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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the August 2000 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
Eldercare crisis
Employees are struggling to care for their aging parents. Will employers help shoulder the
burden?
BY KATHRYN DORRELL
Jane Petruniak recalls taking a day off work to hire a nanny for her aging mother, who promptly turned
around and fired the caregiver. "You don't encounter that with a three-year-old," she exclaims with a
mixture of humour and frustration.
Petruniak's dilemma is not uncommon. Organizations tend to regard the aging population, longer life
expectancies and a cash-strapped healthcare system in terms of the impact these issues have on benefits
expenditures. But the most significant repercussion may well be the effect on employees who--often at the
height of their careers--are juggling work and eldercare and looking for help.
"This [eldercare] is absolutely an area that employers will have to deal with," says Petruniak, a senior
consultant with Watson Wyatt in Toronto. "Organizations have come a long way with daycare but I haven't
seen much in terms of eldercare."
Plan sponsors are struggling to define their role in eldercare, says Kimberley Bachmann, author of the
Conference Board of Canada's new study, Work-Life Balance, Are Employers Listening? The report
reveals 10% of workplaces offer services for emergency care of aging relatives and one-third refer
employees to agencies, mostly existing employee assistance programs. "Employers are going to have to move
quickly and really pay attention to their strategies," says Bachmann.
One reason employees are feeling the pinch now is because the healthcare system has unloaded many
responsibilities onto the public--with aged patients quickly turned out of hospitals after hip and knee
replacements and few services for dementia--say participants at a recent health reform roundtable.
"If we [society and governments] don't get homecare right in terms of funding and appropriate services, it
may very well present itself in the form of an elderly leave," says Shirlee Sharkey, president and CEO of
Toronto's Saint Elizabeth Health Care. "These needs don't go away, they manifest themselves in other
areas."
The lack of legislation is clearly a missing link, and the introduction of eldercare leave may well be in
order. As a society we expect a parent to take a leave to care for a dependent when that dependent is a
newborn. The government even stipulates the terms of the benefit and picks up the tab. But when it comes to
caring for a dying, ill or simply aging dependent, employees often have only their family circle to turn to
for support. And employers trying to devise benefits programs to help out are in uncharted waters.
Also consider that when a parent takes time off to raise their children, they aren't penalized financially
for the years that they don't contribute to the Canada Pension Plan, but they would be if the leave was to
care for an elderly parent.
In light of the lack of government initiative, current social biases and the politically, charged nature of
this issue, is it any wonder that employees are looking to plan sponsors to play a leadership role in
eldercare? Or that employers are reluctant to become the champion of this cause?
Reluctant or not, this dilemma appears destined to land on plan sponsors' shoulders--whether it's in the
form of decreased productivity and increased benefits costs associated with stressed out employees, or
workers demanding parents be defined as dependents who have access to their benefits.
Envisioning herself faced with an eldercare crisis, professor Colleen Flood, author of International
Healthcare Report and a plan member at the University of Toronto, says she'd look to her employer for
more than moral support. "One way or another I think this will translate into costs for employers. If
[they] want people, [they] are going to have to start offering these types of benefits packages."
Kathryn Dorrell is associate editor at BENEFITS CANADA.
*** ***
CONFERENCES
Effectively Managing HR Intranets with Employee Self-Service
Sept. 26 to 27, 2000
The Sheraton Hotel, Toronto
Call (800) 882-8684.
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