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70 Hours Awake:
The unrelenting days of a Texas caregiver
Awake, and on her feet for most of three days, Texas caregiver Tre’Asia Anderson toils through exhaustion to care for women whose lives depend on her. Staffing shortages force her to work overnight, unable to sleep while clients are in her care. Anderson earns less than $9 an hour and is the only caregiver working in a home caring for two women.
Caregiver Tre'Asia Anderson, left, begins her clients' mornings at 6 A.M., helping Cindy, not pictured, pick out her clothes while Constance, right, wakes up, April 6, 2022 at Meadowlark home in Tyler, Texas. Anderson stays awake overnight, doing chores and housework while her clients sleep. Sometimes she reads the bible or talks to her family on the phone.
Anderson helps her client, Cindy, with her hair before breakfast at the Caregiver Inc. home in Tyler, where Anderson works, April 6, 2022. When Anderson began working at the home, she had other coworkers regularly assigned to this location but as they have all quit, she has become the main caregiver for the two clients living at the home.
Anderson shares a laugh with Cindy as she prepares breakfast for her two clients, who she calls her "ladies," at their Caregiver Inc. home in Tyler, April 6, 2022. Cindy, who can't say "Tre'Asia" well calls her caregiver "Angel."
Anderson gets her clients' medication out of the locked closet where it is kept while preparing to administer their morning meds around 8 A.M. Anderson, like other caregivers across the state, experienced little training despite the high pressure situations her job places her in.
Anderson prepares to administer her client's morning meds around 8 A.M. Anderson, like other caregivers across the state, experienced little training despite the high pressure situations her job places her in.
Anderson helps Constance brush her hair as everyone gets ready to begin day-hab around 9 A.M. at Meadowlark home in Tyler, April 6, 2022.
Anderson helps guide her client, Cindy's, hand as the two write her name together, April 6, 2022. Anderson's day-hab duties include helping with the client's math and writing, as well as crafts and other activities. This used to be an activity Anderson would drop her clients off at a day-hab center for, but the center has since closed.
Anderson holds her head in her hand while taking a moment to rest between day-hab actives for her Caregiver Inc. clients at the Tyler group home where she works, April 6, 2022. Workers often have to work through the exhaustion and in the last five years alone, workers providing services to some of the state’s most vulnerable have reported at least 600 on-the-job injuries.
Anderson folds laundry for her clients in the living room of their Caregiver Inc. group home in Tyler, April 6, 2022. In addition to caring for the physical needs of the two ladies living in the home, Anderson is in charge of keeping the home tidy and clean. On this day, another home in the company dropped their laundry off as well.
Anderson and her client Constance share a laugh while relaxing at Bergfeld Park in Tyler, April 6, 2022. “Mostly, as long as these ladies are well taken care of, I’m content,” Anderson said. "My ladies, they’ve always got me laughing.”
Anderson administers meds to her client, Cindy, during evening medication time, just before bed. By this time, Anderson had been awake and working nearly 35 hours.
A note Anderson reminds anyone else covering a shift in Anderson's group home to remember their chores, something that Anderson says has been an issue recently, April 6, 2022.
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