Dover, Del. —  In case you missed it, this week, Lisa Blunt Rochester sat down with Renee Yarrington, a Dover nurse, mother, and caregiver, to discuss the care economy. Continuing her Delivering for Delaware tour, Blunt Rochester joined Yarrington in her Dover home, where Yarrington shared her experience balancing care for her late mother and her daughters — one of whom has special needs. 

The conversation, held in partnership with Care Can’t Wait, was covered exclusively by Bay to Bay News. Read highlights below.

Highlights:

• “They don’t give you classes on how to take care of your parents, especially when you’re raising young kids. There’s a lot of preparation,” Ms. Yarrington said. “When you lose that village, nobody prepares you for that.”
• Among the difficulties Ms. Yarrington said she faced in finding effective care for her daughter was location[…]. The day prior to her conversation with U.S. Rep. Blunt Rochester, Ms. Yarrington added that, given her daughter’s specific needs, the family had to travel to Philadelphia for a doctor’s appointment; ultimately traveling four hours in total for a 15-minute appointment.
• “There’s a huge equity issue, especially below the (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) … We don’t have deaf and hard of hearing resources, once you go below the bridge, it’s like there’s nothing for us.”
• “I think the more voices we have, the more we recognize we’re in this together,” U.S. Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “But the way it feels, you feel alone, feel isolated; like it’s only happening to you and that you don’t get it. But really it is (that) there are bigger systemic issues that we’re not dealing with, and that’s why care can’t wait.”
• “Think about it: you’re a nurse and I’m a congresswoman,” U.S. Rep. Blunt Rochester said. “If we don’t know all that’s available… how do we prepare ourselves? We’ve been talking about the sandwich generation for a little while now, but it is here, really strong for a lot of people, where you’re dealing with childcare and how to pay for that particularly for a special needs child, and then we have our parents as well.

Blunt Rochester’s visit was the culmination of a partnership with Care Can’t Wait, a coalition of unions and stakeholders advocating for a stronger caregiving economy. This partnership continues Blunt Rochester’s focus on uplifting families who bear the burdens of caregiving for both children and aging parents. This priority was addressed in Blunt Rochester’s Plan to Grow the Middle Class released this summer.