Sederburg: Let’s show caregivers we really care

Michigan is home to one-to-two million people who help care for the growing number of older adults in our state who want to live at home.

These people – who our network calls caregivers – are unpaid, often untrained, and are many times the sole reason millions of older adults in our state aren’t forced to move into a facility for the care that they need.

While most people caring for a friend or loved one doesn’t identify themselves as a “caregiver,” it’s important that they do, and that the state of Michigan does more to support them.

Many are surprised to learn that caregivers provide up to 80 percent of the care needed for Michigan’s older adults and residents who have a disability, providing an estimated 1.4 billion hours of unpaid care each year. Caregivers do all of this while balancing the demands of their own lives.

Last year federal and state programs, through Michigan’s aging network, provided caregivers with nearly 700,000 hours of services; and we are continuing to work on more innovative ways to support them better each year.

That is why we have joined with AARP Michigan to advocate for the passage of Senate Bill 352, known as the Caregiver Advise, Record, Enable (CARE) Act, which is currently being discussed in the Michigan Legislature.

If passed, the CARE Act would ensure that hospitals work more closely with caregivers if the person they are caring for is admitted to the hospital and discharged with care instructions.

The CARE Act specifically ensures that a patient’s caregiver is recorded by the hospital, notified when the patient is discharged, and provided proper instruction for any medical tasks that need to be performed at home.

A majority of Michigan caregivers perform medical and nursing tasks for those they care for and the CARE Act is a common sense way to help equip them with the knowledge they need to properly care for their friend or loved one. The CARE Act will not only help and support caregivers, it will reduce trips back to the hospital that could have been avoided with proper care instructions.

And remember: November is National Family Caregivers month.

Kari Sederburg is the executive director of the Aging & Adult Services Agency at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.