On November 18th  The Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition hosted its Anniversary Summit at PWC in Boston’s Seaport district to highlight how the Coalition raises awareness around the needs of unpaid family caregivers who work across the Commonwealth. The event was timed to coincide with National Family Caregivers Month.

Background

The Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition is an innovative team of leading employers, advocates, and government partners committed to recognizing, supporting, and building creative solutions that allow family caregivers to continue to thrive in the workplace while also caring for family at home.  Our mission is to work with employers to increase awareness of - and support for - the more than one million unpaid family caregivers in the Commonwealth and ensure that all employers have the tools necessary to recognize, honor and support family caregivers.

Recordings

Watch the entire Summit below or view specific presentations including:

  • A video greeting from Governor Charlie Baker;
  • A welcome address from Mark Butler, President of Cigna New England;
  • A fireside chat featuring Secretary Elizabeth Chen, PhD, MBA, MPH, of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs, and Jennifer Olsen, CEO of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving, discussing ways that businesses can engage with policy makers to support family caregivers;
  • A business panel – hosted by Scott Borchardt, Tax Partner, PWC, discussing the economic benefits of supporting their employees who are caregivers, which included Eileen Martin, Global Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, EMD Serono, Lisa Murray, Massachusetts President, Citizens Bank, and Mary Anne Heino, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lantheus Medical Imaging;
  • A discussion on “Caregivers and the Role of Workplace Benefits” moderated by Alexandra Drane, CEO of ARCHANGELS, which featured Surya Kollur, Managing Director, Bank of America and Mary Naylor, Director of the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health at the University of Pennsylvania;
  • An overview of the Any Care Counts Campaign and the Caregiver Intensity Index by Alexander Drane, CEO of ARCHANGELS;
  • Remarks by Rev. Donnie Anderson of the Pilgrim United Church of Christ in New Bedford on “How businesses can engage community leaders to support family caregivers”; and
  • Remarks by Laurance Stuntz, Director, Mass eHealth Institute and JD Chesloff, President and CEO, the Mass Business Roundtable.

Resources

Resources presented during the Summit included:

  • The Any Care Counts MA Campaign which aims to heighten awareness of family caregivers among employers. Research in 2020 by the National Alliance of Caregivers estimates that 21% of Americans provided unpaid care to an adult over the age of 18 in the last 12 months, equating to approximately one million Commonwealth residents.
  • The Global Coalition on Aging’s new report: Shining A Spotlight On Caregiving: Employer Practices Through A Policy Lens (November 2021), sponsored by Bank of America, which links 21st century employer benefits to a new social contract for how to meet growing employee needs in our aging society and underscores the sensitive, challenging, and difficult balancing acts between work and care.
  • The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers (RCI), released Working While Caring: A National Survey of Caregiver Stress in the U.S. Workforce (Sep. 2021). The survey revealed that one-in-five full-time workers is a caregiver, providing care on a regular basis for a family member or friend who is aging, has a serious illness, or has a disability.