Demand for Back-up Dependent Care Surges 33 Percent in 2011 As Families Struggle to Fill Gaps in Child Care and Elder ...

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WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --?Working parents are experiencing breakdowns in their regular child care or elder care situations on a more frequent basis, prompting them to seek emergency back-up care at all-time high rates. Bright Horizons Family SolutionsR, the largest provider of employer-sponsored back-up care, saw a 33 percent jump in back-up care usage in 2011, providing emergency back-up care for families on more than 640,000 occasions.

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"Today, many full-time employees are also responsible for the care of elderly parents and young children. This delicate balance between work and family life can easily come undone when regular care breaks down. Employers are fast recognizing this stress and are helping to alleviate it by offering a safety net – back-up care," said Bright Horizons Chief Executive Officer David Lissy.

"When a freak snowstorm hit the East Coast this past October knocking out power for several days, the value of these types of employee programs became quite real. We were very fortunate to have the ESPN KidsCenter and the Back-up Care Advantage ProgramR as options for employees during this difficult time. We were able to fill our professional obligations to each other -- and to sports fans nationwide -- because of the dedicated efforts of Bright Horizons," said Denise Leopoldino, Associate Director, Work-Life, ESPN, Inc.

"Offering back-up care sends a message to our employees that we are concerned in making sure they have a work-life balance, and that while we expect a lot, we're also willing to back that up by giving our team the resources to deliver on what we expect," said Marco Diaz, Vice President of Benefits at Thomson Reuters.

On any given day, more than 4.6 million workers at 700 companies across the country rely on Bright Horizons to take care of their family members when their regular care providers are sick, unavailable, or unable to provide care. In fact, 112 companies added this employee benefit through Bright Horizons in the past 12 months.

Families rely on back-up dependent care for a wide variety of reasons, including:

Their children's school is closed for vacation or weather-related reasonsTheir stay-at-home spouse has a conflict (such as a doctor's appointment, jury duty)They are in between care providersTheir regular care provider has the day offTheir aging parent has new care needs or their regular support is unavailable

Bright Horizons is a pioneer in the field of back-up care. For the past 25 years, Bright Horizons has been offering this service to employers across the country. Families can obtain care for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-aged children, as well as disabled, ill, or elderly adults.

According to a recent study released by The Consulting Practice at Bright Horizons (www.brighthorizons.com/lastingimpact): ?

86 percent of respondents reported that in the previous six months back-up care enabled them to work on a day they otherwise would not have been able to; on average, back-up care enabled them to work six days during that timeMore than 80 of Working Mother magazine's "Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers" offer either full-service child care or back-up careAbout Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons Family SolutionsR (www.brighthorizons.com) is the world's leading provider of employer-sponsored child care, early education, and work/life solutions. Bright HorizonsR serves more than 800 clients across the U.S., Europe, Canada, and India with programs including child care and early education, back-up care, elder care, college counseling, and work/life consulting. Bright Horizons was recently named for the 13th time as one of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America."

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Care of the elderly, a challenge for families

The phone call came when Robin D'Angelo was at work. His father had fallen and was headed to the hospital in an ambulance once again. "I had to leave everything and they rush to the scene." D'Angelo felt his lifting of temperament. Had recently argued with siblings who live hundreds of miles apart on whether to spend money to hire a full time health care provider. "I feel like it's all on me." "I think that the money would be spent well.

Brothers, caring for an aging parent can full of decisions and disputes. As parents grow dependent on their adult children, arguments can explode above whose work schedule is more flexible, if MOM or dad must move to a nursing home or that has control over the financial decisions. The desire to cling to old family roles or continue a bitter rivalry may surface at the precise moment when brothers need more cohesion.

"Even if brothers did not have before, is possible liaison on the care of a father," says Rona Bartelstone, senior Vice President of management's attention to the SeniorBridge, a provider of greater care in the home. "Focus on the common goal." "It's all about his father."

Primary care promises to be a growing concern for adult children. Some 43 million Americans care for someone 50 or more, according to the National Alliance of care. In comparison with five years ago, one smaller percentage, 41 per cent to 46 per cent, it is going to hire professional help. And more: 70 per cent to 59 per cent, are arriving to help unpaid, as relatives and friends. Giving care is projected to cost those who care for their parents an estimated $ 3 trillion in wages, pensions, pension funds and benefits, according to the MetLife mature market Institute.

Avoid struggles related to primary care requires the ability to disagree without trial, others show mutual respect and communicate early and often. Experts say that it is possible to work together but not everyone can participate in the same way and it is possible to reach a consensus on the most dysfunctional family. Bartelstone warns: "there is a magic formula because each family is unique".

‧ Call a family meeting.

Experts say call a family meeting becomes critical as parents be fragile or suffer from health problems. Often, it means start fresh, let go of a claim of the past and give a second chance to a brother.

"Around the world to speak and be respectful in the same way that the business environment," says Joy Loverde, author of The Complete Eldercare Planner: where home, questions to ask, how to find help.? "Leave all the emotional problems of the room and focus on what MOM would want".

Specialist of greater attention d'Alene Feinstein, director of admissions for the Palace Group, suggests the family to make a list of the pressing concerns - eating habits, drugs, hygiene and health problems. "Everyone talks about the list, gives priority to what is most important, options and take advantage of available resources".

To be harmony, everyone will have to agree that a difference of opinion is to accept and find a way to compromise.

"It is not always a democracy," Feinstein said. "A brother not involved in the daily care and just waltzes in has the right to an opinion, but not a vote".

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Sandwich generation month: July, 2011 - a Council of contemporary families fact sheet

For: Family and national editors

Contact: Stephanie Coontz, coontzs@msn.com, + 1-360 352-8117; + 1-360-556-9223

CHICAGO, July 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire /-as of 2009, 20 States and 11 cities have been designated July as Sandwich generation month, recognize the dedication of the Americans who are taking care of their children and their parents of ageing at the same time. Currently about 7 per cent of employed men and women, or about 9.8 million people of the 139.3 million people employed in June 2011, are official members of the sandwich generation, but one much higher proportion of Americans have already experienced or you will eventually experience this combination stressful to care responsibilities. With the number of elderly Americans older than 65 are planning an increase of 40 million in 2010 to 88.5 million in 2050, the ranks of generation sandwich caregivers is poised to expand significantly.

-Among those who currently only have childcare responsibilities, more than one quarter have given greater attention in the past five years and almost half (44%) expect to give more attention in the next five years - between people with responsibilities for care of children and the elderly today, 86 percent expect to still be greater attention over the next five years.

What else we know about employees Americans providing care for their elders, while their children? Here are some surprising facts of researchers of the Council on contemporary families and the families and work Institute:

1. The sandwich generation is not really a generation.

-The majority (55%) of people with the elder and child care responsibilities is between 28 and 42 years old. But many are older (38 per cent are between 43 and 61 years of age) or less (7 per cent are under the age of 28). -Children from families of sandwich generation will also age: 30 per cent are children under 6 years of age, 32 per cent between 6 and 12 years old and 39 per cent between 13 and 17 years of age.

2. The Sandwich generation caregivers living in family situations.

-Almost half (47%) of people with the care of children and elderly responsibilities are taken care for more than one old, while almost 60 percent are caring for several children. More than one quarter of interleaved people (28 per cent) is caring for several children and more than one old man. -Of persons employed at the same time care for the elderly and children, slightly more than half are women (54%), compared with 47 per cent of employed males. Interestingly, these interspersed women are less likely to have a spouse/partner than men. Only 66 per cent of women with the care of children and greater responsibilities, compared with almost 90 percent of the men of sandwich generation, are married or living with a partner. -More than three-quarters of people living with a spouse/partner sandwich are a pair of double source of income. 23 Per cent of income only interspersed, 81 per cent are men and 19 per cent are women.

3 Emparedados employees spend all the time about their job (an average of 44 hours per week) responsibilities as people without the responsibilities of care (42 hours a week), in spite of dedicated more time to care for the total family.

4 Emparedadas families cover more than one third of the overall costs of most long-term care through their time unpaid or donated. Also contribute significant funds disbursement, to earn less than those without care giving responsibilities.

-In 2004, the total cost of the services of long-term care for older persons, including a reprimand or 'donations', was 211.4 million dollars. Time not paid to the families and other uncompensated caregivers donated to the attention of more coverage 36 per cent of the total costs. In comparison, Medicare and Medicaid combined pay for 38 per cent of the total costs. -Intercalated families (income average $67,671) have lower income families who do not have any responsibilities giving attention ($84,000).

This fact sheet was prepared for the Council on contemporary families by Dr. Kenneth Matos, associate director of research, the families and work Institute, New York, New York.

Phone: 212-716-1846; Email: kmatos@familiesandwork.org

Most of the data in this fact sheet is for the national survey of 2008 labour force change carried out by the Institute of work and family. See also older Americans month Fact Sheet, Council on contemporary families (http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/aging/older-americans-month-may-2010.html) and O'Donnell, M., Kim, a. and Kasten, j., take off the Sandwich generation: helps to care for Aging parents families (Washington, DC: Third Road, 2007).

More information can also be found on the website of the Sandwich generation resource group: http://www.sandwichgenerationmonth.com/library.php

For information about the practice of labour and social policies that support the workers of sandwich generation, get in touch with Council member of CCF, Professor of sociology, Jennifer Glass, University of Iowa, jennifer-glass@uiowa.edu

For information about racial and ethnic variations in attention, please contact Naomi Gerstel, Dept. of sociology, University of Massachusetts. Phone: 413-545-5976, Naomi.gerstel@gmail.com

The Council on contemporary families is an organization of non-profit, non-partisan family researchers, mental health and social professionals and physicians dedicated to providing the press and the public the latest research and best practices findings on American families. Founded in 1996 and headquartered at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Council mission is to improve the national understanding of how and why the contemporary families are changing, what needs and challenges faced, and how these needs are best met. For more information, or to receive future information from the Council documents, please contact Stephanie Coontz, Director of research and public education of CCF and Professor of history and studies of the family in the Evergreen State College. coontzs@MSN.com. phone 360 352-8117. Cell: 360 556-9223

Origin Council on contemporary families

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