Bringing Elder Care Home

Vol. 3, No.10

Empowering the Employed Caregiver:
Part 2 of 2: AT&T's Telephonic Support Groups

By John Paul Marosy, President
Bringing Elder Care Home LLC
jpmarosy@charter.net
(508) 854-0431

Leading employers have begun shifting the focus of their work/life initiatives that support employees caring for aging relatives, offering employees access to empowering experiences like on-line skills-building courses and telephonic support groups. This new approach complements and goes beyond the traditional elder care information and consultation model. This is the second of two articles describing such efforts.

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Teleseminars feature Cutting Edge of Elder Care/Work Balance.

Join us for two high-value, interactive (we take YOUR questions) teleseminars in January 2005
Friday, January 14
12:00 noon (Eastern):
"Workplace Eldercare Programs: Who Benefits? Can We do Better?" - an interview with Donna Wagner, Ph.D, of Towson University Center on Aging, co-author of ground-breaking studies on employed family caregivers. Donna will discuss the latest in research and program development - and how it applies to YOUR organization.

Friday, January 21
12:00 noon (Eastern):
"Elder Care In The Work Place: The Cutting Edge of Community Response" -- Two community leaders share their lessons and "how to do it." Ann Bannes of St. Andrew's Resources for Seniors describes "The Caring Workplace," their award-winning corporate/community program. And Zanda Hilger, tells how she worked with three Area Agencies on Aging in Texas to offer a terrific website that serves thousands of employed family caregivers.

Cost: Early registration (pay on-line via Pay Pal by December 31 = $35.00 per seminar or both for $60.00). After January 1, regular registration fee = $45.00 per seminar, both for $80.00.

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AT&T is taking a telephonic approach to employee caregiver empowerment. The company began offering its employees and their spouses access to telephonic elder care support groups in March 2003. Today, seven support groups meet on a weekly basis. The support groups are limited to a maximum of seven participants each and they meet at a variety of times of the day and days of the week, drawing callers from all over the U.S., according to Aimee Barr, an elder care counselor who facilitates some of the groups. Barr is an employee of Atlantic Health System, the contractor who operates the service with funding from a grant from the AT&T Family Care Development Fund, a joint project of AT&T, the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). Contact: Bernadette Fusaro, Senior Program Manager at bfusaro@att.com.

How it works

Employees learn about the availability of elder care support groups in many ways, including word-of-mouth, AT&T's internal website, and AT&T publications.

When an employee calls or sends an email expressing interest, Barr or another elder care counselor conducts a brief telephone interview to determine if the telephone support group is an appropriate option for the caller.

If appropriate, the employee or spouse is informed of the dates and times of the support groups, selects one, and is given a passcode to join the conversation, as well as a book entitled "Caring for You, Caring for Me," developed by the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving.

After participating in all or some of the ten weekly sessions, the employee receives a follow-up call from an elder care counselor to obtain feedback on the experience and to assure that the employee or spouse is directed to follow-up elder care resources, if needed.

Support group participants benefit in a variety of ways. According to Barr they can come away from the experience with

A stronger sense of the importance of their dual roles as employee and caregiver,
Fresh ideas from others who have "been there, done that,"
More insight into what their older relatives are going through,
Better understanding of the resources available, both from AT&T and from public agencies like Medicaid and Medicare, and
New ways to find out about long term care options in the community.

"We have two goals in operating this program," says Barr, " First: Don't compromise confidentiality. Second: Don't compromise convenience. We have people who are sometimes working 12-16 hours per day. The telephone access allows them to do this at their office or at home, whatever's most convenient. We bring the service to them."

Although no one is asked to reveal his or her name or job title in the course of group discussions, Barr says she has gleaned enough information from the conversations to know that the groups have drawn employees from every level of AT&T.

The groups are diverse in terms of the elder care situations that participants face, as well, according to Barr. "Some are caring for persons with Alzheimer's disease, some with Parkinson's or other ailments. The diversity allows people to gain perspective and allows those who are new to caregiving to connect with those who have experience. They are great at sharing resources that have been helpful to others, like suggestions on how to find a good geriatrician or elder law attorney."

Barr says the call-in approach appears to be a good cultural fit for AT&T: "Because we work with people who are very good communicators on the phone and people who are technologically savvy, they are used to dealing with things on a technological level. Some are in virtual office situations that allow them to work from home, relying on communication via telephone and their personal computer."

The program includes an evaluation component, measuring each participant's degree of "perceived care giving burden" before and after participating in a support group. "Coming into the groups, participants are all over the place (in terms of perceived care giving burden)," says Barr. At the end of the sessions, the results have been positive. "The employees have written in very positive comments on the evaluation forms," she says.

What does the future hold for elder care support groups at AT&T? "It's going very well," says Barr. "I'd just like to see it continue."

We're eager to hear your views on this topic and we will share responses in our next edition of "Elder Care/Work Balance."©

What do you think? Take a moment now to send us an e-mail with your opinion to jpmarosy@bringingeldercarehome.com 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 www.bringingeldercarehome.com or by calling 508-854-0431. Visit www.bringingeldercarehome.com or call or email today to learn how your organization can offer this effective resource: (508) 854-0431 or jpmarosy@bringingeldercarehome.com

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