Nursing assistants: the heart and soul of nursing care

In this episode, Lisa Mullins, award-winning journalist and the podcast's advisor, interviews Mindy to get a behind the scenes look at The Shape of Care. In this animated conversation, you learn more about what motivated Mindy to create the podcast, and how she put all the pieces together!

Check out www.theshapeofcare.org/episodes to see guest bios and photos, links to relevant articles and resources, and for Episode 4, you'll see an amazing essay by Ai-jen Poo, Director of Care Can't Wait, and Co-Director of Caring Across Generations. 

Check out www.theshapeofcare.org/episodes to see guest bios and photos, links to relevant articles and resources, and for Episode 3, you'll see an excerpt of an interview with Senator Bob Casey! 

Check out www.theshapeofcare.org/episodes to see guest bios and photos, links to relevant articles and resources, and an essay by guest author, Dr. Sonya Michel, Professor Emerita of History and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her essay is entitled, Elder Care and Global Care Chains. 

Check out www.theshapeofcare.org to see guest bios and photos, links to relevant articles and resources, and an essay by guest author,Fumilayo Showers, an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at the University of Connecticut. The essay is entitled, Immigrant Social Networks and the Little-Known Story of African Immigrants Providing Solutions to the “Crisis of Care” in the US. 

Welcome to Season 2 of The Shape of Care, a podcast about caregiving. Over the next four episodes, we’ll bring you into the lives of two “care pairs”, two PAID workers and the people they care for. And we’ll focus on two very different worlds of care. Nursing homes, which many of us wouldn’t want for ourselves, let alone our loved ones.And home-based care – which is what most of us would want, right? To stay in our own homes, to get services as we need them, and stay close to everything and everyone that’s familiar… So that’s where we’re going to start.

In this episode, we talk with Robin Lipson, the Deputy Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs. Robin discusses some of the programs and policies for caregivers that her office manages. She notes the challenges that caregivers face, especially during this pandemic, as well as their creative and positive strategies to address them. Robin also describes the important work of the Massachusetts Caregiver Coalition, a group of employers led by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. 

In this episode, we interview Donna Thomson, Canadian author, educator and advocate for family caregivers. She talks about a public scandal in nursing homes in Québec, Canada. And how government intervention resulted in some very positive changes for caregivers of nursing home residents and their loved ones..

In this episode, we interview Meg Flaherty-Griffith, a visiting geriatric physical therapist who does home visits with elders. What does it mean to provide high touch care during a pandemic? How has Meg's "job description" expanded to include simple tasks like buying milk for a client? And beyond what Meg does in the home with clients, how has this essential worker become the eyes and the ears for other medical practitioners who cannot see their patients?

In this episode, Roberta Rosenberg speaks openly about the traumatic accident her son experienced 2 1/2 years ago and his successful healing journey, with support from family. And how, more recently, she has taken her mother out of a senior living facility, and moved her into her family's home. Roberta brings creativity and joy to this "new normal", as she spends 24/7 with her mother, engaging in creative projects and a lot of reminiscing. She also shares an epiphany that she's recently had about her many caregiving experiences.