Speaker 1: One of the fastest growing jobs in America is can
Speaker 1: you guess? Caregiving? It's hard work, typically paid by the hour,
Speaker 1: and it involves giving assistance to other people as they
Speaker 1: go about their days, often feeding, dressing, and bathing them.
Speaker 1: Maria Martinez is the main caregiver for Agrippina Castellanos. Agrippina
Speaker 1: is ninety eight years old eeta la. These days, she's
Speaker 1: still mostly independent inside her apartment. So I tell her,
Speaker 1: if you go to an assisted living home, you'll be
Speaker 1: sitting in a wheel chair all day, and you'll be
Speaker 1: going from the dining room table to your bed and back.
Speaker 1: Why because that's what they do at those places. They're
Speaker 1: afraid you'll fall down. So she says she'll stay here
Speaker 1: until she decides otherwise. On this edition of On the Job,
Speaker 1: From Hired to Retired, we've got the story of two
Speaker 1: women in Los Angeles, one of whom cares for the other,
Speaker 1: although they both depend on each other. First, a word
Speaker 1: about our sponsor, Express Employment Professionals. Over the past thirty
Speaker 1: four years, Express Employment Professionals has put millions of people
Speaker 1: to work in meaningful and fulfilling jobs and careers. If
Speaker 1: you're looking for work or want to grow your workforce.
Speaker 1: Go to express prose dot com. By twenty sixty, there
Speaker 1: will be about ninety eight million people in the US
Speaker 1: over sixty five years of age, more than twice as
Speaker 1: many as there are today. As our population continues to
Speaker 1: age and live longer, caregivers will be more important than ever.
Speaker 1: They will allow seniors to stay in their homes, and
Speaker 1: in some cases, caregivers will provide something quite simple. Friendship
Speaker 1: from Los Angeles or Sandra Guidi brings us the story
Speaker 1: of two women tied together by a job and by
Speaker 1: a bond that's much stronger. It's Friday. That's the day
Speaker 1: when Agrippina Castellanos goes to the hair salon for a
Speaker 1: trim and a blowout every single week. Agrippina is sitting
Speaker 1: at the entrance of the salon, located on the first
Speaker 1: floor of her apartment building. She lives in Angeles Plaza,
Speaker 1: the nation's largest affordable senior housing project. It's home to
Speaker 1: more than four hundred people over sixty two at Agrippina
Speaker 1: is one of the elders here. I've been living here
Speaker 1: for many years, so many I don't even know, well,
Speaker 1: at least twenty six years. Because you were the first
Speaker 1: one to move into your building. That's Maria Martinez helping
Speaker 1: Agrippina remembered dates. That's one of the many things she
Speaker 1: helps her with. Maria has been working for Agrippina for
Speaker 1: the past ten years. She's always sitting beside her wherever
Speaker 1: she goes. When Agrippina comes to get her haircut, Maria
Speaker 1: is there to help her push her walker towards the
Speaker 1: stylist chair. She holds Agrippina's purse for her, buys her snacks.
Speaker 1: Today she bought her a muffin, and she also tips
Speaker 1: the hairdresser. But Maria wasn't trained for caregiving. She learned
Speaker 1: by doing it on the job. This is the case
Speaker 1: for the majority of family caregivers out there, who usually
Speaker 1: start out by watching after a child or parents or
Speaker 1: grandparents at home and without pay. Until she was in
Speaker 1: her mid forties, Maria had been a traditional stay at
Speaker 1: home housewife who raised four kids. She had never had
Speaker 1: a page job before, but as any mom would, she
Speaker 1: knew how to take care of children. So one day,
Speaker 1: when a friend asked her to cover for her and
Speaker 1: caring for an elderly woman while she went on a
Speaker 1: medical leave, Maria decided to give it a shot. She
Speaker 1: quickly realized that caring for seniors wasn't much different from
Speaker 1: being a mom, something she had plenty of experience with.
Speaker 1: Maria would end up caring for that first client for
Speaker 1: about fifteen years, and then she heard that a fellow
Speaker 1: Mexican lady in the same building was looking for someone
Speaker 1: to help her. Agribina had a reputation. She was very
Speaker 1: demanding of her caregivers. At first, the two of them
Speaker 1: struggled to find common ground. And she used to have
Speaker 1: a really tough personality. When I first started working for her,
Speaker 1: I was really afraid. When you went into her apartment
Speaker 1: before anything, you had to go wash your hands. She's
Speaker 1: always been extremely clean. I try to keep her home clean,
Speaker 1: but she's also not as rigid as she was before.
Speaker 1: In time, Agrippina has become more easy going and Maria
Speaker 1: has learned to accept her quirks. That two of them
Speaker 1: are now close friends, or rather their relationship has evolved
Speaker 1: into something that resembles the closeness between a mother and
Speaker 1: a daughter. If she had wanted to go, she could
Speaker 1: have left to work for somebody else, but I haven't
Speaker 1: let her go. I love the way she is. We
Speaker 1: get along great yeah, I Maria is patient and reserved.
Speaker 1: Regardless of what Agrippina assessed to her, Maria tends to
Speaker 1: reply first with a smile. She makes eleven dollars an
Speaker 1: hour as a caregiver. That's four dollars less than the
Speaker 1: minimum wage in Los Angeles, barely a livable wage, and
Speaker 1: she works eight hours a day from Monday through Sunday,
Speaker 1: every day of the week. We're listening to Roxandra Guidi's
Speaker 1: story of two women in Los Angeles. One is the
Speaker 1: other is her caregiver. Their relationship has deepened and changed
Speaker 1: over the ten years the two have been together. More
Speaker 1: on that in a minute. This is On the Job
Speaker 1: from Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Speaker 1: One company is on a mission to put a million
Speaker 1: people to work each year. Sounds like a big number,
Speaker 1: doesn't it not to Express Employment Professionals seeking a skilled
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Speaker 1: you to go to express pros dot com to find
Speaker 1: a location near you on the job From Hired to
Speaker 1: Retired continues. When a sixty five year old woman takes
Speaker 1: care of a nine year old member of the community,
Speaker 1: the relationship is bound to be complicated. Here's Roxandre Guidi.
Speaker 1: Since her husband died of a stroke last year, Maria
Speaker 1: realized that she needed a new sense of purpose and
Speaker 1: she needed to find ways to get out of the
Speaker 1: house and stay active. So she made a decision to
Speaker 1: spend more time at work, and she's happy she did.
Speaker 1: She says it has only brought her closer to her client.
Speaker 1: She willingly spends more time in Agrippina's company than she
Speaker 1: gets paid for. I live relatively close to her her
Speaker 1: and every morning and every evening I give her a call.
Speaker 1: If she doesn't answer in the evening, I just come
Speaker 1: on over immediately because I wonder what if she fell down,
Speaker 1: what if the phone isn't working. Sometimes she can't hear
Speaker 1: the phone, But I come anyway. Sometimes at nine or
Speaker 1: ten in the evening, after my shift is over, you'll
Speaker 1: find me here. In fact, Maria spends more time with
Speaker 1: Agrippina than she does with her own kids or grandkids,
Speaker 1: and it's not because she needs the money. She lives
Speaker 1: with one of her grown daughters and has little by
Speaker 1: way of expenses, but she feels committed to her client. Psycho,
Speaker 1: I'm really a homebody. I'm somebody who loves to stay inside.
Speaker 1: So here I feel like I do at my own
Speaker 1: home because Agrippina treats me so well. When my husband died,
Speaker 1: my kids begged me to stop working, but I said,
Speaker 1: I can't do that. I can't leave Agrippina. Every day,
Speaker 1: Maria arrives at the apartment at about eight in the morning.
Speaker 1: Soon after, the two ladies will sit to chat over breakfast.
Speaker 1: Maria will then help Agrippina take a shower and get dressed.
Speaker 1: Until recently, Agrippina used to be able to tie her
Speaker 1: own shoes, but now Maria must help her with those two.
Speaker 1: If there are bills to pay, Maria takes care of those,
Speaker 1: same for cleaning the apartment and shopping for food. Agrippina
Speaker 1: isn't too demanding about any of it anymore. Besides, they've
Speaker 1: been at it for a decade now. The thing she
Speaker 1: most appreciates is having Maria's company. They like to sit
Speaker 1: on the couch and talk for hours or watch TV together.
Speaker 1: Of course, all of it is a lot of work
Speaker 1: for Maria. Even when she sits down to chat, she's
Speaker 1: doing so by way of caring for her clients. That
Speaker 1: the She's with me every day, and every single day
Speaker 1: Maria's at home with me. She goes home and her
Speaker 1: shift is due, and but I am always confident that
Speaker 1: I'll see her the next day, even if she's late,
Speaker 1: and let's contain Researchers say that older adults are at
Speaker 1: an increased risk of being lonely. By the time people
Speaker 1: reach their eighties, the majority of them live on their own,
Speaker 1: like Agribina does. As a long term risk factor, loneliness
Speaker 1: ranks alongside obesity and alcohol abuse, and according to a
Speaker 1: study from Brigham Young University, social isolation is just as
Speaker 1: likely to predict an early death as smoking fifteen cigarettes
Speaker 1: a day. The opposite is also true. Companionship leads to
Speaker 1: better physical health and longer lives, and caregiving in particular
Speaker 1: can have far reaching benefits for seniors. They can fend
Speaker 1: off depression and chronic health conditions such as heart disease.
Speaker 1: Aside from their weekly session at the hair salon, Maria
Speaker 1: and Agribina follow another ritual every Sunday morning, they head
Speaker 1: to Agribina's favorite restaurant, Philips. It's been around for longer
Speaker 1: than she's been alive, and it's less than a ten
Speaker 1: minute drive from her apartment. Agribina has a big appetite.
Speaker 1: She eats a full plate of pancakes, fried eggs, and potatoes.
Speaker 1: She has no serious health problems, takes no medications, but
Speaker 1: religiously does take her vitamins. My I barely go to
Speaker 1: the doctors. Not unless I have something that threatens to
Speaker 1: kill me, then I'll go to him. Otherwise, I'm looking
Speaker 1: for the good things in life so I can stick
Speaker 1: around longer, Arida. Later this summer, Agribina will turn She's
Speaker 1: the oldest in her family, and as old as Maria's
Speaker 1: mother would be if she were still alive. Maria is
Speaker 1: sixty five, old enough to retire herself, but she's not
Speaker 1: planning to stop working anytime soon. It keeps her young,
Speaker 1: she says, and like Agribina, she prefers to be with
Speaker 1: other people rather than spending too much time alone inside
Speaker 1: her house. When they finished their Sunday breakfast, Maria helps
Speaker 1: Agribina get up from her chair. She takes her by
Speaker 1: the arm while Agripina holds on tightly to her walker
Speaker 1: as they head towards the parking lot. In an ideal world,
Speaker 1: Maria says her adult children will take care of her
Speaker 1: when she needs their help, and they will be as
Speaker 1: patient with her as she is with Agribina, helping her along.
Speaker 1: Once she slows down, they will spend time with her
Speaker 1: every a and if she's lucky, they'll take her out
Speaker 1: once a week to her favorite restaurant. We've been listening
Speaker 1: to the story of two women. One is sixty five,
Speaker 1: the other is nine, and the younger woman cares for
Speaker 1: the older woman in Los Angeles, and they've also become
Speaker 1: friends and the caregiver, Maria tells us that she spends
Speaker 1: many unpaid hours not only thinking about her client, but
Speaker 1: spending some extra time with her as well. So I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about caregiving with Gene Axius. He's vice
Speaker 1: president of Independent Living and long Term Services and Support
Speaker 1: at a a r P where I used to work,
Speaker 1: and he closely follows the family caregiving landscape and the
Speaker 1: caregiving landscape in general. Let's start at the beginning, and
Speaker 1: we read a lot today about our aging society, So
Speaker 1: tell me what that means for you, how is the
Speaker 1: society aging? Well, first of all, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for having me. I think that's a very fascinating question.
Speaker 1: We know that the population is aging. There are ten
Speaker 1: thousand people that are turning sixty five each day and
Speaker 1: that's gonna continue for the next several years. We know
Speaker 1: that not only are people aging into the age of
Speaker 1: sixty five, but they're also living longer. So you have
Speaker 1: this whole idea that people are getting older and they're
Speaker 1: living longer. And as a result of those two very
Speaker 1: fascinating what I would refer to as gifts. It really
Speaker 1: creates some interesting conversations and some things that we have
Speaker 1: to think about as a society in terms of how
Speaker 1: do we actually meet people where they are, how do
Speaker 1: we provide the services that they need to live their
Speaker 1: best lives, and more importantly, how do we ensure that
Speaker 1: we are creating solutions that really help people in their
Speaker 1: everyday life. Okay, now, in terms of home caregiving, like
Speaker 1: in our story, for seniors who need some help, do
Speaker 1: you break things up into you know, unpaid family caregiving,
Speaker 1: partly paid like our example, and fully professional caregiving. Are
Speaker 1: there ways that you break up the landscape there. So
Speaker 1: we know that there are over forty billion unpaid family
Speaker 1: caregiteris in this country, that the typical caregiver is a
Speaker 1: woman daughter cared for her parents who has some long
Speaker 1: term condition. We know that in addition to that, that
Speaker 1: of all unpaid family caregivers are men, which typically surprises
Speaker 1: a lot of people, but they are also stepping up
Speaker 1: really to provide this type of care. Again because of
Speaker 1: the population that's that's aging, uh, and also because of
Speaker 1: the fact that the family size is shrinking over time,
Speaker 1: that you have the situation where who's going to take
Speaker 1: care of me? Right? So it's our hands on deck. Um.
Speaker 1: So we know that there's over forty million family caregivers
Speaker 1: um who are unpaid, and that the economic value I
Speaker 1: mean that if you were to actually put a dollar
Speaker 1: to that contribution would be over four hundred seventy billion
Speaker 1: dollars a year. Four and seventy billion with a b
Speaker 1: fo seventy billion with a bow. That that's kind of amazing. Now,
Speaker 1: one of the things I was curious about and and
Speaker 1: would be a service to our listeners who were just
Speaker 1: thinking about this, not necessarily going out to get a job,
Speaker 1: but is there a way that unpaid family caregivers can
Speaker 1: fund through some sort of a system to be paid
Speaker 1: by by a government entity or somehow. There are some
Speaker 1: programs they're known as UH self directed programs programs that
Speaker 1: are typically covered through the Medicaid program. UH it's it's
Speaker 1: really designed for people with limited resources who are eligible
Speaker 1: for Medicaid and UM the vast majority of states actually
Speaker 1: provides some self directed programs, which means that as a
Speaker 1: Medicaid beneficiary, you're able to hire people to help you
Speaker 1: with your care and dictate exactly when they actually come
Speaker 1: to provide that care and the type of care that
Speaker 1: they actually provide. It really depends on a state by
Speaker 1: state basis. Okay, and only I want to ask you
Speaker 1: one more question. I know that your area of expertise
Speaker 1: is partly the unpaid family caregiving, But if you were
Speaker 1: to talk with someone who was interested in this kind
Speaker 1: of work, do you think caregiving some sort of caregiving
Speaker 1: would be something that would be a good option for
Speaker 1: someone that there'll be a need in society for more
Speaker 1: and better caregivers. So you're talking to someone who actually
Speaker 1: had the opportunity. My first job was working in the
Speaker 1: retirement community, and I had the opportunity to actually work
Speaker 1: in the dining room. And this was when I was
Speaker 1: in high school, and I had the opportunity to work breakfast, lunch,
Speaker 1: and dinner. And I enjoyed it so much that I
Speaker 1: actually spent my entire saturdays as UH in working in
Speaker 1: the retirement community. And I can tell you that it's
Speaker 1: it's extremely rewarding. And part of the reason why I
Speaker 1: did it was because of the fact that I felt
Speaker 1: as if I had an opportunity to really connect with
Speaker 1: the residents at the retirement community. I think for me,
Speaker 1: the other aspect of this was what of selfishness in
Speaker 1: a sense because of the fact that it gave me
Speaker 1: a rare opportunity to sit with residents who UH have
Speaker 1: a lifetime worth of wisdom and experience, and to hear
Speaker 1: their stories and to hear what they've learned over their
Speaker 1: course of their life, UH, to hear some of the
Speaker 1: things that they regret, to hear some of the things
Speaker 1: that they wish they could have done. So I am
Speaker 1: about a person because of that. So I do think
Speaker 1: that caregiving has both its rewarding aspects, both in terms
Speaker 1: of UH, the ability to connect, the ability to understand
Speaker 1: and to benefit from that transfer of knowledge and wisdom. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I think that there are some benefits to really
Speaker 1: meeting people and getting a great taste as to what
Speaker 1: it means to be a servant to someone else. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's that's fabulous. Thanks so much for spending a few
Speaker 1: minutes with Thank you. Gene Acts is vice president of
Speaker 1: Independent Living and Long Term Services and Support at a
Speaker 1: A r P in Washington, d C. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: It's all for this edition of On the Job from
Speaker 1: Hired to Retired, brought to you by Express Employment Professionals.
Speaker 1: Find out more at Express prose dot com. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to producer Roxandra Guidi. Music for this episode by Steve
Speaker 1: Mencher and ghost licensed under creative Comments by CC Mixed.
Speaker 1: This podcast is produced by Steve Mencher for Mention Media,
Speaker 1: Red Seat Ventures and I Heart Radio. Find us on
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and iTunes, where we hope you will
Speaker 1: leave a nice review which helps other folks find us too,
Speaker 1: and of course you can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: See you next time On the Job