Elder Care: Providing For Parents

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Corporate America is beginning to get more involved in elder care too. U.S. companies lose $11 billion a year in reduced productivity, absenteeism and turnover from employees who have responsibilities with aging parents, according to the MetLife Mature Market Institute, which studies issues related to the senior market. In response, a growing number of employers are providing their workers with elder-care referrals through employee-assistance programs. One such program, ComPsych, began a service three years ago called Elder Outreach, through which it provides in-home assessments for employees' elderly family members, says chairman and CEO Richard Chaifetz. Often these two-to-four-hour assessments are free to employees.

More relief from the corporate sector could be on the way. The Alzheimer's Foundation of America is in conversation with several companies that are considering providing on-site day care for the older parents of employees. This is at least two to three years away from becoming a reality, says foundation CEO Eric Hall. "We have seen on-site child care in the workplace," he says. "I don't see why this wouldn't be workable for our aging parents, who have given so much of themselves to society. They deserve at least that much."

Meanwhile, the search continues for still other innovations. Some 22 million American households are already providing help in some form to older people, and the number will only increase. According to the latest U.S. Census, the fastest-growing segment of society is people 85 and older. Clearly, creating imaginative and flexible new forms of elder care is more crucial than ever before. As Suzanne Mintz of the National Family Caregivers Association puts it, "We have never experienced a time like this, where people are living so much longer and needing more care."