Love Doesn't Pay The Bills

Love Doesn't Pay The Bills

In Love Doesn't Pay the Bills, we explore the role of family caregivers in the modern United States through personal stories and interviews with leaders. Care work is vital to all other aspects of life, yet often under-resourced. Caregivers cannot house and feed ourselves or provide for our own medical needs based on our love for our family members alone: access to income matters. We also have the same needs as other workers for regular time off, to participate in social life and recreation, and for ongoing education and new opportunities over time. email Lisa: lisatschudi@twosquaredmediaproductions.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/support.

Episodes

March 13, 2025 35 mins
What is the care provided by family caregivers financially worth?  We discuss the value of unpaid care in America, how this value is beginning to be recognized or properly supported and what listeners can do to help make sure it is.  

"Susan C. Reinhard is the chief strategist emeritus for the Center to
Champion Nursing in America, a national resource center created to
ensure that America has the highly skilled nurses it needs to prov...
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With recent threats to Medicaid funding, we discuss why Medicaid is important to care in the United States, what it is and what cutting funds might mean.
  • “More than 72 million people have health insurance through Medicaid – that’s more than one in five Americans. It covers children, senior citizens, people with disabilities, parents and adults without dependents.  In addition, more than 7.2 million children are enrolled in the C...
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Mike George helps families rewrite their caregiving story – from one of sacrifice and exhaustion to one of joy, strength and resilience. A family caregiver himself for 3 decades, Mike intimately understands the burdens of supporting the primary care of a loved one. But he also knows the tremendous fulfillment it can bring. This lived experience led him to create The Soaring Families WayTM, a proven method that can be every family’s...
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Dr. Merle Griff is the author of  the author of "Solace in the Storm: Caring for Loved Ones of Every Generation" as well as the owner of SarahCare Senior Solutions. She has lived experience caring for two family members: her mother and her husband. Lisa talks with Dr. Griff about ways to maintain healthy communication in relationships as family caregivers, particularly listening to the care recipient deeply. She also suggests micro...
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The Chief Executive Officer and President of the National Alliance for Direct
Support Professionals (NADSP), Joe Macbeth joins us to talk about the labor pool for these employees. Joe's experience in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities(IDD)
goes back 42 years - beginning as a direct support professional(DSP). Macbeth is recognized as an international leader when it comes to advocacy to recognize direct support as...
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Calli Ross returns to the show to discuss a bill currently making it's way through the Oregon state legislature.  Named for her son, Tensy's law will make good on the legislative intent behind OR SB91 passed in 2023.  SB91 created a waiver for children with very high disability related support needs to pay their parents as direct support professional (DSP) providers under Medicaid Home and Community Based Services.   However, SB91 ...
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Susanne cared for her mother and her father simultaneously.  Out of that experience grew Susanne's service to other family caregivers:  Caregiverwarrior.com and the book Self Care for Caregivers.  She shares wisdom from her intense caregiving. She writes that self care is "Not All Bubble Baths and Yoga Pants" and at LDPTB we agree!  Nontheless, treating oneself with kindness matters in the most high acuity care situations.  Instead...
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Our guest today is Becky Curran Kekula.  Becky is a disability inclusion advocade.  She is a speaker and movie industry equity and inclusion expert.  Her experiences of both achrondoplasia, which is a form of drawfism, and medical motherhood give Becky a unique persepective on care.  

http://www.beckymotivates.com/About-Us.html



Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/su...
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This episode was originally published on March 7, 2023.  The Guest this week is Calli Ross who is a family caregiver and leader in the movement in Oregon to allow parents to be paid for providing extraordinary care to their minor children with disabilities.   In the 2025 legislative session, Tensy's law, named for her son will be introduced to eliminate the lottery system that was created with SB91 which allows only about 10% of ot...
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Lynn Abaté-Johnson  joins Lisa to discuss the breadth and complexity of our human feelings as caregivers, particularly at the holidays.  We reflect on the paradox that embracing difficult emotions can bring more ability to adjust to them, live with them, and notice the more pleasant ones which can exist right alongside them.

After being a primary caregiver for her mom for over six years, International Best-Selling Author & Speak...
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Jessica Patay is the founder and executive director of We Are Brave Together which brings together and uplifts over three thousand parents of children with disabilities.  When her son was diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, she met a warm community of famlies whose child also experienced the condition.  We Are Brave Together creates a similar experience for many more moms whose children experience a wide variety of disabilities. ...
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When we move away from specifying the care recipient's disease to focus on the caregiver, we find that different ways of talking about care experiences are very useful and descriptive.  The Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers together with Duke University created a system to describe various caregiver experiences called Caregiver Profiles:  Are you learning about a new diagnosis for your family member?  or maybe managing a sta...
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November 28, 2024 5 mins
A heartfelt wish for your holiday season from Lisa.

May your coming month be full of moments that you genuinely enjoy! 

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/support.
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This is a must listen episode!  Elissa Strauss brings to the podcast her deep contemplation of all aspects of caregiving. 

Elissa is the author of "When You Care", which is described as an “urgent and necessary book” by Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author and we agree.  

How do we see care as the huge profound experience that it is?: Care is just as worthy of storytelling, respect, and material support as mountain cli...
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In this re-launch of the podcast, we talk data around caregiving.   Denise Brown is with us to talk about data, why it matters and her tool to help you view some of your own numbers.  Why do we need the numbers around care?  We have some compelling reasons.  

Explore your own caregiving stats
The Data Story of Caregiving event registration

Denise supports individuals managing difficult life experiences with coaching, planning and trai...
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Kitty Eisle, executive producer for podcasts with Texas Public Radio and NPR, as well the host of Twenty-Four Seven: A podcast about caregiving, joins us to discuss caregiving for parents, how to prepare ahead of time for caregiving needs, and why it's important to know your neighbors.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/support.
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We're joined by Emily Kenway, the author of "Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve It". "Who cares" is a very loving memoir of Emily's own caregiving experience. It also is a great work of advocacy by imagining the changes that would happen throughout our world if we started from the default assumption that all people will be caregivers at some time in their lives.

https://www.emilykenway.com/about

Become a sup...
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Connie Siskowski, President of the American Association of Caregiving Youth, joins us to discuss youth caregivers. Her program recognizes and supports young people who are caregivers

Find out more about the American Association of Caregiving Youth

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/support.
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Melinda Kavanaugh describes what her organization YCARE does to support young caregivers. Young caregivers are very frequently overlooked, yet perform many of the same tasks as adults with many of the same responsibilities. Hear how Melinda brings youth caregiving education and a chance to connect to same age peers with similar experiences.

https://uwm.edu/ycare/

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/lo...
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We're joined by Kim Evon to discuss California caregivers and the large gap in staffing that leads to reliability issues in caregiving. We discuss why family caregivers may have difficulties working full-time and what happens when there's not enough care to go around to those who need it.

transcript

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills--5692861/support.
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