A correction, and a sharper question
Hi Caregivers and Caregiver Advocates:
Thank you for signing. You deserve accurate numbers, so this update starts with a correction.
For most of this year, I cited a cost difference between nursing facility care and home care in Colorado of $33,614 a year. I couldn't find a source for it. The state's own 2023 report shows about $40,712 per person per year for the people it studied. Savings projections I built on the old number are withdrawn. The full list of corrections is in today's essay.
Going back through the research left me with a sharper question than the one I started with. Paid leave has been shown to reduce nursing home use. Flexible work has been shown to reduce quitting. But I couldn't find anyone who has measured whether flexibility keeps caregivers' care arrangements at home intact, and no Colorado data source I've found asks.
That's what I'm going to work on, and it's what the proposed FLEX Act would begin to measure: giving working caregivers a way to ask for flexibility, requiring a written answer, and tracking whether it makes a difference.
Two things you can do this week:
If you're a working caregiver in Colorado, take the Caring Costs Survey (English or Spanish): casiadvocacy.org/research
Share this petition with one person who is working and caring for someone at the same time.
Read the full piece: [https://therevenueneutralcaregiver.substack.com/p/the-research-desk-1?r=6a52ih&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true]
Thank you for staying with this.
Kindly and Gratefully,
Mark Fukae, CASI, Professionals Who Care
En español: Gracias por firmar. Esta actualización empieza con una corrección: una cifra que usé este año no tenía fuente, y la he reemplazado con los datos del propio estado. La pregunta que queda es más clara: nadie mide si la flexibilidad en el trabajo permite que las personas cuidadoras sigan trabajando y que sus familiares sigan en casa. El FLEX Act propuesto empezaría a medirlo. Si usted trabaja y cuida a un familiar en Colorado, complete la encuesta en español en casiadvocacy.org/research, y comparta esta petición con una persona.
Petition count: [737 current signatures / 1,000]