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Subject: Aiding in the Care of Aging Relatives; Experts Urge Employers to Offer
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 05:41:19 EST
Message-ID: <1.1992Nov9.054120@AmeriCast.com>

Aiding in the Care of Aging Relatives; Experts Urge Employers to
Offer Information, Job Flexibility<Second of two articles<By
Marianne Kyriakos<Washington Post Staff Writer=

 Last spring, three women - an employee in her sixties and her
two daughters - sat quietly through a day of lectures and presen-
tations about caring for older relatives, sponsored by a business
in Bethesda.

Donna Phillips, who led a presentation, said she has since
thought often of the family.

 "They sat there and didn't ask any questions," said Phillips,
who works at the Montgomery County division of elder affairs. "At
the end of the day, they told me they were working and taking
care of their mother, who was in her eighties and suffered from
Alzheimer's disease. They knew of no resources. For two years,
they had been shouldering the burden alone. And they looked it."

  Just as small businesses are trying to find ways to help em-
ployees with child-care problems, they also are looking at how to
aid in the care of aging relatives.

 In some ways, it can be more difficult for companies to deal
with "elder care" than with child care, which usually is a
higher-profile concern.

 "Until employees come in and say 'I have a problem,' often, no
one knows," said Michael Creedon, a nationally known expert on
the subject who is president of the Creedon Group in Vienna and
on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University.  "Employees do not
want to draw attention to the fact that they have problems with
elderly relatives. They don't want upward mobility opportunities
restricted. They don't want managers monitoring their phone
calls," Creedon said.

 Add to that, Phillips said, the fact that care givers will not
ask for help because they have a sense of obligation and guilt.

 "If you have a child who has no day care, you can't go to work,"
Phillips said. "But employees jump through all kinds of hoops to
go to work with a parent who is in need, then spend a lot of time
going through the maze at work, taking off time, et cetera."

 Creedon said nearly every national survey of care-giver employ-
ees shows they need and want two things from their employers: in-
formation and flexibility. To that end, there are inexpensive
programs that small- and medium-size businesses can offer.

 "Because they are small, the employer and manager know each oth-
er personally, and they may be able to make arrangements that are
impossible for a larger company," he said.

 Creedon's ideas include an occasional brown-bag-lunch forum for
employees, flexible leave options and information from area agen-
cies on aging, which are federally funded.

Local businesses are thinking creatively on the issue. One of the
biggest, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae),
in the District, contracts with outside elder-care resource-and-
referral services for its 1,600 employees, said Leon Hollins,
vice president of human resources.  Two of the nation's biggest
elder-care resource firms are the Partnership Group in Lansdale,
Pa., and Work-Family Directions in Boston. The firms charge
client companies an annual fee of $12 to $15 for each employee to
provide on-site counseling and seminars.

 A local referral service for businesses and churches is MCM Eld-
er Freedom Ltd. in Reston. Mary Matzer, president of the firm,
said local companies "sponsor" senior relatives of employees for
an annual fee of $150. Matzer is then on 24-hour call, putting
clients in touch with a number of services, including drivers and
prescription delivery. There are additional fees for each call.

 Approaching the problem a bit differently, the Bureau of Nation-
al Affairs Inc. in the District offers its employees services
that include alternative work patterns, information on the sub-
ject, flexible hours and job-protected unpaid leave, consultant
Jean Linehan said.

 Phillips said she never heard again from the three women at last
spring's care-giver seminar. She said that she sent them off with
"lots of good information," but she worries that there are many
others like them in area workplaces both large and small.

 "The issue is not a matter of company size," Fannie Mae's Hol-
lins said. "If, in fact, you believe that your employees are your
number one asset ... you must be sensitive to their worklife
needs. This is a legitimate, ongoing issue."endquad04:30 11-
09C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)