Our country was on complete lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was necessary to ‘flatten the curve’ so that medical facilities would not be overrun with a glut of infected patients. However, America is currently facing another important problem, the ‘Elder Care Cliff.’ Stella Nsong has spent most of her adult life working with elder care issues and has the answers to meet this huge problem head on.
Her mission is to help every business, regardless of size, to establish an employee elder care assistance program so that their employees, who are family caregivers will have a plan and a backup system for providing care at home. Her plan will also improve work life balance, selfcare, personal health and mental wellness for the caregiver. Production at work will improve with less absenteeism, higher productivity, and lower health insurance benefit utilization.
It is a win-win for both employees and employers.
What motivates Stella to devote her energy to alleviate these problems?
Nsong herself is a caregiver. Her 80-year-old mother requires constant attention. She also lost her father and uncle and did not have the tools to manage their estates. Within her own business, she has seen her employees struggle with their own family members as caregivers and understands the impact on a company’s bottom line.
Stella also serves as a State Director on both Ohio and New Jersey’s Elder Care Planning Councils. She works with business owners in the ongoing struggle to balance the human side with the business side of an aging population.
“I know what it means when employees cannot come to work. They suddenly get a call that says their mother needs medical attention. I know what it means when you cannot take a promotion or attend additional training to improve your career because of the responsibilities you may have at home.”
Nsong, who became a nurse at the age of 19, is a best-selling author, elder care columnist and one of the leading sources for elder care education in the country. She has been featured in print, and on television for her work on elder care issues.
Stella has authored three books that can be found on Amazon, The Elder Care Cliff 1.0, 27 Things to do When Your Parents are Losing their Independence and 7 Hours of Respite….or 24 Hours of Dead.
Each outlines the issues in dealing with aging parents, dementia, and the stress it puts on the family members caring for them.
To help caregivers better understand these issues and develop routines, she offers a free program that includes 12 monthly sessions. These are available to a caregiver, anyone interested in learning more about caregiving, and employers, who are involved with supervising an employee that is dealing with a caregiving situation outside of work.
“People who don’t plan for care will hit the wall. They become ill and end up hospitalized. Their personal healthcare costs go up and their company’s insurance costs also increase. Their doctor then tells them they have too much stress or prescribes additional medications. Our programs can help prevent these personal crashes, as well as, reduce healthcare costs for employers.”
Most companies wait until their bottom line is affected by too much missed work and lower productivity. Nsong can help companies, big or small, with a free consultation and a low-cost program to provide a plan for employers to actually reduce their healthcare costs and reduce employee stress.
The Elder Care Cliff in Looming in 2030
Statistics show that the average person does not require outside care until they reach their 80’s. The youngest ‘Baby Boomer’ will not reach the age of 85 until 2030. This country is just beginning to feel the effects of elder care.
“It doesn’t matter how old you are, where you live, or what you do, all of us will experience a loved one needing additional care. We can bridge the gap through planning, resource management, education and helping family caregivers understand the importance of maintaining a life balance. Plus, employers need to understand that their employees also need help so they remain productive, when at work.”
Stella recommends these three measures that employers can currently initiate that will create a minimal cost to the company:
-Provide new hires a listing of available resources during indoctrination.
-Train supervisors how to talk to and deal with employees that are also caregivers.
-Provide online access to her services for their employees.
“Employers invite us to conduct half-day workshops to educate their employees on resources available if they are needed.”
It is known that 76% of all employees are engaged to some extent in caregiving and that number may well increase over the next few years. It is imperative that employers understand the importance to their bottom line that family caregiving away from work has on their business.
“In caregiving, the caregiver is impacted on multiple levels. Caregiving affects your health, your time, your money, as well as your personal relationships, at work, in your career and your involvement in the community. Our programs can help improve every one of those concerns.”
Caregiving affects everyone on a personal, business, or economic level. Having the correct knowledge and skill set, we will thrive at home, as well as, at work and bridge the elder care cliff.
If you would like to learn more about Stella’s elder care services follow her blog, here, or visit Caregiverreliefnetwork.com, or her website: stellansong.com, or call 833-603-0022. We enjoyed our podcast with Stella, you can find it on iTunes and on YouTube.
