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| Home > Newsletters > Caregiving PolicyDigest > Volume VIII, Number 23, November 19, 2008
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| A newsletter of FCA's National Center on Caregiving |
November 19, 2008
Volume VIII, Number 23
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IN THIS ISSUE
State Legislation, Policy & Reports
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Voters Approve Mandatory Paid Sick Days for Workers More...
- Nebraska: Older Adults' Views on Long-Term Care More...
Federal Legislation, Policy & Reports
- Senate Finance Chair Releases Health Care Reform Plan, Includes Family Caregivers More...
- Department of Labor Releases New FMLA Regulations More...
International News
- Australia: A Profile of Carers More...
Research Reports & Journal Articles
- Study of Hispanic Family Caregiving in the U.S. More...
- New Book: Intergenerational Caregiving More...
- The Influences of Gender and Religiousness on Caregivers' Use of Services More...
- "Preventive Health Behaviors Among Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren" More...
Conferences & Trainings
- Patient- and Family-Centered Care Conference March 2-5 More...
Funding, Media & Miscellaneous
- "When Families Take Care of Their Own" More...
- "Veterans' Families Seek Aid for Caregiver Role" More...
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Voters Approve Mandatory Paid Sick Days for Workers
On November 4, 2008, voters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin passed a ballot initiative requiring employers to give employees paid sick days to care for their own health or to care for a sick child or other family member. The number of paid sick days workers will accumulate is based on the number of hours they've worked for their employer and the size of the business. Milwaukee has become the third city, behind San Francisco and Washington, D.C., to require paid sick days for its workers. The business lobby in the city has mounted a legal challenge against the new law. For more information, visit:
National Partnership for Women and Families
Nebraska: Older Adults' Views on Long-Term Care
In October 2008, AARP released the results of a survey of its members in Nebraska focused on long-term care. The survey reveals that the vast majority of respondents (84%) say it would be extremely or very important to them to be able to have services that would enable their family members and themselves to stay at home for as long as possible if long-term care (LTC) services were needed. Respondents also said that, if they were already living in assisted living, they would prefer to remain in that facility to receive needed services, rather than move to a skilled nursing facility. For more information, visit: AARP
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Senate Finance Chair Releases Health Care Reform Plan, Includes Family Caregivers
On November 12, 2008, Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, released Call to Action: Health Reform 2009, a paper which lays out his vision for both policy and the process in the upcoming health care reform debate. It addresses health care coverage, quality and cost. The paper discusses family caregivers in a section called "Long-Term Care Services and Support," stating: "Providing support for family caregivers should also be an important part of any reform plan. The plan would provide assistance to individuals, families and caregivers in navigating the complex and fractured long-term care services and supports system." For more information, visit:
Senate Finance Committee
Department of Labor Releases New FMLA Regulations
The Department of Labor recently released new rules regulating the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Some of the new rules would help military families, while others would make it harder for workers to take time off to care for an ill family member. The new rules will expand FMLA coverage for military families caring for veterans and soldiers returning from war, adding needed clarity to a law recently passed by Congress. However, the new rules will also jeopardize workers' medical privacy by granting employers more direct access to the health care providers and health information of workers and their family members. The new rules will also permit workers less time to give notice of their need for leave while giving employers more time to let workers know whether the request for leave has been approved. Furthermore, the new rules make it more difficult for workers to use their paid leave (such as paid vacation) while on FMLA leave, making it impossible for some workers to afford to take FMLA leave at all. For more information, visit:
Federal Register
National Partnership for Women and Families
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Australia: A Profile of Carers
The Australian Bureau of Statistics recently released a report, based on the 2006 Census and three other national surveys, which provides an overview of the characteristics and activities of people in the country who provide informal assistance to someone with a disability or long-term health condition or to an adult aged 60 and older. A Profile of Carers in Australia reveals that there are 2.5 million Australian caregivers (age 15 and older). They are more likely to be women, their average age is 48, and caregivers were more likely than noncaregivers to have their own disability. For more information, visit:
Australian Bureau of Statistics
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Study of Hispanic Family Caregiving in the U.S.
On November 17, 2008, Evercare and the National Alliance for Caregiving released the Evercare Study of Hispanic Family Caregiving in the U.S. This survey of Hispanic caregivers contains information about the prevalence of caregiving in Hispanic households, the impact caregiving has on caregivers' employment, the burden of caregiving and the type of support Hispanic caregivers want. The study finds that more than one in three Hispanic households (36%) have at least one family member caring for an older relative, compared to 21% of all U.S. households with a caregiver. Survey participants expressed strong support for caregiver information, tools and resources in Spanish, while over 70% indicated that training sessions, including online training, which teach caregivers skills would be helpful. For more information, visit:
Evercare
New Book: Intergenerational Caregiving
The Urban Institute Press recently published a book called Intergenerational Caregiving, edited by Alan Booth, Ann C. Crouter, Suzanne M. Bianchi and Judith A. Seltzer. That interdisciplinary group of scholars considers changing family relationships and examines the effects of caregiving on those relationships and on families' resources from economic, sociological, anthropological and psychological perspectives. Chapters on both older adults and children with disabilities are included. For more information, visit:
Urban Institute
The Influences of Gender and Religiousness on Caregivers' Use of Services
An article in the December 2008 issue of the Journal of Aging and Health (Volume 20, Number 8) explores how male and female family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients differ in their use of formal services and informal support and how religiousness may affect such differences. The article, "The Influences of Gender and Religiousness on Alzheimer's Disease Caregivers' Use of Informal Support and Formal Services" by Dr. Fei Sun and colleagues, reveals that while female caregivers were less likely to use in-home services than males, they were more likely to use transportation services and informal support. In addition, measures of religiousness helped explain the relationship between gender and the use of informal and formal support. For more information, visit:
Journal of Aging and Health
"Preventive Health Behaviors Among Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren"
An article in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (Volume 63B, Number 5) describes a study that examined the preventive health behaviors among grandmothers who recently began raising a grandchild, grandmothers raising a grandchild for at least two years and grandmothers not raising a grandchild. The article, "Preventive Health Behaviors Among Grandmothers Raising Grandchildren" by Lindsey Baker and Merril Silverstein, reveals that grandmothers who recently started caring for a grandchild take fewer preventive measures to protect their health, including getting flu vaccines and cholesterol screenings, compared to grandmothers the same age not raising children. However, once they had been providing full-time care to a grandchild for more than two years, grandmothers were increasingly health conscious and became more likely than those not raising grandchildren to adopt preventative health measures. For more information, visit:
Journal of Gerontology
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Patient- and Family-Centered Care Conference March 2-5
The Institute for Family-Centered Care will host a three and a half day seminar called "Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care" March 2-5, 2009 in Boston. Hospital administrators, physicians, nurses and other clinical staff, as well as patients and family leaders, are encouraged to attend. For more information, visit:
Institute for Family-Centered Care
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"When Families Take Care of Their Own"
An article in the New York Times explains the prevalence of family caregiving and the huge contribution family caregivers make to the long-term care system, taking much of the burden off formal long-term care facilities and in-home care support services. In "When Families Take Care of Their Own," the first in a series of articles on caregiving by journalist Jane Brody, she reports that caregiving can be both a rewarding experience and one that can have negative consequences on a caregiver's physical, emotional and financial well-being. For more information, visit:
New York Times
"Veterans' Families Seek Aid for Caregiver Role"
An article in the New York Times on November 11, 2008, "Veterans' Families Seek Aid for Caregiver Role," highlights the challenges many families face when trying to provide care for a relative who has returned wounded from war. Many family members must quit their jobs to provide full-time care, and they are increasingly turning to the Veterans Affairs Department (VA) for financial assistance. Many of these family members are asking to be compensated as care providers, arguing that they often provide the veteran with necessary around-the-clock care and that the disability pensions the veteran receives is often not enough to make up for the salaries they had to give up or to otherwise pay for all the home care the veteran needs. For more information, visit:
New York Times
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To find caregiver support services in your state, visit FCA's Family Care Navigator http://caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/fcn_content_node.jsp?nodeid=2083
?2008 Family Caregiver Alliance. All rights reserved.
The National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance works to advance the development of high-quality and cost-effective policies and programs for caregivers in every state in the country. The National Center is a central source of information and technical assistance on family caregiving for policymakers, health and service providers, program developers, funders, media and families. For questions or further information about the National Center on Caregiving, contact PolicyDigest@caregiver.org or visit the Family Caregiver Alliance website at www.caregiver.org.
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Your subscription information is used only for the purpose of improving this service and tailoring it to the needs of its audience. Information provided to us will not be shared with any other organization, agency, corporation, entity or third party.
Caregiving PolicyDigest is a publication of the National Center on Caregiving at Family Caregiver Alliance, 180 Montgomery Street, Suite 1100, San Francisco, CA 94104.
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