“One person caring for another represents life’s greatest value.”
-Jim Rohn
Odds are, at some point in your life you have been a caregiver for a friend or family member. If so, you are likely aware of what an incredible joy and challenge it can be. Caregivers provide an essential service, sometimes at great cost to themselves. Read on to learn more about an exciting advocacy opportunity that supports family and paid caregivers as they provide vital services in our community.
Caregiving is an important public health issue that affects millions of individuals and families. Caregivers provide assistance to another person with tasks of daily living that can include anything from errand running and assistance with bill paying, to assisting with a bath, and many things in between. Some caregivers are compensated for their time, while the majority help friends or family at no charge. Women are more likely than men to be caregivers (3 in 5 caregivers are women) and some pronounced racial disparities exist as well. According to the AARP’s Caregiving in the U.S. 2020 Report, African Americans are providing 31.2 hours of per week of care (on average), as compared to 26 hours for Hispanic caregivers, 24.1 hours for Asian Americans, and 21.2 hours for white caregivers. Similarly, 93% of nursing home direct care workers are women and almost one in four is a person of color.
In Wisconsin, there are approximately 580,000 family caregivers and 90,000 direct care workers (paid caregivers). In recent years, it has become apparent that Wisconsin is facing a critical shortage of caregivers (both paid and unpaid) and this has impacted nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, home health agencies, and families trying to support loved ones so they can remain in their homes. Major barriers in attracting and retaining direct care workers include low wages and part time hours resulting in economic hardship, lack of a career pathway, and competition from other industry sectors for workers. Without enough caregivers, our most vulnerable citizens face situations that may compromise their health and safety, and this shortage is projected to get worse in the coming decades as the percentage of Wisconsinites over age 65 dramatically increases by up to 72% between 2015 and 2040.
To address this issue, in February of 2019, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers created the Governor’s Task Force on Caregiving to explore this problem and make policy recommendations. The task force met regularly and solicited public input prior to completing their final report in September of 2020. This report includes 16 policy recommendations designed to address the challenges faced by paid and unpaid (family) caregivers.
The policy proposals to address unpaid caregiver challenges include:
- Implementing a caregiver assessment tool.
- Reinvesting in ADRCs to enable them to continue to provide services and supports to caregivers.
- Expanding Family Medical Leave Act to help family caregivers maintain employment while fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities.
- Create a non-refundable income tax credit for expenses incurred during caregiving.
- Enact a law that ensures that caregivers are given important discharge/transfer information about a care recipient.
The policy proposals to support and expand the paid caregiver workforce include:
- Standardizing and increasing rates of payment for different types of caregiving services.
- Create a link between nursing home reimbursement rates and actual cost of care.
- Require that Manage Care Organizations only use up to 15% of the funding they receive on administration and case management services, while the remaining 85% is spent directly on customers.
- Increase funding allocated to Direct Care Working Fund and ensure dollars go directly toward increasing care worker wages.
- Expand Medicaid, thereby allowing direct care workers to accept a greater variety of shifts while maintaining health insurance.
- Allow an earnings disregard for direct care workers that would prevent disincentivizing working. due to risk of losing critical benefits (Badgercare, Foodshare, and childcare subsidies).
- Develop standardized training protocols for direct care workers.
- Create marketing tools to help providers attract more paid care workers.
- Reassess background check policies to ensure unnecessary barriers do not exist.
- Establish a collaborative work group that includes direct care workers and DHS staff to support enhanced education efforts and corrective action processes.
- Work on building a home care provider registry.
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
As you read this, a budget is being developed that will set funding levels for state programs and services for the next two years. Throughout this process, your elected representatives want and need to hear from you about what is important to you. If you are a caregiver or utilize caregivers, consider reaching out to share your experiences and thoughts on the proposals created by the Governor’s Task Force on Caregiving. To find out who your legislators are, visit https://legis.wisconsin.gov/ and enter your home address in the “who are my legislators?” box. Thank you for your consideration!
Sources: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/gtfc/gtfc-report.pdf
