Someone's taking credit for your work
Friday was National Caregivers' Day, where people were encouraged to thank caregivers. For a group that can seem largely invisible and forgotten, it's nice to have acknowledgement of the work you do.
As I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw a lot of images of ours being shared, which is great! I love that Adrienne, Allie, and I have created graphics that resonate enough that they keep popping up in social media feeds years after we make them.
And then I saw this:
I immediately recognized it as one of a series of graphics Allie made back in 2013.
They didn't just cover our logo with the "National Caregivers Day" banner, they photoshopped it out.
I couldn't have thought of a more perfect example of the way health care organizations view caregivers.
When healthcare organizations talk about "supporting caregivers" it's all about bringing them onto the healthcare team. Which sounds great, right? We want our expertise to be recognized. We want our work to be acknowledged. We want training for the medical tasks we perform.
But all too often what they mean when they say "support" is really a way to outsource more of their work onto us.
Healthcare providers look to us to perform complex medical tasks. Family members can legally perform medical tasks without a license, which is a handy loophole that healthcare organizations are happy to use to increase their profits.
We do the nursing tasks that used to be done by paid nurses, aides, and paraprofessionals. Hospital stays used to last weeks and months, because patients were only discharged when they had recovered. Those who recovered at home had professional nurses stay in their home around the clock.
We're in charge of so much administrative work that either didn't exist 20 years ago or was done by paid staff. That binder you have full of medical records, all those phone calls you with insurance companies, all those trips to pick up test results on CD or to find a fax machine seem an awful lot like office work because it is office work.
Healthcare organizations are guilting you into doing their work for free -- while you take unpaid time off work to do it -- and if you complain they'll suggest maybe you would be fine if you just loved your family more. Then they offer you an app and some online videos so you can teach yourself to play doctor. Oh, and don't forget to take care of yourself, too!
It's one thing to have to scan and bag our own groceries, because the grocery store has replaced the cashier and the bagger with a machine and our free labor. It's another when it's your healthcare providers are foisting work onto you.
PS. Do you wish you could stop being an unpaid member of the healthcare team and go back to being part of your family? Call or write your elected officials to tell them that it's time to start paying attention to caregivers. We are doing more than our fair share and paying for the privilege.
Contact your elected officials in the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
You can also take action through Caring Across Generations in the US and Carers UK.
PPS. When I decided to immigrate to Canada, I was amazed by how many Americans thought Canada was part of the US. As in, staff at the USPS didn't believe me that mailing something from Alabama to Ontario required international postage.
But then I started noticing how many "national" things include both the US and Canada. The National Baseball League, the NFL, even the National Slam Poetry Championships. So many flights between the two countries operate out of domestic airport terminals. Which is how Canada is participating in the Rosalynn Carter's National Caregivers' Day.
Before you Canadians feel smug, I repeatedly encounter Canadians who don't believe Canada has a queen. Which might happen a little less often now, thanks to #Megxit.