How did personal experiences prompt your commitment to help families tackle the legal, financial and caregiving challenges that may come when supporting aging parents?
I was leading a busy consulting practice with a dozen retired executives when I became legally responsible for both of my parents. I was in my 30s, and my children were 6 and 3 years old. A few years before, I had relocated my family to Boston – temporarily, I thought – so my children would have time with their grandparents before the end of their lives. My father had been diagnosed with cancer, and my mother was living with heart disease and dementia. Although I commuted monthly to New York, and my husband traveled extensively, I am part of a large family that includes physicians. I remember thinking, “With all this support, how hard will this be?”
I was so naïve. Healthcare delivery was – and remains – fragmented. Specialists often do not coordinate care, older patients may struggle with both physical and cognitive challenges, medication is overprescribed, costs escalate, and families are left trying to navigate a system that overwhelms with its complexity. Even with the family network we had, I found it difficult to coordinate care and find affordable community resources that would support keeping my parents at home. Beyond the medical concerns, there were legal, financial, housing and familial challenges, as my role transitioned from being one of my parents’ five children to being their care partner and healthcare advocate.
This experience, coming in my 30s and not late 40s, which is more common for most women, heightened my awareness of the challenges of navigating the last decades of life. I set out to better understand how to age well, drawing on my background as a scientist and pharmaceutical executive and joining boards to learn more about brain health, women’s health, integrated medicine, nutrition and palliative care. I created and delivered educational programming for executives, clinicians and financial advisors and, because so many people asked for assistance, I founded Circle of Life Partners, a consultancy that guides mid-career professionals in how to support aging parents successfully and plan for their own longevity. A few years ago, the entrepreneurial world found me, and I spend a portion of my time advising and mentoring innovative leaders, especially women, who see the opportunities to impact the health and well-being of older Americans and their families.
Talk more about the damage on women’s health that can come from the stress of juggling family, aging parents and jobs.
Heart disease is the leading killer of women. The top cause of heart disease is not smoking, but chronic stress, and who is more stressed than a mid-career woman with a demanding job, teenage children and aging parents and stepparents? The physical consequences of stress are well-documented and include a predisposition to autoimmune disease and diabetes; stress also affects brain health. Further, there are financial implications of caring for aging parents that can cause additional levels of stress; a recent survey about caregiving in the U.S. found that 51% of people, men and women alike, reported that caring for an older relative has negatively affected their career; 10% actually quit their jobs or retire early.
It always surprises people to learn that 60% of the family eldercare is done by women, and 40% is done by men. With smaller families and siblings living geographically distant from each other and their parents, the challenge of supporting an older relative becomes more complex. It is difficult to care for your aging father when he slips on the stairs if you reside in New York and he lives alone in Florida. The eldercare system in the U.S. was designed for a 20th century lifestyle when more women stayed at home and extended families lived geographically close to each other. That is not our current reality.
In your view, what are some of the most effective ways to relieve this burden on women? What steps do you encourage women to take to regain control of the aging journey for themselves and their families?
Women must find time daily for self-care. We know, scientifically, what contributes to longevity – not just your parents’ longevity, but yours, too. About 30% of how we age is tied to our genetics, but 70% is tied to five factors: diet, exercise, sleep, social interaction and stress management. The Mediterranean diet will prevent heart disease; aerobic exercise – walking, hiking and dancing, for example – will strengthen body and mind and lead to a more restful sleep. Finding time to laugh, to meditate and to play with friends is an essential part of keeping healthy. It is not easy to make yourself a priority, and some days it will be impossible to do so, but women need to give themselves permission to take time for self-care.
For women, it is critical to plan financially for a long life. In your 20s, set up retirement accounts, get smart on finances and pick a supportive company if you desire to have children. In your 30s, especially if you have a family, acquire disability insurance and create a will and powers of attorney, using that process to discuss legal planning with your parents. Continue to enjoy family traditions. In your 40s or early 50s, your parents may begin to experience medical crises. That is when you will need to focus more on their needs.
It is helpful to think of aging and childrearing as the mirror opposite of each other. Infants transition from full dependency on others toward complete independence by the age of 25 or so. During the last 25 years of life, our parents will transition from independence toward dependency, needing assistance with driving, bill paying, or perhaps, even getting dressed for the day. As women, whether we have had children or not, we know the kind of ecosystem needed to care for another human being. And when you reach this stage in life, when your parents need assistance, just remember that you are not alone. Millions of older women have been through this experience; just ask for guidance.
The challenges of aging are not new, even as people continue to live longer. What exciting innovations are you seeing in healthcare delivery, and how are women affecting your sector?
The longevity industry is an enormous $7 trillion marketplace, with opportunities for innovation going far beyond caregiving. The most interesting development I have seen over the past 15 years is that women are finally at the table. Female entrepreneurs, like Gina Bartasi, are launching products and services that leverage their areas of expertise and merging them with modern technology to provide real solutions, while clinical leaders, like Dr. Kuroski-Mazzei, are bringing innovative approaches to mental health care and traditional medical practices. I talk with dozens of startups each month; there are so many interesting and engaging ideas coming to market. It bodes well for our future.
Over the past 30 years, Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) has committed to supporting healthcare companies in achieving their mission of developing and commercializing new products and services. We have been privileged to work with more than 100 companies as a long-term corporate advisor or source of equity and debt capital, committing over $1 billion of capital to support the growth of these companies, which focus on a range of areas, including medical technology, diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare services. One theme that has particularly resonated across our industry work has been improving quality of care while reducing cost. As an example, over the past five years, our equity capital supported the growth of Best Doctors, which offers a second opinion physician network to patients and their families who are suffering from a critical illness. In addition to our own employees at BBH, this employee benefit is widely utilized across the Fortune 1000 in the U.S. The ability to access key opinion leaders at a time of need has proven both to bring comfort as well as improved diagnostic and clinical results.
