Senate President Karan Spilka says there's a "caregiving crisis" in Massachusetts that's been building over the years prior to the pandemic and wants the state to emphasize caregivers as it spends federal recovery dollars and builds back its economy.
"This is our shot to be a national leader in transforming the way we support caregivers and care workers and build a thriving economy that works for everyone," Spilka, D - Second Middlesex and Norfolk, said Tuesday.
Speaking to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Spilka said the state needs to concentrate federal relief dollars and its own economic recovery spending on women and people of color to build up a robust care-giver economy that can serve workers and residents as they age.
"Child care is just one piece of what many are calling a caregiving crisis — a storm that has been brewing on our horizon for a few years but which covid-19 has turned into a full blown tsunami," Spilka said.
Spilka said she wants to create intergenerational care centers for residents to access information about childcare, elder care, pre-k, after school programs and a variety of mental health supports that can grow into full-service community support centers.
State House leaders often use the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as a venue to introduce major new proposals.
Sen. Adam Hinds (D - Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden), who's already heading up Spilka's initiatives on tax reform and the post-pandemic workforce, will hold a listening session on how the pandemic is impacting caregivers.
Spilka said long-term planning for care services would be a "moonshot" proposal.
"I refuse to accept an unequal recovery where some of us do just fine, while others take decades to return to a status quo that may not have been so great to begin with," Spilka said.
