Wellthy, a caregiver’s best support tool
There are 100 million U.S. adults who function as caregivers, according to a study from Guardian Life. And for employees, 73% have some type of caregiving responsibility. This often creates challenges as workloads remain the same even as the time needed to care for loved ones increases. Trying to balance the two roles while maintaining your own health and well-being can feel overwhelming, especially as caregiving needs often fluctuate.
“There is no linear guide for caregiving,” shares Karen Longo, director of Medicare operations at Point32Health. In addition to working for our organization, Karen is currently a caregiver for her dad, who has Alzheimer’s disease, and previously for her mom, who passed in 2023.
“Caregiving is important to me because our loved ones are vulnerable, and we need to ensure that they are getting the care and support that they need and deserve.”
Supporting caregiving employees
For caregivers like Karen, there are support options available. As an employer, Point32Health offers its employees Wellthy, a personalized care concierge that provides a dedicated care expert for a variety of caregiving needs.
As a Wellthy user, Karen has been grateful for the additional resource. “I have a lot of expertise and knowledge about Massachusetts programs and services, but my parents lived in Connecticut. Wellthy educated me and pointed me in the right direction to more efficiently pursue viable options to address some of the challenges we were facing.”
Wellthy, which is also available to eligible commercial health plan members of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, offers a way to protect each caregiver’s own health and minimize the burden that comes from the administrative and time-consuming tasks of caregiving. Tailored support is provided through both professional expertise and a digital platform.
Protecting the caregiver’s well-being
Aside from offering resources and guidance to help Karen make important medical decisions for her parents, Wellthy’s virtual care coordinator provided support for the emotional aspects of caregiving. “The intermingling of emotions and practical needs is another layer of caregiving that has to be managed,” says Karen.
“Our care coordinator was empathetic in a very genuine way,” she goes on to say, mentioning that a detailed note was left on the Wellthy portal after every consultation to reference later. “She helped me focus on the issues that my siblings and I could influence.”
Karen’s advice for fellow caregivers? Don’t do it alone.
“Be open to any and all resources available. You will find that some don’t really match what you need, but others might provide options and solutions that you never would have thought of or didn’t know existed.”
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