The US healthcare system has a huge gap. A lot of care giving isn’t covered, and it falls on families and friends to pick up the slack. It can take a lot of time and …
Yes, Caregiving is absolutely terrible. had to Full time caregive for my mother. Still trying to recover from the economic losses, never mind the social loss, and relationship damage.
I can't say I enjoyed the video, but I think it was full of important information. Good gravy, what if all this money I'm saving for retirement gets sucked up by cancer or another chronic illness?
Luckily this wasn't a big problem for my family when my grandfather got lung cancer. My grandmother was a retired nurse and still in good health so she could take care of him. We saw many other patients in this situation when we took him to his treatments. We also found that there are some local charities that can help. We started volunteering with this one after he recovered, https://www.mccsn.org/. While having charities that can fill this gap is great, I think having at least some government support for caregivers would be much better.
I am so happy you did this video. As a nurse I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had "good insurance". Nearly went bankrupt almost lost the house my sons in college took a semester off to care for me. I have worked all my life 25 years as a nurse. Thanks for covering this. Peace and blessings.
I do not have cancer, but I do live with a chronic, debilitating illness. There has yet to be a week, since my health did it initial decline, where my mom hasn’t had to take a day or more off. I have doctors all over the untied states and my mom goes to most of them with me. She does have some health leave, but it’s not enough. The cost of getting to places and the work she misses are staggering. She has to save most of her sick leave to take care of me. There is not a cure for my illness, only ways to help ease the decline in health. Caregivers are the unsung heroes of medical life!
I can relate to every situation described and add a couple more. Very often, caregiving is provided by a spouse who is also aging. Thus the physical demands such as lifting, hygiene, and supervising are being performed by people who are not in peak health themselves, or simply old. Private caregiving is very expensive thus many caregivers do a great deal of the work themselves if they are caring for someone in the home setting. Another issue is the isolation that full-time caregiving creates. ONe's circle of friends contracts and the ability to get out declines. Caregiving is a beautiful experience but it is demanding, expensive, and difficult. Those without resources to supplement the process through the addition of helpers, supplies and equipment not paid for by Medicare, struggle more. Children and relatives who are willing to help may live long distances from those needing care. Changes in medical deductibles is another problem that erodes financial means. I was fortunate to be able to retire to care for my husband over the last nine years of his life (Parkinsons Disease), and would do it again gladly, but this is not everyone's situation and I am glad it is getting exposure. Thank you for that.
support, outside of family, is nearly impossible, for almost anyone. good luck if you dont live near family. My parents spent about $10,000 to travel and help me get to followup visits, and get me to work for 2 months after surgery when I couldnt drive myself.
As far as I know in Australia, full-time carers can get a carer's pension. At the same time, it probably isn't easy to get, nor would it help those who aren't the primary carer, but it would be something.
At home care and hospice care are normally not covered by insurance. This is unthinkable. We all die. We all become bed ridden due to injury or illness, be it terminal or not. The insurance industry lobby and the medical professional lobby do not represent the interests of the general public. As a consequence, they do no sufficiently provide for the adequate protection of public health which in fact and practice, is a national interest.
Excellent points and video. I would add one additional fact. It is a great honor to be a caregiver. It is a position and charge that demonstrates great, compassion, commitment and sacrifice; all the while knowing that the great effort undertaken is essentially for the preservation of dignity and comfort for those cared for and the preservation of life in the face of inevitable and eventual natural death.
This to me is the essential and innate purpose of healthcare workers and why they are so highly compensated and respected in our society. To limit their scope in a way that curtails their ability to help in ways that we will all eventually need is nonsensical.
Yet, one should not be limited from serving in a role that doesn't require medical training if one can impart successful and effective care without said training. People that are not in the medical/health care industry should be assured the adequate protections and resources to fulfill that charge, codified into law. This should not be a task fulfilled by the medical lobby, but by a congressional representation that adequately reflects the will of the public.
This video was terrible. You just spelled out a giant issue but offered zero solutions. Are we supposed to come up with even an idea? We don't know shit about the healthcare industry thats why we watch your channel
I'm a RN case manager for a homecare agency and I can't tell you how many caregivers have had tears in their eyes when they tell me how crushing the burden can be when I loved one loses the ability to care for themselves.
There aren't enough healthcare providers, and yet somehow there are still people saying that we need to monopolize it in the hands of the government and pay them less. Because that will somehow mean more caregivers….somehow.
my husband's grandfather passed away recently from renal failure and my husband was greatly involved in his care during his final year. he would work remotely from grandpa's home so he never used FMLA; I doubt we could have afforded his time off without pay. it was a toll on him — grandpa required 24/7 care, so if he needed immediate attention while a server crashed he would get heat for not responding quickly enough to the outage. he cared for grandpa's hygiene, and I'll be honest I don't think I have it in me to change my grandparent's diaper. his mother did exhaust her FMLA though, and then some. his uncle took multiple trips from his house 4 hours away to do his part; I'm not sure what his work situation was but I would assume he also burnt through his FMLA. it was a communal effort keeping grampy comfortable in his last days and everyone made the sacrifices they could as he withered.
thank you for this video. not enough is said about caregivers. as a long term chronic pain patient with a degenerative condition i can't honestly say where I would be without my husband. even little things, like scrubbing the shower floor when it gets pinkish because my joints physically will not allow me to complete such a chore. not everyone has a person like him in their life and I can't imagine how they get by.
I'm a caregiver for work. It is no career. We receive a living wage if we work directly for a person and are paid through Medicare. However if your employer goes to the hospital or dies, you are out of luck. Days off are hard to get. Some is better if you work for an agency, but they take a cut. It is also hard to find a good caregiver to hire because the bar is so low to enter the field. If people are ambitious like me they move on to a better job. I do it because I'm a student and as I said low bar to a living wage. However I have learned the value of the work good caregivers provide. This is work that is of much more value than society currently gives it.
Though not the topic at hand, I feel like the lack of options for a stay at home parent is part of the problem. In the past women would take on the Caregiver role for her family and parents. Now that women are in the workforce we have this huge gap in work that no one is willing to pay. I wish it were financially viable to live on just my husbands income, but even at close to 2.5x minimum wage it's unsustainable. Itd be nice even to be able to step in and out of the workforce as necessary without penalty. I've heard of women working at a loss just so they don't lose access to their career entirely.
Such an important video. I'm in medical school now and recently helped care for a close loved one after a cancer diagnosis, but could not take much/any time off from med school 🙁 Doing clinical rotations and juggling family crisis was exhausting.
My grandmother died last night. She was 94. For the past two years we've had to be there round the clock when she wasn't in a care facility or the hospital. I had to quit my job because as the family needed me more I was able to make it to work less and less. I was threatened with termination so I quit. My mother was the primary care giver for most of that and she is 72 and broke her hip and had to get a partial hip replacement last April. So just now a year ago. It's been a huge strain on all of us. And any options for in home help or inpatient care was too expensive.
Ya it's bad. I never left my father's side ever and tried to work from the hospital room where i couldn't make or take calls and couldn't shower or have a change of clothes. when he was home and ok i was taking care of my brother at the mental hospital due to seeing his dad like that i didn't breath have a place to shower or have more than a chair of different forms when he was home i didn't sleep at all cause it was total care. i believe the entire medical system is just evil murders after all i saw and experienced. never ever leave a patient alone with a medical provider period.
It's the worst when the main provider dies after all this sacrifice. We're nearly recovered from my husbands death from pancreatic cancer two years ago. (Not the health care systems fault, basically everyone succumbs to adenocarcinoma.) I am fricking tough, but I have to be tough all the time. Not fun.
Thank you. Caregiving is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting, and can totally wreck one's financial future. No one is talking about all the stress related health problems that caregivers suffer either.
Yes, Caregiving is absolutely terrible. had to Full time caregive for my mother. Still trying to recover from the economic losses, never mind the social loss, and relationship damage.
I can't say I enjoyed the video, but I think it was full of important information. Good gravy, what if all this money I'm saving for retirement gets sucked up by cancer or another chronic illness?
Luckily this wasn't a big problem for my family when my grandfather got lung cancer. My grandmother was a retired nurse and still in good health so she could take care of him. We saw many other patients in this situation when we took him to his treatments. We also found that there are some local charities that can help. We started volunteering with this one after he recovered, https://www.mccsn.org/. While having charities that can fill this gap is great, I think having at least some government support for caregivers would be much better.
You want us to “enjoy” this video? That’s beyond me.
I am so happy you did this video. As a nurse I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had "good insurance". Nearly went bankrupt almost lost the house my sons in college took a semester off to care for me. I have worked all my life 25 years as a nurse. Thanks for covering this. Peace and blessings.
I do not have cancer, but I do live with a chronic, debilitating illness. There has yet to be a week, since my health did it initial decline, where my mom hasn’t had to take a day or more off. I have doctors all over the untied states and my mom goes to most of them with me. She does have some health leave, but it’s not enough. The cost of getting to places and the work she misses are staggering. She has to save most of her sick leave to take care of me. There is not a cure for my illness, only ways to help ease the decline in health. Caregivers are the unsung heroes of medical life!
I spent my young hot years caring for my family until they all died. I am now 50, old, alone and expect to die alone. Yay caregiving. FML.
I can relate to every situation described and add a couple more. Very often, caregiving is provided by a spouse who is also aging. Thus the physical demands such as lifting, hygiene, and supervising are being performed by people who are not in peak health themselves, or simply old. Private caregiving is very expensive thus many caregivers do a great deal of the work themselves if they are caring for someone in the home setting. Another issue is the isolation that full-time caregiving creates. ONe's circle of friends contracts and the ability to get out declines. Caregiving is a beautiful experience but it is demanding, expensive, and difficult. Those without resources to supplement the process through the addition of helpers, supplies and equipment not paid for by Medicare, struggle more. Children and relatives who are willing to help may live long distances from those needing care. Changes in medical deductibles is another problem that erodes financial means. I was fortunate to be able to retire to care for my husband over the last nine years of his life (Parkinsons Disease), and would do it again gladly, but this is not everyone's situation and I am glad it is getting exposure. Thank you for that.
support, outside of family, is nearly impossible, for almost anyone. good luck if you dont live near family. My parents spent about $10,000 to travel and help me get to followup visits, and get me to work for 2 months after surgery when I couldnt drive myself.
As far as I know in Australia, full-time carers can get a carer's pension. At the same time, it probably isn't easy to get, nor would it help those who aren't the primary carer, but it would be something.
At home care and hospice care are normally not covered by insurance. This is unthinkable. We all die. We all become bed ridden due to injury or illness, be it terminal or not. The insurance industry lobby and the medical professional lobby do not represent the interests of the general public. As a consequence, they do no sufficiently provide for the adequate protection of public health which in fact and practice, is a national interest.
Excellent points and video. I would add one additional fact. It is a great honor to be a caregiver. It is a position and charge that demonstrates great, compassion, commitment and sacrifice; all the while knowing that the great effort undertaken is essentially for the preservation of dignity and comfort for those cared for and the preservation of life in the face of inevitable and eventual natural death.
This to me is the essential and innate purpose of healthcare workers and why they are so highly compensated and respected in our society. To limit their scope in a way that curtails their ability to help in ways that we will all eventually need is nonsensical.
Yet, one should not be limited from serving in a role that doesn't require medical training if one can impart successful and effective care without said training. People that are not in the medical/health care industry should be assured the adequate protections and resources to fulfill that charge, codified into law. This should not be a task fulfilled by the medical lobby, but by a congressional representation that adequately reflects the will of the public.
This is such a great point. Not only for those who come down with an illness but for those with special needs who need life long care.
It is too expensive to die in America.
I am saving every penny for my early FIRE retirement in SE Asia.
This video was terrible. You just spelled out a giant issue but offered zero solutions. Are we supposed to come up with even an idea? We don't know shit about the healthcare industry thats why we watch your channel
I'm a RN case manager for a homecare agency and I can't tell you how many caregivers have had tears in their eyes when they tell me how crushing the burden can be when I loved one loses the ability to care for themselves.
There aren't enough healthcare providers, and yet somehow there are still people saying that we need to monopolize it in the hands of the government and pay them less. Because that will somehow mean more caregivers….somehow.
my husband's grandfather passed away recently from renal failure and my husband was greatly involved in his care during his final year. he would work remotely from grandpa's home so he never used FMLA; I doubt we could have afforded his time off without pay. it was a toll on him — grandpa required 24/7 care, so if he needed immediate attention while a server crashed he would get heat for not responding quickly enough to the outage. he cared for grandpa's hygiene, and I'll be honest I don't think I have it in me to change my grandparent's diaper. his mother did exhaust her FMLA though, and then some. his uncle took multiple trips from his house 4 hours away to do his part; I'm not sure what his work situation was but I would assume he also burnt through his FMLA. it was a communal effort keeping grampy comfortable in his last days and everyone made the sacrifices they could as he withered.
thank you for this video. not enough is said about caregivers. as a long term chronic pain patient with a degenerative condition i can't honestly say where I would be without my husband. even little things, like scrubbing the shower floor when it gets pinkish because my joints physically will not allow me to complete such a chore. not everyone has a person like him in their life and I can't imagine how they get by.
#Medicareforall is the answer!
Sadly both my parents got sick at the same time. It damn near destroyed everything. Sadly I though a family member was here to help. I was wrong.
Now I work in the field and all too often people prey upon not just the elderly but their overworked caregivers too. 🙁
I'm a caregiver for work. It is no career. We receive a living wage if we work directly for a person and are paid through Medicare. However if your employer goes to the hospital or dies, you are out of luck. Days off are hard to get. Some is better if you work for an agency, but they take a cut. It is also hard to find a good caregiver to hire because the bar is so low to enter the field. If people are ambitious like me they move on to a better job. I do it because I'm a student and as I said low bar to a living wage. However I have learned the value of the work good caregivers provide. This is work that is of much more value than society currently gives it.
Though not the topic at hand, I feel like the lack of options for a stay at home parent is part of the problem. In the past women would take on the Caregiver role for her family and parents. Now that women are in the workforce we have this huge gap in work that no one is willing to pay. I wish it were financially viable to live on just my husbands income, but even at close to 2.5x minimum wage it's unsustainable. Itd be nice even to be able to step in and out of the workforce as necessary without penalty. I've heard of women working at a loss just so they don't lose access to their career entirely.
Such an important video. I'm in medical school now and recently helped care for a close loved one after a cancer diagnosis, but could not take much/any time off from med school 🙁 Doing clinical rotations and juggling family crisis was exhausting.
Anecdotes? 😀 good video though.
#UniversalBasicIncome would be a start to help with this.
My grandmother died last night. She was 94. For the past two years we've had to be there round the clock when she wasn't in a care facility or the hospital. I had to quit my job because as the family needed me more I was able to make it to work less and less. I was threatened with termination so I quit. My mother was the primary care giver for most of that and she is 72 and broke her hip and had to get a partial hip replacement last April. So just now a year ago. It's been a huge strain on all of us. And any options for in home help or inpatient care was too expensive.
Ya it's bad. I never left my father's side ever and tried to work from the hospital room where i couldn't make or take calls and couldn't shower or have a change of clothes. when he was home and ok i was taking care of my brother at the mental hospital due to seeing his dad like that i didn't breath have a place to shower or have more than a chair of different forms when he was home i didn't sleep at all cause it was total care. i believe the entire medical system is just evil murders after all i saw and experienced. never ever leave a patient alone with a medical provider period.
It's the worst when the main provider dies after all this sacrifice. We're nearly recovered from my husbands death from pancreatic cancer two years ago. (Not the health care systems fault, basically everyone succumbs to adenocarcinoma.) I am fricking tough, but I have to be tough all the time. Not fun.
Thank you. Caregiving is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting, and can totally wreck one's financial future. No one is talking about all the stress related health problems that caregivers suffer either.
i cannot stand this guys neck tie
Thanks so much for talking about this. Everything rings true for my situation too, I wish there was more support for the people supporting me.
Often this kind of help couldn't be diverted to two someone else.