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Issue Brief Examines Link between Family and Paid Caregiving
June 30, 2005
A 12-page Better Jobs Better Care issue brief lays the groundwork for a new 'caregiving paradigm' that would acknowledge the complex connections between family and paid caregiving and provide better supports for both kinds of caregivers.
Principal author Dorie Seavey, the national policy specialist for the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, notes in 'Family Care and Paid Care: Separate worlds or common ground' that surveys have indicated that up to a third of caregiving arrangements for people aged 65 and older involve both paid and unpaid care. The two types of caregivers, she writes, 'are not independent but rather are highly interconnected and interdependent. To put it simply, family and paid caregivers are on the same team.'
Both types of caregivers, the brief points out, share a desire to 'attain the highest quality of care for the care recipient through healthy partnerships between care recipients, families and formal caregivers.' And both are faced with 'society's undervaluing of caregiving labor, stemming in large part from caregiving's long history as a female-dominated sphere.' As a result, paraprofessional workers cope with low pay, poor working conditions and lack of respect, while family caregivers find themselves 'isolated in their private, domestic worlds' with 'a dearth of public policies designed to help families balance caregiving and workplace responsibilities.'
Seavey suggests ways of creating an integrated system of education and support for family and paid caregivers, noting that the effort will require 'a fundamental shift toward more explicit partnerships and alliances between family caregivers, paid direct-care workers, their employers and the millions of individuals needing long-term care assistance.'
To read the brief, go to
Elise Nakhnikian
Communications Specialist
Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute
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