2021 Heralds a Corrective Caring Revolution
By Ilysse Rimalovski
As we wish away the year that was, welcoming the prospect of life beyond COVID-19, we emerge more keenly aware of each other. Care, its practitioners, and those who need it most have catapulted to center-stage, demanding to be seen, heard and supported. This is the moment that care becomes a human ethic. Honoring the souls left in the pandemic’s cruel wake, we are all being called to expand our empathetic capacity and respond.
For too long, carework has been invisible and undervalued — in our homes, in our communities, in our institutions, and in society at large. Yet a caring revolution has been quietly gaining warp-speed momentum with every conversation about preserving the sanctity of health. We have gone beyond ourselves and our loved ones to protect strangers on the grocery line, schoolchildren, elders, congregants, and public servants. We are thinking and talking more about illness, aging, dying, and living more meaningfully.
As we imagine a post-pandemic future, how do we continue to prioritize care when the virus no longer threatens our daily existence? How do we become care revolutionaries in our private and public lives?
Consider the countless frontline workers stretched well beyond the call of duty to keep us safe, healthy, fed and connected. What will they need going forward and how can we ever thank them enough? Marginalized populations who suffer disproportionately, inequities exposed, how will that realization inspire actions that make a measurable, lasting difference?
What can we do for those who died alone, their loved ones mourning in isolation or remotely, further complicating the grieving process? How can we reimagine aging in ways that value agency, compassion, community and purpose? Many of our elders live without family, are routinely medicalized and institutionalized as they lose independence, their simplest needs overlooked.
How will we demonstrate our commitment to care for our planet as it cries out for healing?
With a presumed Carer-in-Chief soon to take office, our country has an opportunity to better care for its citizenry and how we live — with new policy, infrastructure, and thought leaders. As the elder boom shifts the population, our caregiving crisis is quickly deepening. Organizations such as Caring Across Generations, the National Alliance for Caregiving, and the Adira Foundation are in national and global conversations about prioritizing care initiatives post-COVID, their leaders emerging as dedicated care revolutionaries. In fact, many of them can be found among the Care 100, citing the most influential people currently working in the care system.
Closer to home, we have a responsibility to those family members, friends and communities we interact with regularly, or might, if we extended a caring hand or listening ear. What would the conversation sound like around your dinner table if you asked, “What do I need to know about you to give you the best care possible?”
And what do you need to do to take the best care of you? Are you honoring what your body and mind are asking of you? Do you need help?
As we shift throughout life between caring and caregiving, we likely do not know when we will be needed most. But caring is a skill that can be cultivated. By engaging regularly in caring conversations — discussing topics ranging from daily care, to caring for a sick friend, to advance directives — we can prepare as best as possible so that we do not find ourselves in a caring crisis, or even more scarily, in a caring crisis alone. In the coming months, I’ll be sharing practical information designed to create stronger support networks.
This year, you can be a care revolutionary. And in providing help to another being, science shows that you will likely feel better, too.
I want to learn about your care challenges and discuss how we may partner together in ensuring wellbeing for you and those you love. Please mail me at ilysse@thrivewell.com
Ilysse Rimalovski researches the intersection of care, aging and entrepreneurship at NYU with a focus on care preparedness. A life coach since 2004, she facilitates proactive caring conversations with families and individuals to create informal support systems that ensure long-term wellbeing.
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