Laura Zagar was at a tipping point.
On top of managing her law firm’s San Francisco office and handling her own client caseload, she was coordinating care for her parents from thousands of miles away as her mother battled terminal cancer.
“With COVID in particular, [I was] trying to manage her care from California when I couldn’t fly back and I couldn’t get in the hospitals,” she recently told Benefitnews.com. “[My mom] was bouncing between hospitals and care facilities and trying to navigate that was really overwhelming, while also trying to be a lawyer for a large law firm plus managing an office.”
When Laura’s law firm offered employees Homethrive’s caregiving benefit, she jumped at the opportunity.
“They were hugely helpful in navigating a lot of the issues [we faced] in the last six months of my mom’s life,” she told the web site. “Unfortunately, we did lose her. But without Homethrive I wouldn’t have gotten her home in time to pass at home.”
As we chronicled in a previous installment of “The Balancing Act,” Laura’s Dari Dedicated Care Guide helped grant her mother’s dying wish; she orchestrated her move out of an assisted living community back to her home so that Laura didn’t have to stress about the logistics.
As writer Paola Peralta rightly points out, Laura is far from alone:
“48 million individuals provide unpaid care to an adult family member or friend, and half of these caregivers say they have taken on new or expanded caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic, according to data from Northwestern Mutual. And although the majority of caregivers report receiving help of some kind with their caregiving responsibilities — most often from family and friends — over a quarter still report not receiving any additional help.”
Laura says Homethrive helps reduce her work, worry, and stress, and allows her to bring her best and whole self to work, knowing that she has a trusted partner to help care for her father.
“I never thought about leaving the workforce,” Zagar says. “But I did think ‘should I take a different job that’s not as time demanding.’ That’s always on the forefront. But [Homethrive] made it more manageable. It was the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Learn more about how Homethrive can lighten the load for your employees.