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What is in your 2025 people strategy?
It's time to include ALL caregivers in your strategy
ieadvocates
January 14, 2025
Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Newsletter
Brought to you by ieadvocates (invisible employee advocates)
Your 2025 People Strategy needs to include ALL caregivers
Thank you for being here!
It is a new year! Hope you had the opportunity to enjoy your holidays and you were able to rest and recover so you can recharge and thrive in 2025! It is time to get back to work and implement 2025 strategies and goals.
Many times when we bring up the topic of “caregiving” with employers and HR as it pertains to their people strategy, we get asked if there is a difference between child care and eldercare. Interestingly, there are more similarities between the two than differences. Care is care . The bigger question we like to ask is:
“If there are similar logistics between parenting a child and caring for an older family member or adult child, then why are there not as many benefits and considerations for the eldercare caregivers as there are for caregivers of children?”
The negative impact of insufficient caregiving support is the same (turnover, burnout, absentism, presentism, physical and mental fatigue, etc). The positive benefits of sufficient caregiving support are also the same (productivity, retention, recruitment, stronger culture, etc).
Most employers and HR will admit to us that they either don’t know enough about caregiving in the eldercare or adult child care space, or they don’t know how many caregivers they have in their workforce that are caregivers in that space. That’s where we come in.
Make 2025 the year you will take your first steps in your people strategy towards building a care culture. Steps such as having conversations about caregiving, senior leaders sharing their caregiver stories, communication about benefits that impact ALL caregivers, provide webinar education, prepare managers with training, raise awareness, review benefits and policies, offer space and time for caregiver support groups, and create a caregiver ERG just to list a few. It is not as hard as you may think.
Be sure to read the first news article below. Dr. Gina Anderson, of Luma Brighter Learning, just after reading our book, implemented a Compassionate Care Policy with her employees. This is pretty big news when you consider Inc Newsletter (with over 3 million subscribers) shared with their readers her valuable people strategy to create a care culture and support her caregivers—ALL of them!
Whether you’re an employer, business manager, HR, or a working caregiver, this newsletter offers valuable insights along with win-win-win simple solutions to help implement meaningful change for organizations, employees who are caregivers, and their care recipients.
Table of Contents
In the news:
Latest research, events, and articles that are making an impact for working caregivers and their employers.
This Unexpected Gift Will Make Employees Happier-Support your team with the benefits of a compassionate care policy
When you have a conversation with Dr. Gina Anderson, you will most likely walk away more energized, positive, and confident. She is someone you want to connect with if you are thinking about how to “thrive in 2025”. In fact this month, she came out with a book titled “Thrive: How Learning Can Ignite A New Way Forward”.
In our conversation with Dr. Anderson, we learned about what she does, her company, and how she at that time was a working caregiver for her mother. Little did we know the impact we would make on her after we sent her our book Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees.
In this article, she talks about how after reading our book, it became clear to her that she wanted to support caregivers in her organization. She took what she learned reading, coupled with her personal experience as a working caregiver, and created a policy for compassionate care for her employees. She shares six steps she took including critical ones like determining how many caregivers are in her organization and creating a safe environment for transparency.
Dr. Anderson will be a future guest on our Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees podcast.
Working Daughter helps support employees dealing with eldercare
Liz O’Donnell has extensive personal experience as a working caregiver who ten years ago cared for both her parents who were diagnosed with terminal illnesses on the same day. She was also a mother of two school-aged children at the time. Since then she has become a huge caregiver advocate, in particular for women, creating a private Facebook Support Group titled Working Daughter that today has over 10,000 members.
Liz, while encouraging employers to provide benefits for ALL caregivers, really focuses in on the caregivers for aging family loved ones. She says:
"Women often plan to have children; they think about what it's going to do to their finances, their bodies, their relationships, their careers — they make space in their lives," she says. "[With kids,] it's about the future and possibility. With elder care, there's none of that. It's not something we plan for. It's grief. It's a series of losses. That is why having a community is so important."
She continues to advocate to employers that if they create a strong caring community within the workplace, this will help employees feel connected and maintain performance and productivity. Other advice she gives employers:
“Stress management resources, mental health support, flexibility and paid time off are also policies employers should consider when putting together benefits that can be most impactful to caregivers, she says. To increase employee comfort in speaking up and participation in things like caregiver ERGs, O'Donnell encourages leaders to get involved and share their own caregiving experiences if they have them.”
Did you know? (Read our blog):
Our blog brings you knowledge, personal and researched, to raise your awareness and empathy about working caregivers and caregiving.
Polypharmacy: What Is It and What Can Working Caregivers Do About it? (Blog 1/14/25)
Have you ever been sitting at your work desk or in a meeting and suddenly your mind flashed to a vision of your elderly parents’ pill boxes? Then your head was consumed by thoughts around managing your parents’ medications. Whether there were any prescriptions that you needed to have refilled. Were there any medications that had expired and needed to be renewed by the doctor? You remember that you had been wanting to speak with your parents’ doctors regarding their extensive lists of medications to get a better understanding of what each one does and how they interact with each other. Do the primary care doctors know what medications are being prescribed by the specialist doctors and vice versa? Have you ever found yourself overwhelmed with similar thoughts and wondering when you would find the time to carry out these critical tasks? Have you then realized that you lost productive time? Not paying attention in your meeting or being able to focus on your work.
People and Companies In the spotlight:
Our podcast puts a spotlight on guests who are making a significant difference in the working caregiver space.
Episode 9: Jason Resendez on Caregiver Advocacy and Workplace Culture
In this podcast episode we welcome Jason Resendez, a leading advocate in the caregiving and Alzheimer's space. Together, we discuss the critical challenges facing working caregivers and how systemic changes can create supportive environments both in the workplace and in society. Jason shares his personal caregiving journey, the groundbreaking advocacy work of the National Alliance for Caregiving, and practical tips for employees and employers navigating caregiving responsibilities. From public policy changes to personal empowerment, this conversation sheds light on the invisible struggles and triumphs of working caregivers. Plus, Jason provides a sneak peek into the 2025 "Caregiving in the U.S." study, offering a glimpse into the future of caregiving data and trends.
Jason Resendez is a nationally recognized caregiving advocate. He currently serves as the President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, where he leads research, policy, and programmatic initiatives to build health, wealth, and equity for America’s 53 million family caregivers. In 2023, Jason was named one of the most consequential leaders in health and medicine by STAT News. Prior to joining NAC, Jason was the founding executive director of the Us Against Alzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity where he pioneered the concept of Brain Health Equity through peer-reviewed research, public health partnerships, and public policy. In 2020, Jason was named one of America’s top influencers in aging by PBS’s Next Avenue alongside Michael J. Fox and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, STAT News, and Univision on issues related to caregiving and health equity. Jason is from South Texas and graduated from Georgetown University.
We also challenge our listeners to reach out to Jason and his organization to inquire about how you as an employer can support caregiver advocacy. You can reach out here: https://www.caregiving.org/
Stories From Real Working Caregivers:
Actual working caregivers share their stories.
Mike George helps families rewrite their caregiving story – from one of sacrifice and exhaustion to one of joy, strength and resilience. A family caregiver himself for 3 decades, Mike intimately understands the burdens of supporting the primary care of a loved one. But he also knows the tremendous fulfillment it can bring. This lived experience led him to create The Soaring Families Way TM , a proven method that can be every family’s reliable companion on their journey to joy. He is a speaker, author, and co-founder of Soaring Families whose mission is to redefine caregiving for families.
“There's no carefreeness in our life anymore. Everything has to be planned. Everything has to be thought through. You just can't pack a bag, hop on a plane and go somewhere. You have to arrange all kinds of things. So, even going out to any sort of social event, going out to dinner, you can't just go. You have to plan everything. I think that's probably the biggest loss in our life is that carefreeness. We've become used to it. We know what the limitations are, but some days you think, I just don't want to have to deal with this anymore. Especially if there's things happening in Ben's life that are causing you more stress, and then you have all these work commitments on top of that…some days were really tough.”
And the other reality is that it's a huge financial burden. If I knew… then, I probably would've managed things differently, but you're so much in the weeds. You're just trying to get by, you know, day-by-day, hour-by-hour… I remember… it was one of the 70 ER visits. We were young and just starting out as a family. And I went to the ATM at the hospital to get some money out, and I had $42 in my account. That's it…. That's another level of, like, oh, that's all I got. And the lunch you get is $21. Right? So, it's just like, now what? That's a whole other level of things… that is a reality, unfortunately, of things. But if you kind of know about those ahead of time, maybe you can prepare yourself or at least do some better planning.
Recommended media content:
We explore and share with you diverse media illuminating the dynamics and narratives within the care economy - from insightful podcasts to thought-provoking books and engaging videos.
PODCASTS
Nextgen Work Culture with host KortneyRoss
Balancing Care Logistics and Work with Dovetail: A Conversation with Ashley Blackington. Host Kortney Ross has a great podcast series that helps managers and HR professionals support working parents to retain and recruit the best people. In this episode she covers the crucial topic of supporting ALL working caregivers with guest Ashley Blackington, the CEO and founder of Dovetail, whether they're juggling childcare, elder care, or both. They explore how caregiving impacts employees in the workplace, the importance of employer support, and innovative solutions like Ashley's care tech platform, Dovetail, that streamlines care logistics.
You will want to also catch Kortney’s other episode, The Struggles Of A Working Caregiver-A Personal Perspective. She shares about her mother being a caregiver for her parents with the challenges and stress that comes with the caregiver journey.
VIDEOS
In 2016, Kitty Norton left her job as an NBC assistant editor in Los Angeles to walk, stumble, crawl with her dementia mother. While doing so, she authored the dementia caregiver blog Stumped Town Dementia, writing tales of dementia life for readers around the world. After Gloria Norton died from vascular dementia, Kitty created and directed the dementia family caregiver documentary, Wine, Women, & Dementia, in honor of her mother and to celebrate family caregivers; to let them know they are worthy of being seen, heard, and respected on this difficult road to the end of life.
BOOKS
Dr. Donna Bartlett is very passionate about educating us on overmedication. She shares that over 1/3 of older adults take 5 or more medications —at least one of which is unnecessary.
• The result? Roughly 2 million adverse drug events requiring hospitalization every year. Medications can keep us healthy and strong, and are often truly life-saving. Yet, as we age, the body naturally changes, along with its ability to absorb, metabolize and eliminate medication.
Enter MedStrong by Dr. Donna Bartlett, 25-years practicing, board-certified geriatric pharmacist. Decades of witnessing the enormous suffering and compromised quality of life wreaked by overmedication has made her a leading authority on “deprescribing”—the evidence-based process of reducing, switching, or stopping medications.
Be sure to also watch The Med List YouTube episode we did with Dr. Donna Bartlett and Dr. Kevin Walker: The Med List: Challenges & Tips for Working Caregivers
The “polypharmacy blog” contained in this newsletter was largely inspired by our enriching conversation with these two experts.
We want to thank Cindy Gray who took the time to read our book and provide a thoughtful review!
This is such a great book for anyone in the HomeCare industry! It is a must read.
Order your copy of Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees book here. If you want to order a quantity of books for your leadership team and employees, contact us directly about discount pricing.
Order Working Caregivers-The Invisible Employees Book here
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