Caregivers

The latest report in the AARP Public Policy Institute’s Valuing the Invaluable series estimates the economic value of unpaid family caregiving at $470 billion in 2017. The report also explores family caregiving trends, highlights federal and state policy changes since the release of the previous Valuing the Invaluable report in 2015, and offers further policy recommendations to enhance the well-being of caregiving families.

These resources are designed for AAPI Older Adults, Caregivers, and Aging Organizations. The fact sheets cover the issues of emotional abuse, neglect, and how caregivers of those with dementia can care for themselves. The fact sheets are available in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Tagalog, Vietnamese, and English.

This data profile compares caregivers who used NFCSP services such as education or respite care to those caregivers who did not use these services, including caregivers who exclusively used AAA services. The profile also examines caregiver characteristics including age, relationship to care recipient, and level of caregiving intensity.

The Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Conference is hosted annually by ADvancing States (formerly known as NASUAD). This event highlights best practices from across the country in home and community-based services. The conference includes federal, state, and local policymakers as well as those who administer, manage, and deliver waiver and other HCBS programs. This link contains all of the slide presentations from the 2019 HCBS Conference.

This fact sheet was developed as part of the Center’s Helping States Support Families Caring for an Aging America initiative. Six states – Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Virginia- are involved with the initiative. This fact sheet provides an overview of unpaid family caregiving and lists options state leaders can consider implementing in order to support family caregivers in their state.

The National Center on Law and Elder Rights (NCLER) released a tip sheet to help older adults stop receiving robocalls. Telemarketers, debt collectors, and scammers utilize illegal robocalls- automated telephone calls- to target potential victims. This document provides older consumers with several tips they can use to lessen the frequency of robocalls, while protecting them from scams.

The report provides an overview of the expected increased need for direct care workers and a breakdown of the current direct care workforce. In each description of barriers facing the direct care workforce, PHI includes program and policy recommendations. Challenges and recommendations in this report include areas regarding: wages and benefits, training, advanced roles, supervision, recruitment and retention, data collection, decision-making, family caregivers, and matching service registries.

The GAO released a report to the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means summarizing findings of a survey sent to State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) directors about the usability of the Medicare Plan Finder (MPF) website. The MPF website is a resource for comparing Medicare coverage options to help beneficiaries make informed decisions about their coverage. The report also includes other areas of improvement to make the website more user-friendly.

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) released a fact sheet that provides information for the Medicare Extra Help/Part D Low-Income Subsidy (LIS). The fact sheet includes information on redeeming, redeterminations, and reassignment for the LIS/Extra Help program.

The National Academy of Social Insurance released a report on potential designs for universal family care. The report highlights state program design proposals for early child care and education, paid family and medical leave, and long-term services and supports. The LTSS section of the report proposes four design issues states may face in developing a social insurance program for LTSS.