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Speaker 1: One of the fastest growing jobs in America is can

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Speaker 1: you guess? Caregiving? It's hard work, typically paid by the hour,

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Speaker 1: and it involves giving assistance to other people as they

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Speaker 1: go about their days, often feeding, dressing, and bathing them.

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Speaker 1: Maria Martinez is the main caregiver for Agrippina Castellanos. Agrippina

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Speaker 1: is ninety eight years old. These days, she's still mostly

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Speaker 1: independent inside her apartment. So I tell her, if you

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Speaker 1: go to an assisted living home, you'll be sitting in

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Speaker 1: a wheel chair all day, and you'll be going from

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Speaker 1: the dining room table to your bed and back. Why

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Speaker 1: because that's what they do at those places. They're afraid

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Speaker 1: you'll fall down. So she says she'll stay here until

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Speaker 1: she decides otherwise. On this edition of On the Job,

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Speaker 1: From Hired to Retired, we've got the story of two

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Speaker 1: women in Los Angeles, one of whom cares for the other,

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Speaker 1: although they both depend on each other. First, a word

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Speaker 1: about our sponsor, Express Employment Professionals. Over the past thirty

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Speaker 1: four years, Express Employment Professionals has put millions of people

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Speaker 1: to work in meaningful and fulfilling jobs and careers. If

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Speaker 1: you're looking for work or want to grow your workforce,

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Speaker 1: go to express prose dot Com. By twenty sixty, there

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Speaker 1: will be about ninety eight million people in the US

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Speaker 1: over sixty five years of age, more than twice as

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Speaker 1: many as there are today. As our population continues to

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Speaker 1: age and live longer, caregivers will be more important than ever.

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Speaker 1: They will allow seniors to stay in their homes, and

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Speaker 1: in some cases, caregivers will provide something quite simple. Friendship

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Speaker 1: from Los Angeles or Sandra Guidi brings us the story

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Speaker 1: of two women tied together by a job and by

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Speaker 1: a bond that's much stronger. It's Friday. That's the day

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Speaker 1: when Agrippina Castellanos goes to the hair salon for a

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Speaker 1: tram and a blowout every single week. Agrippina is sitting

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Speaker 1: at the entrance of the salon, located on the first

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Speaker 1: floor of her apartment building. She lives in Angele's Plaza,

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Speaker 1: the nation's largest affordable senior housing project. It's home to

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Speaker 1: more than four hundred people over sixty two at Agrippina

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Speaker 1: is one of the elders here. I've been living here

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Speaker 1: for many years, so many I don't even know, well,

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Speaker 1: at least twenty six years. Because you were the first

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Speaker 1: one to move into your building. That's Maria Martinez helping

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Speaker 1: Agrippina remembered dates. That's one of the many things she

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Speaker 1: helps her with. Maria has been working for Agrippina for

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Speaker 1: the past ten years. She's always sitting beside her wherever

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Speaker 1: she goes. When Agrippina comes to get her haircut, Maria

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Speaker 1: is there to help her push her walker towards the

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Speaker 1: stylist chair. She holds Agrippina's purse for her, buys her snacks.

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Speaker 1: Today she bought her a muffin, and she also tips

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Speaker 1: the hairdresser. But Maria wasn't trained for caregiving. She learned

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Speaker 1: by doing it on the job. This is the case

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Speaker 1: for the majority of family caregivers out there, who usually

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Speaker 1: start out by watching after a child or parents or

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Speaker 1: grandparents at home and without pay. Until she was in

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Speaker 1: her mid forties, Maria had been a traditional stay at

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Speaker 1: home housewife who raised four kids. She had never had

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Speaker 1: a page job before, but as any mom would, she

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Speaker 1: knew how to take care of children. So one day,

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Speaker 1: when a friend asked her to cover for her and

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Speaker 1: caring for an elderly woman while she went on a

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Speaker 1: medical leave, Maria decided to give it a shot. She

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Speaker 1: quickly realized that caring for seniors wasn't much different from

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Speaker 1: being a mom, something she had plenty of experience with.

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Speaker 1: Maria would end up caring for that first client for

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Speaker 1: about fifteen years, and then she heard that a fellow

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Speaker 1: Mexican lady in the same building was looking for someone

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Speaker 1: to help her. Agribina had a reputation she was very

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Speaker 1: demanding of her caregivers. At first, the two of them

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Speaker 1: struggled to find common ground and Coco she used to

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Speaker 1: have a really tough personality. When I first started working

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Speaker 1: for her, I was really afraid. When you went into

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Speaker 1: her apartment before or anything, you had to go wash

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Speaker 1: your hands. She's always been extremely clean. I try to

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Speaker 1: keep her home clean, but she's also not as rigid

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Speaker 1: as she was before. In time, Agrippina has become more

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Speaker 1: easy going and Maria has learned to accept her quirks.

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Speaker 1: That two of them are now close friends, or rather

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Speaker 1: their relationship has evolved into something that resembles the closeness

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Speaker 1: between a mother and a daughter. If she had wanted

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Speaker 1: to go, she could have left to work for somebody else,

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Speaker 1: but I haven't let her go. I love the way

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Speaker 1: she is. We get along grell Yeah, I mean Maria

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Speaker 1: is patient and reserved. Regardless of what Agrippina assessed to her,

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Speaker 1: Maria tends to reply first with a smile. She makes

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Speaker 1: eleven dollars an hour as a caregiver. That's four dollars

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Speaker 1: less than the minimum wage in Los Angeles, barely a

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Speaker 1: livable wage, and she works eight hours a day from

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Speaker 1: Monday through Sunday, every day of the week. We're listening

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Speaker 1: to Roxandra Guidi's story of two women in Los Angeles.

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Speaker 1: One is the other is her caregiver. Their relationship has

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Speaker 1: deepened and changed over the ten years the two have

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Speaker 1: been together. More on that in a minute. This is

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Speaker 1: On the Job from Hired to Retired, brought to you

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Speaker 1: by Express Employment Professionals. One company is on a mission

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Speaker 1: to put a million people to work each year. Sounds

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Speaker 1: like a big number, doesn't it not to Express Employment

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Speaker 1: Professionals seeking a skilled labor position or administrative order. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you're an executive looking for a career that fits. We

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Speaker 1: take pride in connecting the right people with the right company.

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Speaker 1: Express employnet Professionals is on a mission to put a

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Speaker 1: million people to work each year. Let us help will

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Speaker 1: open doors for you to go to express pros dot

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Speaker 1: com to find a location near you. On the job

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Speaker 1: from Hired to Retired continues. When a sixty five year

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Speaker 1: old woman takes care of a night year old member

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Speaker 1: of the community, the relationship is bound to be complicated.

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Speaker 1: Here's Roxandre Guidi. Since her husband died of a stroke

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Speaker 1: last year, Maria realized that she needed a new sense

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Speaker 1: of purpose and she needed to find ways to get

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Speaker 1: out of the house and stay active. So she made

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Speaker 1: a decision to spend more time at work, and she's

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Speaker 1: happy she did. She says it has only brought her

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Speaker 1: closer to her client. She willingly spends more time in

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Speaker 1: Agrippina's company than she gets paid for. I live relatively

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Speaker 1: close to her, and every morning and every evening I

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Speaker 1: give her a call. If she doesn't answer in the evening,

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Speaker 1: I just come on over immediately because I wonder what

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Speaker 1: if she fell down, what if the phone isn't working.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes she can't hear the phone, But I come anyway.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes at nine or ten in the evening, after my

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Speaker 1: shift is over, you'll find me here. In fact, Maria

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Speaker 1: spends more time with Agrippina than she does with her

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Speaker 1: own kids or grandkids, and it's not because she needs

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Speaker 1: the money. She lives with one of her grown daughters

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Speaker 1: and has little by way of expenses, but she feels

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Speaker 1: committed to her client. So I'm really a homebody. I'm

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Speaker 1: somebody who loves to stay inside. So here I feel

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Speaker 1: like I do at my own home because Agrippina treats

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Speaker 1: me so well. When my husband died, my kids begged

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Speaker 1: me to stop working, but I said, I can't do that.

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Speaker 1: I can't leave Agrippina. Every day, Maria arrives at the

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Speaker 1: apartment at about eight in the morning. Soon after, the

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Speaker 1: two ladies will sit to chat over breakfast. Maria will

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Speaker 1: then help Agrippina take a shower and get dressed. Until recently,

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Speaker 1: Agrippina used to be able to tie her own shoes,

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Speaker 1: but now Maria must help her with those two. If

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Speaker 1: there are bills to pay, Maria takes care of those,

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Speaker 1: same for cleaning the apartment and shopping for food. Agrippina

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Speaker 1: isn't too demanding about any of it anymore. Besides, they've

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Speaker 1: been at it for a decade now. The thing she

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Speaker 1: most appreciates is having Maria's company. They like to sit

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Speaker 1: on the couch and talk for hours. Or watch TV together.

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Speaker 1: Of course, all of it is a lot of work

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Speaker 1: for Maria. Even when she sits down to chat, she's

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Speaker 1: doing so by way of caring for her client. Was

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Speaker 1: that the med She's with me every day, and every

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Speaker 1: single day Maria's at home with me. She goes home

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Speaker 1: and her shift is due, but I am always confident

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Speaker 1: that I'll see her the next day, even if she's late.

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Speaker 1: And let's Researchers say that older adults are at an

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Speaker 1: increased risk of being lonely. By the time people reach

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Speaker 1: their eighties, the majority of them live on their own,

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Speaker 1: like Agribina does. As a long term risk factor, loneliness

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Speaker 1: ranks alongside obesity and alcohol abuse, and according to a

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Speaker 1: study from Brigham Young University, social isolation is just as

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Speaker 1: likely to predict an early death as smoking fifteen cigarettes

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Speaker 1: a day. The opposite is also true. Companionship leads to

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Speaker 1: better physical health and longer lives, and caregiving in particular

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Speaker 1: can have far reaching benefits for seniors. They can fend

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Speaker 1: off depression and chronic health conditions such as heart disease.

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Speaker 1: Aside from their weekly session at the hair salon, Maria

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Speaker 1: and Agrippina follow another ritual every Sunday morning, they head

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Speaker 1: to Agribina's favorite restaurant, Philips. It's been around for longer

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Speaker 1: than she's been alive, and it's less than a ten

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Speaker 1: minute drive from her apartment. Agribbina has a big appetite.

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Speaker 1: She eats a full plate of pancakes, fried eggs, and potatoes.

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Speaker 1: She has no serious health problems, takes no medications, but

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Speaker 1: religiously dost take her vitamins. I barely go to the doctors.

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Speaker 1: Not unless I have something that threatens to kill me,

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Speaker 1: then I'll go to him. Otherwise, I'm looking for the

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Speaker 1: good things in life so I can stick around longer

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Speaker 1: the Arida. Later this summer, Agribina will turn She's the

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Speaker 1: oldest in her family, and as old as Maria's mother

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Speaker 1: would be if she were still alive. Maria is sixty five,

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Speaker 1: old enough to retire herself, but she's not planning to

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Speaker 1: stop working anytime soon. It keeps her young, she says,

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Speaker 1: and like Agribina, she prefers to be with other people

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Speaker 1: rather than spending too much time alone inside her house.

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Speaker 1: When they finished their Sunday breakfast, Maria helps Agnibina get

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Speaker 1: up from her chair. She takes her by the arm

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Speaker 1: while Agnibina holds on tightly to her walker as they

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Speaker 1: head towards the parking lot. In an ideal world, Maria

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Speaker 1: says her adult children will take care of her when

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Speaker 1: she needs their help, and they will be as patient

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Speaker 1: with her as she is with Agribina, helping her along.

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Speaker 1: Once she slows down, they will spend time with her

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Speaker 1: every day, and if she's lucky, they'll take her out

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Speaker 1: once a week to her favorite restaurant. We've been listening

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Speaker 1: to the story of two women. One is sixty five,

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Speaker 1: the other is nine, and the younger woman cares for

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Speaker 1: the older woman in Los Angeles, and they've also become

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Speaker 1: friends and the caregiver, Maria tells us that she spends

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Speaker 1: many unpaid hours not only thinking about her client, but

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Speaker 1: spending some extra time with her as well. So I

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Speaker 1: wanted to talk about caregiving with Gene Axius. He's vice

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Speaker 1: president of Independent Living and Long Term Services and Support

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Speaker 1: at a a r P where I used to work,

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Speaker 1: and he closely follows the family caregiving landscape and the

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Speaker 1: caregiving landscape in general. Let's start at the beginning, and

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Speaker 1: we read a lot today about our aging society, So

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Speaker 1: tell me what that means for you? How is the

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Speaker 1: society aging? Well, first of all, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: for having me. I think that's a very fascinating question.

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Speaker 1: We know that the population is aging. There are ten

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Speaker 1: thousand people that are turning sixty five each day and

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Speaker 1: that's gonna continue for the next several years. We know

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Speaker 1: that not only are people aging into the age of

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Speaker 1: sixty five, but they're also living longer. So you have

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Speaker 1: this whole idea that people are getting older and they're

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Speaker 1: living longer, and as a result of those two very

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Speaker 1: fascinating what I would refer to as gifts. It really

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Speaker 1: creates some interesting conversations and some things that we have

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Speaker 1: to think about as a society in terms of how

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Speaker 1: do we actually meet people where they are, how do

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Speaker 1: we provide the services that they need to live their

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Speaker 1: best lives, and more importantly, how do we ensure that

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Speaker 1: we are creating solutions that really help people in their

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Speaker 1: everyday life. Okay, now, in terms of home caregiving, like

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Speaker 1: in our story, for seniors who need some help, do

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Speaker 1: you break things up into you know, unpaid family caregiving,

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Speaker 1: partly paid like our example, and fully professional caregiving. Are

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Speaker 1: there ways that you break up the landscape there. So

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Speaker 1: we know that there are over forty billion unpaid family

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Speaker 1: caregiteris in this country, that the typical caregiver is a

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Speaker 1: woman daughter cared for her parents who has some long

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Speaker 1: term condition. We know that in addition to that, that

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Speaker 1: of all unpaid family caregivers are men, which typically surprises

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Speaker 1: a lot of people, but they are also stepping up

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Speaker 1: really to provide this type of care. Again because of

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Speaker 1: the population that's that's aging, uh, and also because of

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Speaker 1: the fact that the family size is shrinking over time,

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Speaker 1: that you have the situation where who's going to take

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Speaker 1: care of me? Right? So it's our hands on deck. Um.

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Speaker 1: So we know that there's over forty family caregivers um

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Speaker 1: who are unpaid, and that the economic value I mean

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Speaker 1: that if you were to actually put a dollar to

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Speaker 1: that contribution would be over four hundred seventy billion dollars

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Speaker 1: a year. Four seventy billion with a b fo seventy

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Speaker 1: billion with a bow. That's kind of amazing. Now, one

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Speaker 1: of the things I was curious about, and and would

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Speaker 1: be a service to our listeners who were just thinking

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Speaker 1: about this, not necessarily going out to get a job,

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Speaker 1: but is there a way that unpaid family caregivers can

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Speaker 1: fund through some sort of a system to be paid

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Speaker 1: by by a government entity or somehow. There are some

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Speaker 1: programs they're known as UH self directed programs programs that

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Speaker 1: are typically covered through the Medicaid program. UH. It's it's

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Speaker 1: really designed for people with limited resources who are eligible

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Speaker 1: for Medicaid and UM the vast majority of states actually

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Speaker 1: provides some self directed programs, which means that as a

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Speaker 1: Medicaid beneficiary, UH, you're able to hire people to help

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Speaker 1: you with your care and dictate exactly when they actually

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Speaker 1: come to provide that care and the type of care

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Speaker 1: that they actually provide. It really depends on a state

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Speaker 1: by state basis. Okay, And finally, I want to ask

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Speaker 1: you one more question. And I know that your area

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Speaker 1: of expertise is partly the unpaid family caregiving, but if

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Speaker 1: you were to talk with someone who is interested in

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Speaker 1: this kind of work, do you think caregiving some sort

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Speaker 1: of caregiving would be something that would be a good

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Speaker 1: option for someone that there will be a need in

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Speaker 1: society for more and better caregivers. So you're talking to

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Speaker 1: someone who actually had the opportunity. My first job was

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Speaker 1: working in the retirement community and I had the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to actually work in the dining room, and this was

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Speaker 1: when I was in high school, and I had the

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Speaker 1: opportunity to work breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And I enjoyed

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Speaker 1: it so much that I actually spent my entire saturdays

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Speaker 1: as UH in working in the retirement community. And I

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Speaker 1: can tell you that it's it's extremely rewarding. And part

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Speaker 1: of the reason why I did it was because of

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Speaker 1: the fact that I felt as if I had an

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Speaker 1: opportunity to really connect with the residents at the retirement community.

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Speaker 1: I think for me, the other aspect of this was

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Speaker 1: what of selfishness in a sense because of the fact

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Speaker 1: that it gave me a rare opportunity to sit with

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Speaker 1: residents who UH have a lifetime worth of wisdom and experience,

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Speaker 1: and to hear their stories and to hear what they've

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Speaker 1: learned over their course of their life, UH, to hear

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Speaker 1: some of the things that they regret, to hear some

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Speaker 1: of the things that they wish they could have done.

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Speaker 1: So I am about a person because of that. So

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Speaker 1: I do think that caregiving has both its rewarding aspects,

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Speaker 1: both in terms of UH the ability to connect, the

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Speaker 1: ability to understand and to benefit from that transfer of

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Speaker 1: knowledge and wisdom. Uh. And I think that there are

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Speaker 1: some benefits to really meeting people and getting a great

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Speaker 1: taste as to what it means to be a servant

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Speaker 1: to someone else. Wow, that's that's fabulous. Thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for spending a few minutes. Thank you. Gene Acxi is

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Speaker 1: vice president of Independent Living and Long Term Services and

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Speaker 1: Support at a a ARP in Washington, d C. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much. It's all for this edition of On

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Speaker 1: the Job from Hired to Retired, brought to you by

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Speaker 1: Express Employment Professionals. Find out more at Express prose dot com.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to producer Roxandra Guidi. Music for this episode

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Speaker 1: by Steve Menscher and ghost licensed under creative Comments by

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Speaker 1: CC mixed. This podcast is produced by Steve Mencher Foremensch Media,

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Speaker 1: Red Seat Ventures, and I Heart Radio. Find us on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and iTunes, where we hope you will leave

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Speaker 1: a nice review which helps other folks find us too,

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Speaker 1: and of course you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 1: See you next time On the Job