Episode #154: Who’s going to care for the 53 million family caregivers in the US – with Professor Laura Mauldin, PhD

[In order to provide accessible content, here is a full transcript of this interview] Friends, The topic this week is caregiving and caregivers – an issue that is so much larger, so much more devastating, and so much more in need of reform than most of us are aware. There are over 50 million family caregivers in the US, and they suffer financially, emotionally, psychologically and physically with negative consequences that persist for the rest of their lives. The solution, according to our expert guest, comes down to funding and policy: to provide the funding through Medicaid’s Long-term services and supports (LTSS) and remove the stringent requirements that grossly limit appropriate access to those funds.  During this episode, we’ll dive into the underlying systemic social biases around the elderly and the disabled – a bias that is preventing the policy and funding changes needed to alleviate the heartbreaking suffering of caregivers and their loved ones. In this interview, Professor Laura Mauldin will distill the learnings from her research, as well as from her own personal experience in caregiving.  She also provides recommendations for what needs to be done to remedy the situation. Laura Mauldin PhD is a writer and scholar based in Brooklyn, New York. She’s currently an associate professor at the University of Connecticut. Laura’s research focuses on disability care and technology. Her first book, Made to Hear: Cochlear Implants and Raising Deaf Children, documents the structure and culture of the systems we’ve designed to try to make deaf kids hear. Laura is currently writing a book – scheduled to be published in 2025 –  on spousal caregiving which weaves together research, memoir and cultural commentary.  In this interview, we’ll discover: The major reasons for why the number of family caregivers in the US is rapidly growing.  The various traumas that are inflicted upon caregivers, something that most of us who have not lived this experience are completely unaware of.  An insidious systemic bias in our society toward the disabled, which Professor Mauldin refers to as ‘ableism’.    An explanation of the institutional bias built into Medicaid policy, which greatly limits the access to paid caregiving for over 90% of Americans who want and need it.  How the formal healthcare system – insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and hospital systems – benefits financially at the emotional, physical and financial expense of caregivers. Something I had never considered.   The very specific policies and funding that we need to change in order to remedy this situation and provide the support that family caregivers require.<br />   Professor Mauldin is a remarkable scholar.  As a highly trained qualitative researcher, she intentionally decided not to take a neutral stance in her research on caregiving and caregivers. Instead, she infused her work with he