Vol. 3, No.9

In the late 1980's, pioneering companies like IBM, Johnson and Johnson, and others began offering elder care consultation and referral (C&R). Modeled after childcare resource and referral programs, these initiatives gathered information about elder care programs and services and made it available to employees via trained counselors. The idea was to both cut the time the employee spent looking for information and to improve the quality of decisions that employees made about elder care situations.

Over the past 15 years, the information-based model has evolved to include user-friendly databases that include every conceivable topic related to elder care. Today's corporate elder care programs deliver instant access to such information via the Internet. Some have added telephonic and on-line information sessions on elder care topics and even company-paid geriatric care management services that arrange for an in-home assessment and development of a care plan for the older relative.

Beyond Information: "Powerful Tools"

Recent research has documented the financial cost of unrelieved caregiver stress in terms of negative health outcomes and increased medical costs. The key to avoiding such costs - and keeping employees with elder care responsibilities healthier - is to intervene earlier. This means not only providing information about services, but expanding the employee's coping skills, thus empowering the employee to take control of this vitally important aspect of life.

The Mather Lifeways Institute on Aging (Mather) disseminates "Powerful Tools for Caregiving" to help family caregivers by taking care of themselves as they care for their elders. First offered in community settings in 1995, "Powerful Tools" began as a six-session series of interactive workshops, with an accompanying 300-page Caregiver Helpbook. The program has reached over 10,000 caregivers in 15 states thus far.

The program has been systematically evaluated by Mather. Statistically significant findings from the community-based groups show sustained improvements in caregivers' self-confidence, self-care activities (relaxation and physical exercise) and increased use of support services, like adult day care, chore services, care management and support groups.

Judy Presser of WFD Consulting judith.presser@wfd.com is coordinating implementation of the "Powerful Tools" pilot project at ABC champion companies ExxonMobil, IBM, and Texas Instruments. She says that the fact that Mather had the evaluation data to show program results provided the impetus needed to fund an adaptation of the approach to the workplace setting. "The stress of caregiving and the related illnesses and use of medical care and prescription drugs was a concern," says Presser. "We wanted something that could be replicated, not tied to geography. And it was an evaluated product where you could say 'This works.' "

The ABC pilot project is underway. It offers a self-paced, on-line learning module, combined with a weekly telephone call-in time and on-line chat groups. Two hundred employees from the three firms will participate in the pilot program over the next few months. The ABC pilot program will measure participants' perceptions as to how they are managing their work and caregiving responsibilities, in addition to other factors.

Do the ABC companies have an ROI target in mind? "We will be looking for some health and wellness outcomes," says Presser. "You could translate this into an ROI. We went into this hoping that it will help employees manage their caregiving roles better. If that is achieved, we will know it's been successful."

Dan Kuhn, Mather's education director, dkuhn@matherlifeways.com says "The experiment is to find out if caregivers using the web-based model can derive some or all of the benefits that caregivers have derived in the live experience at over 125 sites in Chicago area. We're grateful for the opportunity to test this out. We hope it'll be effective and become available to other companies and individuals who are interested in taking care of themselves via this course."

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