Working Caregivers: The Invisible Employees

Breaking the Caregiver Stigma with Aisha Adkins

• Selma Archer & Zack Demopoulos • Season 1 • Episode 4

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In this episode, we’re thrilled to be joined by Aisha Adkins, a powerhouse advocate for caregivers. Aisha shares her personal journey as a caregiver for her mother, discussing how she found her way into advocacy and the importance of supporting caregivers in the workplace. We dive into the stigma surrounding caregiving, the challenges of balancing caregiving and work, and why it's essential to normalize caregiving experiences on resumes.

Throughout our conversation, Aisha offers practical advice for both caregivers and employers on how to navigate caregiving with compassion and flexibility. We also touch on the importance of resources like hospice care and why employers need to rethink how they support their caregiving employees. Aisha’s insight is invaluable for anyone interested in creating a more inclusive and supportive work environment for caregivers.

 

Episode Highlights:
[1:26] - Aisha Adkins shares an interesting personal story about living in Atlanta and meeting civil rights leaders.
[3:30] - Aisha’s caregiving journey begins: Moving to Barbados and caring for her mother.
[7:07] - Aisha explains Caring Across Generations and how they advocate for caregivers.
[9:10] - Differences in caregiving resources between the U.S. and Barbados.
[11:39] - The importance of adding caregiving experience to your resume and LinkedIn profile.
[17:10] - How employers can better support working caregivers: Tips on remote work and understanding resume gaps.
[20:16] - Discussing hospice care and why it can improve the end-of-life experience for loved ones.

 

Links & Resources:

Aisha Adkins’ website: aishaadkins.com

Caring Across Generations: caringacross.org

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast and leave a review. Remember to check out our website at invisibleemployeeadvocates.com for more resources, and subscribe to our newsletter for updates! We’ll catch you in the next episode.

 

Aisha Adkins:

An integral part of at least 53 million Americans lives, is something that needs to be normalized. When we talk about care, I go back to that stigma, the idea of stigma so many people are ashamed of their role as caregivers, particularly if it's removed them from the workplace and they've no longer been able to provide for their families monetarily because they're providing care. Caregiving is not something that at least in this country, is valued, and it's not something that we applaud in the way that perhaps other countries might.

Jodi Krangle:

Did you know that in 2020 there were 53 million caregivers in the United States, and by 2025 this number is expected to grow to 62 point 5,000,073% of these caregivers also have a job. They are called Working caregivers, and they are invisible because they don't talk about their caregiving challenges. Working caregivers, the invisible employees is a podcast that will show you how to support working caregivers. Join Selma Archer and Zach Demopolis on the working caregivers the invisible employees podcast as they show you how to support working caregivers.

Selma Archer:

Hello, everyone. I'm Selma Archer. Welcome to our podcast, working caregivers, the invisible employees. I'm here with my co host, Zach namopolis, hi, Zach,

Zack Demopoulos:

hey, Selma, how are you?

Selma Archer:

I'm well, how are you doing?

Zack Demopoulos:

Very excited about another amazing guest we're gonna have today. Absolutely.

Selma Archer:

We're so excited to have Aisha Atkins with us today. Aisha does some amazing work in the care space. Hi Aisha.

Aisha Adkins:

Hello. It's wonderful to see both of you.

Selma Archer:

Thank you for joining us. Thank you. So before we get into the work that you do, we always ask our guests to tell us something interesting or unique about where they live. And you live in Atlanta.

Aisha Adkins:

I do. I live in Atlanta, home of the civil rights movement, some amazing and inspirational change makers who have legacies that are lasting to present day. I've had the privilege of meeting a number of folks, including Dr Martin Luther King, the third I actually met him while at a plate with my father. Just you know it was a happenstance, but when you have the opportunity to meet folks, you take advantage, and particularly folks who are giants in the civil rights movement that we seem to be losing day by day. So it's a pleasure to have gotten to know him and have met Congressman John Lewis and others.

Selma Archer:

Wow. So if we can, we'll move forward and talk a little bit about your work and what you do, and Zach and I have just been so thankful for your support in helping us with our project, which was our book. Thank you so much for that. We noticed that you are very visible in this space. You're out there doing speeches and podcast interviews just really very prominent in this space. So can you share with the audience? How did you land in this work, and what motivations to stay there? Certainly.

Aisha Adkins:

So what landed me in this work is really my lived experience and my desire to share that with people about, gosh, we're almost Coming up on eight years ago now, I started a blog, and it was primarily to inform family and friends of my family's adventures in the Caribbean island of Barbados, where we relocated temporarily. I wanted them to know what my experience providing care for my mother would be like on the island. And a woman named Amanda beats found my blog, and she was really interested in learning more about what the transfer of care was like, and some of the challenges that we experienced, but also some of the successes. And she was starting her own publication called the Black expat, where she would talk about migration from one place to another among the black community. And part of that she wanted to include caregiving is she was a caregiver herself. And so it started really with sharing my experience with her audience. And while working for her, I attended a conference called Blog Her, and it's targeted toward women in digital media. I looked at the schedule for the conference, and there was a breakout discussion on caregiving. I thought that was most fascinating in. The strangest thing to have at a conference like this, and I knew, Okay, I have to attend this breakout session, so I joined the breakout session and learned more from the panel just comprised of a number of women from different backgrounds who had created online communities to support family caregivers, and so many of them had stories similar to my own, and that's what really encouraged me to continue moving forward. I found out toward the end of that session that it was sponsored by Caring Across Generations. I was really excited to be introduced to the organization that I had never heard of before. Eventually, over the next few months, I would learn more about the organization, I would become engaged with them and begin volunteering.

Selma Archer:

Okay, very interesting. That's

Zack Demopoulos:

incredible. Aisha, thank you for sharing that I in addition to the gratitude that Selma is expressing to you on our behalf for the book work, I want to also personally express my gratitude to you. When I began my research on becoming a caregiver advocate, you were one of the first caregiver advocates that I've met that you were so kind to get on a zoom call with me, and you and I spent some time together, and you really educated me and inspired me from all the caregiving experiences that you have, and we've come a long way since then, both of us, you know, all three of us, actually. And I just want to thank you that you're one of the first that I that I met and spoke to, just two strangers getting on the call. If you remember that, and it was called him, it was pretty amazing. So I want to thank you for that. You know, you mentioned carrying across generations, and I'd like you to please share a little bit more with our listeners what that's about. Because, you know someone I really when we wrote our book, we talked about resources and how important it is, and you know, something like carrying across generations, I can probably assure you, most of our listeners have never heard of as much as you guys market and you're present and visible. Please share more about that and what specifically do you do for them or and what do they do for us?

Aisha Adkins:

So Caring Across Generations is a policy advocacy organization focused on bringing together family caregivers, disabled people and older adults to advocate for better access to the resources that we all need in order to live and age in our homes and communities with the dignity that we all deserve. So what that looks like for my role as Training Manager is I lead cohort alongside my colleague of care fellows as who are people who fall into the categories that I just leaned and who are interested in using their lived experience as either caregivers or care recipients to transform the way that care is given, received and viewed in this country. Additionally, we work with a number of celebrities, but also a number of businesses as a part of our both our creative Care Council and our Business Council, and we engage with them on issues regarding care policy, how to advocate, not only in the halls of government, but in the workplace as well, and really transforming what it means to be a working caregiver.

Zack Demopoulos:

You're talking to our audience. I said, if somebody wants to get involved in that, what's the best way for them to get involved? Certainly

Aisha Adkins:

the best way to get involved is by reaching out to us via our website, tearing across dot, O, R, G,

Selma Archer:

I was just wondering, listening to you talk about relocating to Barbados for eight Did you say eight years?

Aisha Adkins:

Oh, for just a few months? Oh, okay. While you were there,

Selma Archer:

did you notice any differences? Or could you talk a little bit about any differences in terms of availability of resources, as well as access to resources comparatively, you know, in the US versus outside the US. Well, it's

Aisha Adkins:

very interesting, because, firstly, the most noticeable difference, I would say, in accessing care in Barbados is their lack of policies like HIPAA and other kind of compliance policies that made it very difficult to transfer records from the United States. That was certainly a challenge, one that we were able to circumvent by talking with our providers, but it was certainly something that was interesting and that my father's workplace at the time wasn't quite prepared to help us navigate. And I think it's something that should come with every onboarding package, right? I think it's something that everyone can benefit from, not just those who are giving a. Even care, there are still stigma across not only the Caribbean and the United States, but really around the world, around diseases like dementia or other cognitive declines, cognitive impairments, and so navigating the spaces there seem to be less support in some ways, for someone who's living the disease, fewer support groups, fewer opportunities to advocate. I guess I shouldn't say fewer opportunities to advocate, because you know where there are no opportunities. That's where your opportunity lies, right? But I would say that it was just interesting kind of entering into the unknown and having to find resources that matched my mother's care needs and really explore what that that looked like in a country that we had never lived in before?

Selma Archer:

Yes, so there's work to be done around the globe. So I wondered, we go back for a minute to the interview that you shared with us in our book. You made the suggestion that people should start to include their caregiving work on their resume when they're out looking for, you know, employment, and we noticed that you have your care experience on your LinkedIn profile. So can you talk a little bit about how important you feel that is to include that work in your experiences?

Aisha Adkins:

Of course, I believe that caregiving as an integral part of at least 53 million Americans lives is something that needs to be normalized when we talk about care, it should not again, I go back to that stigma, the idea of stigma so many people are ashamed of their role as caregivers, particularly if it's removed them from the workplace and they've no longer been able to provide for their families monetarily because they're providing care. Caregiving is not something that, at least in this country, is valued, and it's not something that we applaud in the way that perhaps other countries might, or I would say, more importantly, sickness and Aging are so stigmatized that anything associated with those things tends to also Garner stigma. And by placing the fact that you are a caregiver on your resume or on your LinkedIn, I think that it normalizes it. It allows others to say, Oh, well, you know, I've had that same experience. Additionally, there are skills that you acquire. Particularly, I think of myself as a younger caregiver. I was in my late 20s when I began caring for my mother and left my first job in healthcare to provide care for her, and immediately I was concerned about what that gap in my resume would do, what impact it might have on my career. But what I learned was, you know, how to navigate the healthcare system. I learned how to navigate Medicare and Medicaid. I understood, you know, government agencies I became the household manager, financial manager of financial planning. All of those things came into play in a way that would not have been the case had I not been a caregiver. And I think so many of those skills are transferable. I you know, I made good use of spreadsheets, and learned how to use some of those function options. And you know, those are skills that employers do look for. There's a lot of communication that takes place, document creation and documentation. So I think that it may take a bit of creativity, but it's certainly important that we are sure to appreciate the skills that family caregivers earn and learn over time in these roles, and understand the ways in which they're transferable to other roles and the value that that life experience brings to the workplace. So I would say, don't be ashamed. It's not only an admirable thing to do, but those are skills that many employers look for.

Selma Archer:

Now we know for sure, as as caregivers, we have to be just genius at multitasking. You know you have to be. I will handle so many balls in the air at once and stay on top of all the things that are going on and the things that you don't expect to happen from day to day, moment to moment. So I think probably there, you know, some work that we could do with the employers to help them perceive the importance of this work. So that's probably a good place to take a look, you know, as well, from what you're saying.

Zack Demopoulos:

And so glad you're advocating that Aisha, because there's the academic advocators, and then there's the those who've done it, advocators, and you've done it, and I love on your LinkedIn, and I encourage everybody to look up Aisha Atkins on LinkedIn, but I love that your tagline is caregiver organizer, and you just described why you put organizer up there. You are probably the best when it comes to that multitasking. I'm so glad you brought up stigma and stereotypes. I think we're doing a good job nationally to help change that, at least that's one of the reasons why someone I wrote her book, especially. But there's still that notion that the typical caregiver, or someone in their middle ages usually a woman married to somebody, or a partner with somebody, and they can just take off work and care for somebody. But yet you 27 years old in the middle of Undergraduate Studies, I believe, or graduate studies and huge or left your job and help start caring for your mother, 10 is becoming more and more typical. And so what I'd like to ask you, this is a two part question, because our listeners are both working caregivers as well as leaders and managers and HR folks, and we all need to hear your answer to this. What's one or two things that you would like our listeners to walk away with based on the fact that you are a young caregiver unexpectedly jumping into this role. What could you leave with them as far as either getting ready for it or how to handle it once they're in the thick of it?

Aisha Adkins:

Those are excellent questions. Zach and I would say there are two things to take into consideration in terms of supporting current family caregivers in the workplace, making work accessible is going to be key, making sure that you know if there are opportunities for hybrid workplaces or remote work options that we lean into that studies have shown that many people are, you know, more productive from home, because they're not at work, kind of trying to sneakily perform caregiving duties, and they're not worried and concerned about how their person is doing when there are opportunities for accessibility. In that way, amplifying those and uplifting those and making them available, I think is key. I think for those who are in positions to hire people who may have seemingly unexplained gaps in their resumes, or gaps in their resumes that, to you, at first glance, may not seem applicable to the roles for which they're they're being hired, I would recommend that we kind of broaden our scope in terms of our understanding around what is applicable directly to the roles that we're seeking to fulfill as employers. I think that consideration and taking a chance on folks, you might be pleasantly surprised that folks are qualified, or even overqualified, in some ways, to do an excellent job, and taking that opportunity to give them the chance to re enter, or maybe enter for the first time, a field that they're passionate about is something that can reward not only the working caregiver, but the company and the industry overall,

Zack Demopoulos:

those are two great suggestions. And you know, I'm glad you brought those two up, because a lot of employers got to push back sometimes and think, what's this going to cost us? Can we afford it? And there was no cost in with the examples you just gave. You know, at the end of the day, in fact, organizations can't afford not to do these things. Just one more question, because some and I tried in our book to do some education, and education also is important and ways that you could support your working caregivers. In one of your most recent podcast interviews, you'd mentioned that your mother was at hospice, home, hospice, and everybody's kind of afraid of the H word hospice, and we talk about it in the book. Can you share a little bit more about that so that people listening can be less afraid of it and more aware of it and to tap into it? And. Again, that doesn't cost the employer a dime. It will reward the employer if you could share some of this information with your employees and make it look like you're being empathetic, right or compassionate? Can you share a little bit about with our listeners what that's all about?

Aisha Adkins:

Like many of your listeners, I'm sure for most of my life, I always considered hospice a place you go to right, never a place that comes to you. And through my experience at Caring Across Generations and the conversations that I've had with other family caregivers there, and also in other work that I've done, I discovered that hospice is something that can take place in the home and that can be incredibly supportive, and it's something that I know my mother's end of life experience was greatly improved because of access to hospice care in the home, and it included Not only nurse care, but also supplies that are sometimes needed at the end of life, and Chaplain services, and so there really is a wraparound experience, and I think having access to that from an employee standpoint, again, it makes the experience less stressful, makes the employee feel more supported and more likely to excel in their work if they know that there is care that's being provided in home. From an employer standpoint, that as much as possible, you are implementing policies and making resources available to your employees that allow them to to focus on the important things in life. I think that, you know, when we're not splitting our focus, splitting our attention, and we're able to really buckle down and dedicate the the time to, you know, caring for our loved one, and then, you know, focusing on those tasks we have in the workplace. I think it's something that, again, benefits everyone. It's a win win win situation. No one really loses with that experience, and certainly for the person receiving care who is priority, it improves their quality of end of life. And I think there's nothing more important than that.

Zack Demopoulos:

I love the way you put that Win Win, win, right? So, yes, the employer wins, yes, the employee wins. But most importantly, care recipient wins and and that's, that's a that's a great share. Thank you. Aisha, thank you.

Selma Archer:

Thank you. So looks like we've come to the end of our time here before we leave, though. Aisha, could you just share with our listeners where they could find you if they want to know more about your absolutely fabulous work in the space and what you do and your and learn more about your actual journey in this space, which is amazing. I think everybody should is so inspiring. I really think everybody that's listening should tap into that you will be encouraged by what you've gone through. But if you could share with the audience how they can find you, certainly

Aisha Adkins:

I would say the easiest way to get in touch and to learn more is by visiting aishaadkins.com that's Adkins with a D. I know some folks spell it with a T, but that will lead you to you know more information about my journey and my work and my social media as

Selma Archer:

well. Well. Thank you so much for being with us today. We were honored by your presence and just so much richness that you had to share about your work. And thank you so much for that.

Aisha Adkins:

Thank you both for the opportunity. It's been wonderful to talk with you and to collaborate in this way, in addition to the pub. Thank you Asia.

Jodi Krangle:

Thank you for tuning in. Be sure to catch new episodes of working caregivers, the invisible employees podcast every other Tuesday. Please also visit our website, invisible employee advocates.com to subscribe to our newsletter, purchase our book and learn more about how we can help you strengthen your workplace to become more supportive of working caregivers you.