Thank you to Black Life Texas for featuring our company and my lovely grandmother on the covery of the paper! Here is our interview below:
Being a caregiver for a loved one is a selfless act. This is the reality for millions of Americans who are now faced with an aging Baby Boomer population who will be faced with more chronic health issues.
In San Antonio with a population of 1.5 million, 17% are aged 60 and over and is expected to grow by about 20% by 2040.
San Antonio resident Cara Pitts has a similar caregiving story of sacrifices. She had a successful career in the healthcare industry when she made the difficult decision to leave her career to take care of her grandmother, Mary Lee, who needed a helping hand after recovering from a stroke. Cara, her husband, and her stepson went from living on two incomes to just one. But Cara soon learned how to navigate her grandmother’s Medicare and Medicaid insurance benefits, which paid for caregiving.
Lost income due to family caregiving is estimated at $522 billion each year. Around 53 million people annually provide a broad range of assistance to support the health, quality of life, and independence of an aging family member, or a loved one who has a disability or chronic health condition. Another 2.7 million grandparent caregivers – and an unknown number of other relative caregivers – open their homes each year to millions of children who cannot remain with their parents. In recent years, additional attention has been given to measuring the financial impact of family caregiving, such as lost wages, reduction in workforce, and the out-of-pocket costs caregivers often incur for meals, transportation, medical supplies, toys, educational tools, home modifications, and more.
When the challenges become overwhelming and family caregivers can’t provide support, the people they care for often are left with no choices except moving to nursing homes and other institutions or to foster care – the cost of which is typically borne by taxpayers. Many caregivers are unaware they can get funded by programs like Medicaid, Veteran Affairs, and Medicare to ease the financial burden.
“Many families are stressed because they don’t want to put their loved ones in nursing homes or other places and don’t want to leave their careers,” Cara Pitts said. “My grandmother did really well at the nursing home for a few years and became a star resident. The staff even gave her an employee name tag and made her the head of the welcome committee and VIP perks for happy hour. After a few years, the unfortunate reality of nursing home living set in when she saw friend after friend pass away, and Mary Lee became depressed. We knew something needed to change.”
Pitts has since taught other family and friends how to become paid family caregivers and recently started a website and online course (CaregivingFromHome.com) to teach others how to navigate the system. She also co-founded a gourmet plant-based brand Southern Roots Vegan Bakery with her husband Marcus Pitts and even named their best-selling cakes after Mary Lee.
On average, the family and friends that Cara Pitts has helped can start seeing income come in about six months after getting the process started (through Medicaid). She offers a free six-step guide on her website that includes learning about a Home and Community-Based Services Program and checking if some private insurance companies have caregiving benefits for long-term care.
Just recently in September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through its Administration for Community Living, released the 2022 National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers. It highlights nearly 350 actions the federal government will take to support family caregivers in the coming year. Some of the recommendations highlighted include incentives for healthcare systems to incorporate caregivers into decision-making for the person receiving care; redesign the Medicaid eligibility process so that the care recipient does not have to deplete most of their assets to qualify for support; allow kin and grandparent caregivers who have primary responsibility for a child to claim the federal Child Tax Credit; and introduce a range of incentives to encourage employers to adopt caregiver-friendly practices, including tax incentives.
This new strategy and report is expected to be a living document and updated every two years, as required by the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act of 2017.
To learn how to get paid as a family caregiver or to ensure you are getting the support you need, sign up and get the free six-step guide.