Helping caregivers at heart of the solution

We hear so many proposals of ways to cut the high cost of health care. But what every proposed strategy and every medical model ignores is one of the most important cost saving measures: Helping families to take care of their loved ones.

Yes, most health systems claim to do this. They offer pamphlets and hotlines. But ask them to tie caregiver support directly to patient outcomes and they are stumped. The database and the dollarbase are not designed to allow it.

But all of us know differently. We are doing this care. As our Capital Region community addresses the costs of medical care we face a triple-whammy of a battered economy, a pandemic and a rapidly aging population.

Some folks still fantasize that more facilities will solve this problem, but institutional care won’t fix it. The reason is both surprising and frustrating: We have better health care. Today we are living with things we would have died from only 20 years ago. Today you are less likely to die of cardiac issues, kidney failure or diabetes. And cancer is becoming a chronic illness rather than a killer. So, we live longer.

That’s sort of good news — except that if you have a serious chronic illness you are just living longer and in need of more costly, complicated care. In most cases, adult children and partners would love to help provide that care. They really would, if someone helped them do it.

We’ve ignored this crucial variable for too long. But we all know the stories. If a daughter (80 percent of caregivers are women) could provide half the care, while taking care of her own family, she could keep her parent or partner at home longer.

The most expensive and hidden eldercare comes from increased emergency room visits and hospital stays in which an exhausted family member refuses an unsafe discharge. But we could keep people at home longer — and keep taxpayer costs lower — if we helped the family.

What family caregivers need isn’t fancy medical equipment or more platitudes about putting on their own oxygen. They need respite and rides. Those two simple things could make the difference: Someone to provide the two to three rides a week to the doctor or dialysis, and a friendly visitor a couple of times a week so the caregiver can feel like a human being again.

I spent 15 years as a family caregiver. Now I teach classes for caregivers. What I hear over and over is the pain and shame of those who are forced by exhaustion to go the nursing home route, or who are sobbing and saying “no” to a discharge planner who wants that hospital bed emptied by the weekend.

Aging is aging. Bodies break down. As we age, we need medical care and

Aging is aging. Bodies break down. As we age, we need medical care and occasional hospitalization. But if you go in, you don’t have to stay in, if your family has some support.

occasional hospitalization. But if you go in, you don’t have to stay in, if your family has some support.

This issue affects every one of us, even if your parents are long gone. Whether you end up in a nursing home depends only in part on your health. The crucial factor is the physical and mental health of your caregiver. When your caregiver burns out, you will go in.

If the medical community could shift its model to help caregivers — with real support, not platitudes — we could build a great health care solution for everyone: the aging, and the ill, family members of all ages and every single taxpayer.

It’s the solution where family values and being selfish and smart align.