Caregivers need support. And pay.
Kate Washington, a journalist in California, is one of the 50 million Americans who serve as unpaid caregivers for an adult family member or friend. |
In an Op-Ed published today, she describes caring for her husband as he was treated for lymphoma and other related health issues. It has required tremendous emotional and physical effort and tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. |
These were just some of her husband's care-based needs when he was discharged from the hospital after a stem-cell transplant in 2016: |
"He came home with 35 medications that had to be administered on a mind-boggling schedule, as well intravenous nutrition that I had to hook up, a complex procedure that I learned to perform in a hasty training session from a nurse. He needed blood sugar tests and assistance with toileting, showering and other intimate acts at which even close friends might well balk." |
Kate also had two young children to raise at the time. Not to mention a job. |
Her husband's medical team, however, seemed not to understand the realities of caregiving. As Kate writes, the doctor waved away her concerns, saying, "Well, usually family steps in and it works out fine." |
Stories like Kate's are far too common — families left on their own to shoulder the emotional and financial costs of caregiving. |
But, Kate writes, the United States has an unusual chance in this current moment to make things easier for families like hers. While campaigning for the presidency, Joe Biden released a plan that included a $5,000 tax credit for unpaid caregivers, Social Security credits for those who must leave their jobs to provide care and 12 weeks of guaranteed paid family leave. In her piece today, Kate calls on Biden, and the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, to make good on this promise. |
"There's a real opportunity to reform and mend our broken systems of care," she writes. "If we are to have the caring society we all deserve, caregivers and recipients alike, we must not lose that chance." |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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