266047 Engaging Workers and Employers Across the Lifespan to Address the Crisis in Caregiving: Lessons Learned for Public Health Practice from the Caring Across Generations Campaign

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

Nicole Booker, MFT , Senior and Disability Workgroup, Hand-in-Hand: The Domestic Employer Association, Oakland, CA
Danielle Feris , National Director, Hand-in-Hand: The Domestic Employer Association, Berkeley, CA
Gordon Mar , San Francisco Chapter, Jobs with Justice, San Francisco, CA
Katie Joaquin , Organizer, Filipino Advocates for Justice, Oakland, CA
Jill Shenker , Field Director, National Domestic Worker Alliance, Oakland, CA
Caregiving work is essential for the independence and health of seniors, people with disabilities, and working parents and children. However, both care-recipients and persons employed as caregivers, such as personal attendants and nannies, are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation inside the home. Historically, home-based caregiving has not been considered formal work, with no legal standards for treatment and care as required in institutional settings.

This session will describe current efforts to transform the national landscape of care-giving in the United States using a case study of the Caring Across Generations (CAG) campaign. The CAG campaign is a multi-sector, long-range national plan to (1) Create 1-3 million new in-home caregiver jobs; (2) Develop workplace protections for pay, hours of rest, and job safety; (3) Develop training, certification, and a career ladder; (4) Establish paths to citizenship to protect undocumented caregivers; (5) Create financial aid provisions to enable location and payment of care. The CAG also works to protect existing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other care programs.

This session will review key stakeholders involved and CAG's impacts to-date on national coalition-building and local capacity building to address the crisis in caregiving. The session will also discuss public health-relevant lessons learned about how to meaningfully engage workers and employers of historically marginalized communities, such as immigrant workers, people with disabilities, and seniors, in efforts to improve workplace and living conditions while respecting dignity and autonomy. The session will conclude with key opportunities for public health to support local and national CAG activities.

Learning Areas:
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1) List five organizations involved in the Caring Across Generations campaign and how their constituencies are impacted by caregiving 2) Discuss the “five fingers” of the Caring Across Generations campaign and how those policy goals will impact worker health and safety and care-recipient well-being 3) Describe three lessons learned about effective engagement and organizing of domestic workers, persons with disabilities, and seniors to promote occupational health, well-being, dignity and autonomy

Keywords: Disability, Community Capacity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an active leader in Hand-in-Hand, the Domestic Employer Association and have been an employer of multiple personal attendants/domestic workers for over twenty years to help me meet my daily needs. I am one of three Hand-in-Hand representatives for the national Caring Across Generations steering committee and active in the San Francisco Care Council. I've also been a licensed psychotherapist since 1996.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.