Presenting at AJAS 2026 San Francisco: Caring for Caregivers Through AWE

In early 2026, I was invited back to present at the Association of Jewish Aging Services (AJAS) Annual Conference in San Francisco, where I delivered a session titled Caring for Caregivers: Early Interventions for a Sustainable Workforce.

The presentation brought together several years of workforce, culture, safety, wellness, attendance, and engagement work at Louis Brier Home and Hospital and Weinberg Residence. At its core, the session asked a simple but important question:

What if healthcare employers treated caring for caregivers as both a moral responsibility and a business strategy?

Healthcare workers spend their days caring for others. Many are also caregivers outside of work, supporting children, parents, partners, extended family members, and communities. In long-term care, this reality is especially visible. The work is meaningful, but it is also emotionally, physically, and psychologically demanding.

When organizations fail to support caregivers early, the consequences show up in familiar ways: absenteeism, burnout, overtime, workplace injuries, turnover, vacancies, disengagement, and declining morale.

The solution cannot be another isolated wellness initiative. It has to be an integrated system that helps leaders notice early signs of strain, gives employees easier access to support, connects attendance and wellness with engagement and culture, and creates practical feedback loops before challenges become crises. That is the foundation of Attendance, Wellness and Engagement (AWE): a model designed to move healthcare HR from reactive problem-solving to proactive workforce sustainability.