HPME Graduate Honoured for Article on Unpaid Caregiving

By: Morgan Holmes

Canada is at a crossroads in terms of how it deals with unpaid caregiving issues. In particular, as the population ages and more people receive complex health care services at home, concern has arisen about the availability of family caregivers and their ability to combine employment with caregiving. In an effort to come to grips with this pressing issue, recent HPME doctoral graduate Meredith Lilly investigated unpaid caregivers and their labour market choices.

"While caregivers have often been viewed as a vast, untapped resource of free labour," Meredith contends, "we have finally amassed enough evidence to demonstrate that this labour isn’t free at all. It comes with real costs – to society in lost tax revenues, to employers in lost productivity, and to caregivers themselves in lost income and worse health outcomes."

An article based on Meredith’s research was published in the Milbank Quarterly (Meredith was the lead author of a paper co-written with HPME faculty members Audrey Laporte and Peter Coyte). Earlier this year, the Canadian Institute of Health Research–Institute of Health Services and Policy recognized this paper with its Article of the Year Award. In a crowded field of high-quality contenders, the award committee characterized Meredith’s article as "an excellent piece of work with high potential for actual impact on policy."

Meredith herself has been very satisfied with the reception her research has found among government policy-makers, particularly in Ontario. "Staff in the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s Long Range Scenario Planning Unit invited me to discuss my findings. I participated in this dialogue for over a year, and I have been so pleased to see our research reflected in the unit’s policy recommendations."

In January 2009, Meredith left Toronto and accepted a faculty position at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan. "Instead of cars and buses, on my morning commute I now pass bald eagles, sheep, and acres of orchards in blossom." Not withstanding the improved scenery, Meredith continues her research on caregiving, and she has begun a new investigation with her academic and decision-making colleagues on patient transitions between care settings.

If you are interested in learning more about Meredith’s award-winning research on caregiving and the policy recommendations that follow from it, here is the bibliographic information you need:

Lilly, M., Laporte, A., & Coyte, P.C. (2007). Labor market work and home care’s unpaid caregivers: A systematic review of labor force participation rates, predictors of labor market withdrawal, and hours of work. Milbank Quarterly, 85, 641-690.