Elder Care Resource Handbook for Families Released by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Home Care Company HouseWorks Joins "Who is Caring for the Caregivers?" Forum

BOSTON -- Findings from the MIT Workplace Center's research on the geriatric health care system in the Greater Boson area concludes that families are playing an increasingly important role in the care and responsibility of elders. A public forum at the MIT Sloan School of Management on January 31, will announce the release of a publication, the "Family Caregiver Handbook; Finding elder care resources in Massachusetts." A panel of elder care experts, service providers and advocates will discuss ideas and methods of expanding support for elder caregivers.

MIT's research also shows that elder caregivers face many challenges, including lack of access to the basic information needed to find local elder care services. The "Family Caregiver Handbook" was written with the caregiver in mind. In a user-friendly format, the Handbook provides information to consumers on how the eldercare system is organized, educates readers on the terms and acronyms that elder care professionals use, and details the legal and financial issues families need to address early on in the caregiving process.

"The Handbook has two major purposes," said Ann Bookman, executive director of the MIT Workplace Center. "First, it provides a gateway to the many elder care services and resources that exist at the community level, and second it brings visibility and recognition to the crucial work that elder caregivers do. We found in our research that family caregivers constitute a 'shadow workforce' in the geriatric health care system. We hope the Handbook will highlight the valuable care so many families are providing to elders in our society, and give them the tools they need to do it more easily."

Andrea Cohen, CEO and co-founder of HouseWorks, a private home care agency, will be joining four panel members as a part of a cross-sector discussion on the need for expanding support for caregivers. The forum, "Who is Caring for the Caregivers?," will explore the current unmet needs that caregivers face and discuss the solutions that a diverse array of community-based organizations and private agencies can provide to support caretakers. HouseWorks is one of three key sponsors, along with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a multi-specialty physician group in Eastern Massachusetts, and 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East Union, to partner with the MIT Workplace Center and the Alfred P. Sloan foundation for the release of the Handbook.

"Disseminating key information on elder care to the public is a crucial step in providing quality care to our elders," said Cohen. "A guide this comprehensive has not been available to consumers in the past and HouseWorks is honored to help distribute a guide that will provide information on elder care options to caregivers in Massachusetts. With the increasing need of elder care services, it is important that consumers are well informed and equipped to make important decisions in the care of their loved ones."

The event will take place on January 31 at the MIT Faculty Club from 8:00 to 10:30 a.m. For more information on the event and the Handbook, visit http://web.mit.edu/workplacecenter.

About HouseWorks

HouseWorks, headquartered in Newton, Mass., is a private-pay home care company dedicated to helping seniors live independently. Known for flexibility, reliability and responsiveness, HouseWorks operates with an innovative, customer-driven approach to service delivery that returns a sense of control to adult children and their elderly parents. Under the leadership of CEO and co-founder Andrea Cohen, an At-Large delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA), HouseWorks has been named one of the Top Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by The Center for Women's Leadership at Babson College and the Commonwealth Institute, and was a finalist for the Smaller Business Association of New England (SBANE) 'New England Innovation Awards', and a winner of the "Business Excellence Award' from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. For more information, please visit www.house-works.com.

About the MIT Workplace Center

The MIT Workplace Center was founded in 2001 and is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to address the current mismatch between existing workplace policies and practices and the changing work force. The Sloan Foundation established the center to take findings from existing research on these issues and apply them to the realm of organizational change. Specifically its mission is to create innovative work designs, polices and practices so that the family needs of employees and the business needs of employers can be joined, directly and systemically. The Center's goal is to stimulate change both on the level of private sector workplaces and public policy. The Center conducts research-action projects and holds public education events. They also convene the stakeholders who share interests, power, and responsibility for existing work-family problems and future solutions. The Center is located at One Broadway, Cambridge MA, and is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's MIT Sloan School of Management. For more information, see the website: http://web.mit.edu/workplacecenter.