employee
demographics and corporate cultures, the pilot is
expected to generate a range of policy options that
can be useful for other employers. The effort
includes involvement by the caregiver support staff
at the county offices on aging where the employers
have major work sites.
The pilot project’s short-term goal is to define
specific initiatives that fit each company’s needs and
culture. The project will link to another state
initiative in Utah, called U-Care. Funded by a Real
Choice Systems Change Grant, U-Care developed a
caregiver training program and trained 50 trainers
state-wide to implement the program.
Preliminary results for the workplace pilot project are
expected by mid-year. For more information about
the work of the Commission, contact Lorna Koci at
lkoci@utah.gov.
To learn more about U-Care,
contact Donna Russell at
dlrussell@utah.gov
.
What do you think? Take a
moment now to send us an
email with your opinion and we will publish your
thoughts in the next issue.
John Paul Marosy
Editor and President,
Bringing Elder Care Home, LLC
John
Paul Marosy is the author of Elder Care: A
Six Step Guide to Balancing
Work and Family, available from Bringing Elder
Care Home Publishing online
at our Web site or by calling
508-854-0431.
