Unpaid Caregivers Show

Back in 2005, Jen was a teacher in Ottawa on track to becoming a principal.  Then, her parents - who lived a couple of hours away in Muskoka - became seriously ill. 
Growing up is about leaving your parents' orbit.  As Jen found out, becoming an unpaid caregiver is about being pulled back in - sometimes with stunning suddenness.  For nearly three years, Jen cared for her parents.  When she moved her father into a nursing home, she advocated on his behalf so that his pain would be managed properly. 

After both her parents died, Jen wrote a book about the experience entitled Living and Dying with Dignity.

The Canadian Institute for Health Information estimates that if we paid all two million unpaid caregivers, it would cost us twenty-five billion dollars a year - that's one-eighth of ALL the money we spend each year across Canada on health care.  One region in Saskatchewan has come up with what could be a game changer.  In 2010, Saskatoon Health Region set up the Direct Client Funding Program - a unique pilot project that - among other things - provides a way for unpaid caregivers to get paid. 

Dave Gibson is Director of Continuing Care and Seniors Health in Saskatoon Health Region. He says Saskatoon's Direct Client Funding Program will undergo a formal review later this year.  As long as they find a way to make sure the money goes to the right people and for doing the right things, I'm all for it.

When you think of day care, you probably think of preschoolers.  In Colwood, a short drive from Victoria, Nicole Donaldson, a licensed practical nurse, has put the finishing touches on a brand new day care for clients a lot older and coming from very different circumstances.  A few months ago, Nicole gave me a guided tour of Open Hearts Adult Day Care.  So far, this little 'teahouse' for seniors has set Nicole Donaldson back a quarter of a million dollars - if you include the cost of the house, the renovations and a special tub to bathe seniors.  

Other than the odd person kicking the tires, Nicole has just three clients.   Just because you build it, doesn't mean seniors will come.  As we sat down to chat, Nicole talked about having to deal with one obstacle after another - from government red tape to a social culture that makes a place like this seem like it's going against the grain.  And Nicole Donaldson is looking for any way to keep going.  She's just finished writing a proposal to the BC government to use Open Hearts Adult Day Care on a trial basis as part of a strategy to bring seniors admitted to acute care hospitals home -- at least temporarily -- while they wait for a bed in a nursing home.  Every senior who can be sent home while they wait frees up a bed in hospital.  Smart thinking.  I'm pulling for Nicole.  So should you.

I thought I would end this blog on a personal note.  Until last year, my dad was an unpaid caregiver.  At age seventy, my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.  And, for the next fifteen years, my dad cared for her at home.  First, he became her bookkeeper and social director.  Then, he became her hands in the kitchen, making her zucchini casserole as if she made it herself. 

As my mum's health declined, dad added physiotherapist, occupational therapist, cheerleader, dresser, and personal attendant to his job description.  Like many unpaid caregivers, he let his own health slide, until it darned-near killed him.  And through it all, he never complained.  Except of course for the day when even he knew he could no longer carry the burden.  And on that day, he was understandably bitter.

My dad was a salesman by profession.  He would say being a caregiver was his duty.  Still, years after his formal retirement, this was the finest job he ever did.