Carallel CEO on HITea with Grace Podcast: Healthcare’s Urgent Need to Support Family Caregivers
CHICAGO, September 23, 2024 — Interest in the intersection of caregiving, technology, and healthcare continues to grow. Shara Cohen, CEO of Carallel, was recently interviewed by Grace Vinton on the HITea with Grace podcast and discussed how the caregiving conversation has changed over recent years with demographic shifts, a healthcare workforce in short supply, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Key takeaways:
- Over 50 million people provide family caregiving: the informal support we rely on as we age, confront serious illnesses, or deal with injury.
- Healthcare system shortages and fragmentation put more pressure on this support system.
- Family caregiving encompasses a wide variety of responsibilities — from day-to-day tasks, to financial responsibility, to health advocacy and decision making.
- These responsibilities create Caregiver Burden, impacting the mental health, physical health, and financial health for both the family caregivers and those in their care.
Regardless of age, socioeconomic position, or where we live, caregiving is coming for all of us.”
A perfect storm of population growth, strain on the U.S. healthcare system, and societal factors have made caregiving an increasingly urgent consideration for healthcare leaders:
- The U.S. population is rapidly aging:
- By 2030, all baby boomers will be over 65. That means 20% of Americans will be over 65 and qualify for Medicare. A few years after that, older adults will outnumber children.
- By 2060, 1 in 4 Americans will be over 65, and the number of people over 85 will have tripled.
- The healthcare system isn’t equipped to handle these changes:
- While many of us are healthier longer, we still face a crisis of chronic disease. Over half of people over 65 have multiple chronic conditions.
- We have shortages in primary care providers, skilled nursing providers, and in-home care providers, along with shrinking numbers of geriatricians.
- Social challenges exacerbate quality caregiving:
- Social and economic disparities exacerbate all of the difficulties around organizing and providing care, particularly in communities that lack access to resources, have low health literacy, or are more rural.
- The sandwich generation is managing up (their parents) and down (their children). Women in this generation are more likely than men to assume caregiving responsibilities and are often forced to choose between their careers and caregiving.
Listen to the full episode to learn more about how the public and private industries, including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and nonprofits, have responded to address the needs of caregivers.
You can find Shara and Grace’s discussion, “Shara Cohen Spills the Tea on Caregiver Diagnosis and Support” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, HITea with Grace’s website, or wherever you get your podcasts.
About Carallel
Carallel uses personal connection, expert guidance and digital tools to identify and empower caregivers so they can confidently manage the twists and turns of caregiving. Carallel partners with healthcare organizations aiming to achieve better outcomes and employers striving to retain employees and improve life/work balance. The company’s proven, holistic approach to caregiver support resonates with caregivers, earning Carallel an overall Customer Satisfaction Score of 96% and a Net Promoter Score of 80. In 2024, Carallel received the Healthcare Insurance Innovation Award from the MedTech Breakthrough Awards Program.
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