1. Supporting Employees Caring for a Child with Special Needs:
Are Seven Paid Days Enough?
Deborah Viola, PhD
A presentation given at Care.com on June 20, 2012
www.care.com/workplacesolutions

2. Key points from www.caregiving.org
• 53% of caregivers were currently employed, 35% working full time and
18% part time
• Caregivers of children are 3 times as likely as those caring for an adult
to have had some of the more severe impacts on their employment
situation:
 cutting hours or taking a less demanding job
 giving up work, and losing benefits
• According to their caregivers, the top 5 main problems or illnesses for
which child recipients need care are:
 attention deficit disorder
 Autism
 mental/emotional illness
 mental retardation
 asthma

3. Question 1:
Why are caregiver support programs important to both
employers and employees?
Lost time and productivity is a lose-lose; given the
prevalence of autism, as an example, it is difficult to imagine
a work-force free of parental caregivers of children with
special needs.

4. Question 2:
What are the key elements of a successful caregiver
support program?
This should come as no surprise, but they are similar to key
elements advocated on behalf of caregivers of spouses and
elder parents, but the lens is different. Parental caregivers
are caregivers for life and the emphasis on a sustainable
program is paramount.

5. Question 3:
What are the key employer benefits to providing such a
program?
Improved productivity and workplace morale may be
obvious. But consideration and development of these
programs may also encourage introspection and renewed
thinking about policies related to domestic
violence, substance abuse, and work place harassment. In
all cases, employees require flexibility, time away from the
work-site, and assurance that they are still valued by the
employer. This is in part the intent of the “Healthy Families
Act” (S. 984) introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) May
2011.

6. “Healthy Families Act” (S. 984)
But are seven days paid leave enough?
This is what you are being asked to consider and discuss on
today’s webinar- number of days, flexible work
schedules, health care plans that provide reimbursement for
special services required by these children and families.

7. If you need peer-reviewed evidence….
In a recently published study researchers found on average
that “children with ASD are 9% less likely to have both
parents working….family earnings are 21% ($10, 416) less
than those of families with another health limitation and 28%
($17, 763) less than those of children with no health
limitations. Family weekly hours of work are an average of 5
hours less than those of children with no health limitation.”
Cidav, Z, Marcus SC, Mandell DS. Pediatrics, Vol 129, No
4, April 2012.

8. So what can you do:
Flex time, job sharing, temporary or permanent switch
to part-time, telecommuting, parental leave, family
medical leave, flexible emergency leave, employee
health benefits, child care onsite/offsite or
reimbursement.
Resources:
The Community Tool Box is a service of the Work Group for
Community Health and Development at the University of
Kansas, http://ctb.ku.edu/
Family-Friendly Leave Policies from the U.S. Office of Personal
Management Compensation Administration. Texts of the Family and
Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA); Federal Employees Family
Friendly Leave Act (1994); Federal Leave Sharing (1994); and other
family-friendly laws, http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/html/fflafact.htm

9. Deborah Viola, PhD
Associate Professor
Associate Director, Doctoral Program
Department of Health Policy & Management
New York Medical College, School of Health
Sciences and Practice
deborah_viola@nymc.edu
DrPH Program & resources:
http://bit.ly/gXD3NY
http://bit.ly/e9c4Rq
Center for Long Term Care Research & Policy, SHSP,
Institute for Public Health
Center site: www.nymc.edu/shsp/