Family caregiving, as we have long discussed, is often a thankless, solitary labor of love for those providing care for senior loved ones.
The tremendous contributions of family caregivers have likewise failed to get their deserved recognition from the healthcare system or government agencies and officials.
None of that ruffles family caregivers, of course, as they are committed to caring. Besides, between caring for their senior loved ones and everything else going on in their lives, family caregivers often don’t have time to think about such things.
Flying under the radar like this, though, has meant family caregivers and the loved ones for whom they care have not been getting support they could use, support that could readily be justified based on the benefits our healthcare system realizes from their family caregiving.
In this episode of the Senior Care Corner® podcast, we’re pleased to explain two examples of how that may be changing.
- Our family caregiver interest topic for the episode is a discussion of the RAISE Act, which became law earlier this year.
- We’re excited to be sharing a conversation with Jay Patel of Seniorlink, a company that is transforming family caregiving.
Click on the ▷ below to play the podcast (note: you can continue reading while you listen if you want)
RAISE Act
In January, 2018, the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support, and Engage Family Caregivers Act of 2017 became law after bipartisan sponsorship and support in Congress.
The RAISE Act, as it is (fortunately) better known, is a signal that those at the highest levels of the US government are taking notice of the contributions and needs of family caregivers.
As you will hear in our discussion on the podcast, the RAISE act doesn’t directly make changes that help meet the needs of family caregivers or the seniors for whom they care, but it’s an important first step that will hopefully result in future actions by government agencies and/or Congress.
Conversation with Jay Patel of Seniorlink
We first encountered Seniorlink at CES®, where we had an enlightening conversation with Tom Reilly, the company’s President and CEO. What we learned at CES was enough to get us excited about what Seniorlink is doing.
After hearing more at Aging in American and getting chances to chat with Tom and Jay Patel, Seniorlink’s Clinical Transformation Officer, we knew we had to share their story with you and asked Jay to join us in a conversation we recorded for this podcast.
Who is Seniorlink? They do a good job of explaining it concisely on their website:
Seniorlink builds care collaboration solutions that combine human touch and technology to integrate and activate the entire care team, including case managers, care providers, family caregivers, and patients, resulting in high-quality, person-centered care and improved outcomes at a lower cost.
As followers of Senior Care Corner know, our mission is all about enabling family caregivers to provide the best care possible to their senior loved ones while also caring for their own needs. A key focus area of ours is technology that improves the lives of seniors and family caregivers. It’s not surprising, then, that we are excited about the work of Seniorlink.
We hope you enjoy our conversation with Jay. We plan to follow the work of Seniorlink closely as they transform care and family caregiving, with updates to come in future articles and podcasts.
Links from This Episode
Stay Tuned!
We hope you enjoy this reboot episode of the Senior Care Corner Podcast and find it informative.
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