What Are My Rights as a Caregiver?

Family caregivers have accepted a labor of love, caring for people who need assistance. However, juggling the responsibilities of caregiving can be overwhelming! Understanding your legal rights and responsibilities is crucial for providing the best care possible and ensuring your well-being.

Let’s explore family caregiver legal rights and the support resources available in Minnesota to help you understand caregiver rights and responsibilities.

What Rights Do Caregivers Have?

In Minnesota, caregiver rights encompass a range of legal protections and entitlements. One key law is the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which allows eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year to care for a spouse, child, or parent with serious health issues.

According to Blue Cross Blue Shield Minnesota, “a full 60 percent of family caregivers also hold down jobs,” making the FMLA a significant provision for balancing work and caregiving responsibilities.

However, the FMLA has its limitations:

• It only offers unpaid leave.
• FMLA doesn’t cover nearly 40 percent of employees.
• It does not typically cover people caring for their grandparents unless they’re recognized as primary caregivers from childhood.

Cities like Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Duluth are stepping up to pass their own paid leave laws that include broader family definitions, which will help support intergenerational care.

10 Rights of a Caregiver

No matter if you’re a full-time caregiver or taking on the responsibility alongside another job, you have rights. The Minnesota Board on Aging has published the Caregiver’s Bill of Rights, which reads as follows:

“I have the right to:

• Take care of myself. This is not an act of selfishness. It will give me the capability of taking better care of another.
• Seek help from others, even if the person I care for objects. I recognize the limits of my own endurance and strength.
• Maintain facets of my own life that do not include the person I care for, just as I would if they were healthy. I try to do everything that I reasonably can for this person, and I have the right to do some things just for myself.
• Get angry, be depressed, and express other difficult feelings occasionally.
• Reject any attempts by the person I care for (either conscious or unconscious) to manipulate me through guilt and/or depression.
• Receive consideration, affection, forgiveness, and acceptance for what I do from my family, for as long as I offer these qualities in return.
• Take pride in what I am accomplishing and to applaud the courage it has sometimes taken to meet the needs of the person I care for.
• Protect my individuality and my right to make a life for myself that will sustain me in the time when the person I care for no longer needs my full-time help.
• Expect and demand that as new strides are made in finding resources to aid physically and mentally impaired persons in our country, similar strides will be made towards aiding and supporting family caregivers.”

What are the Responsibilities of a Caregiver?

Knowing our rights as caregivers also means understanding the responsibilities tied to the role.

Caregivers are responsible for helping their recipients of care with tasks such as:

• Assistance with performing daily activities, including eating, toileting, grooming, dressing, bathing, transferring, mobility, and positioning.
• Assistance with performing instrumental daily tasks, including meal planning and preparation, managing money, shopping for essential items, performing essential household chores, communicating by telephone and other media, and getting around and participating in the community.
• Assistance with performing health-related functions, including range of motion exercises, seizure intervention, or ventilator suctioning.
• Assistance with performing redirection and intervention for behavior, including observation and monitoring.

Light housekeeping can be another responsibility that caregivers take on, as well as just being a companion for the person receiving care.

What Are Caregivers Not Allowed to Do?

Some tasks do NOT fall under the responsibilities of a caregiver. For example, unless given explicit instruction from a medical professional, caregivers are not supposed to administer medication or offer any sort of medical diagnosis.

Questions About Caregiver Rights? Reach Out.

Knowing your caregiver rights and responsibilities empowers you to navigate the complexities of caregiving with confidence. As you strive to balance work, personal life, and caregiving duties, you must never hesitate to seek support and use available resources.

Remember, Best Care is here to help with all your questions related to family caregiving. We are dedicated to ensuring you have the information and support needed to care for your loved ones, while also looking after your own well-being.