Universities should experiment to improve caregiver support, U.S. National Academies says

“Innovation in caregiving support is desperately needed.” That’s one of the key take-home messages of a report released today by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) exploring how the U.S. academic community can better support caregivers —a group that particularly struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic . Many of the report’s recommendations are familiar, including paid family and medical leave and flexible grant deadlines. But the report also highlights the need for creative solutions, encouraging institutions to experiment with new approaches and to collect data to document the outcomes. “All of our lives are touched by caregiving in some form, whether we have provided care or received it,” said Elena Fuentes-Afflick, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California (UC) San Francisco and chair of the NASEM committee that wrote the report, during a webinar held today to discuss the findings. But caregiving—defined broadly in the report to include caring for children, aging relatives, spouses, dependent adult children, and extended family members—has disproportionately affected women because of cultural expectations and norms, she added. Providing greater support for caregivers can therefore promote gender equity. The 222-page report, compiled by a group of more than 30 committee members, NASEM staff, and consultants, criticized the U.S. government for failing to enact more suppo...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news