The vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance, or exclusively paid formal care.

Whether you’re a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity. On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll explore the dynamic and complex relationship of care receiving and giving.

Featuring:

Camille Christian, home care provider and SEIU member; Brenda Jackson, home care provider and SEIU member;  Patty Berne, co-founder and director, Sins Invalid; Jessica Lehman, executive director, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action; Kenzi Robi, president, San Francisco IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Public Authority Governing Body; Rachel Stewart,  is a queer disabled woman who is passionate about disability and employment issues; Alana Theriault, disability benefits counselor in Berkeley, California; Ingrid Tischer, director of development, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF);  and Alta Mae Stevens, in-home caregiver.

Credits

Host: Laura Flynn

Producers: Laura Flynn, Monica Lopez, and  Jasmin Lopez

Contributing  Producers: Alice Wong and Stephanie Guyer-Stevens

Executive Director: Lisa Rudman

Web Editor: Kwan Booth

Photo Credits:

Alice Wong

Stephanie Guyer-Stevens

Music Credit:

Dexter Britain: [1]The Time To Run (Finale)

Gillicuddy: Adventure, Darling

Steve Combs: March

Jason Shaw: Running Waters

Jared C. Balogh: BRICK BY BRICK DAY BY DAY

Jared C. Balogh: INCREMENTS TOWARDS SERENITY  [2]

Nheap: Crossings

Cherly KaCherly: The Hungry Garden

Trio Metrik: Vogelperspektive

Kevin MacLeod: Faster Does It [3]

Resources:

UCSF: UCSF Study Projects Need for 2.5M More Long-Term Care Workers by 2030

SEIU: Longterm Care Workers

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund

Disability Visibility Project

Hand in Hand: The Domestic Employers Network

National Disability Leadership Alliance

Senior and Disability Action

Sins Invalid

San Francisco In Home Supportive Services Public Authority

Family Caregiver Alliance [4]

Segment Descriptions:

Choreography of Care

Community Storytelling Fellow, Alice Wong asks, how do people with disabilities who rely on personal assistance negotiate their relationships with the people that assist them? And how does that inform their sense of independence or interdependence with others? In this next story from the San Francisco Bay Area, Wong searches for answers.

http://www.prx.org/pieces/176039-choreography-of-care [5]

A Lifetime of Caregiving: Mom and Uncle Harold

Most often family members are the ones that step up and provide care when a parent or loved one needs it. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, 78 percent of care beneficiaries receive assistance from a family member, friend, or neighbor. Alta Mae Stevens is 87 years old. From the moment she married she’s been caring for one person or another. Her daughter Stephanie Guyer-Stevens talks to her about what a lifetime of caregiving has meant to her.

http://www.radioproject.org/sound/2016/MakingCon_160413_a_lifetime_of_caregiving.mp3 [6]

http://www.prx.org/pieces/176040-a-lifetime-of-caregiving-mom-and-uncle-harold [7]

[1] http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dexter_Britain/Creative_Commons_Volume_5/01_The_Time_To_Run_Finale

[2] http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Balogh/Increments_Towards_Serenity/INCREMENTS_TOWARDS_SERENITY

[3] http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kevin_MacLeod/Jazz_Sampler/Faster_Does_It_1271

[4] https://www.caregiver.org/

[5] http://www.prx.org/pieces/176039-choreography-of-care

[6] http://www.radioproject.org/sound/2016/MakingCon_160413_a_lifetime_of_caregiving.mp3

[7] http://www.prx.org/pieces/176040-a-lifetime-of-caregiving-mom-and-uncle-harold