State lawmakers hope a proposed multi-agency study will help them get a better handle on the issues facing caregivers in New York.

People providing care to children, disabled people and the elderly are all caregivers.

“When we think of caregiving, we think of the people in nursing homes, but it’s so much more than that,” said Sean Ryan, a state senator from Erie County. “As a state, we don’t have a good handle on the industry as a whole.”

Folks on the ground working in the areas say it's not good.

“We’re failing for people taking steps to not only save New York state hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but we’re not paying attention to their needs,” said Ryan Boncie.

She knows the struggles of caregiving, as she leads Things of my Very Own, a nonprofit that provides crisis intervention services to children.

“A large percentage of our service population are grandparents, or other relatives who are caring for these children,” she said.

A pool of people Boncie and others in the field say is nowhere near deep enough.

“There is a tremendous amount of stress involved,” she said. "There is a tremendous amount of pressure.”

Some lawmakers want to better understand that pressure and some of the other hurdles that are impacting the workforce.

“We know people left the industry during COVID,” Ryan said. “We don’t know whether the numbers have recovered.”

Ryan is sponsoring a bill that would initiate a multi-state agency study, including the state’s Office of Children and Family Services, Office for People with Developmental Disabilities and Office for the Aging. 


“We have to make an accurate evaluation,” he said. “Because we’re going to be asked by these different agencies to fund their caregiving problems.”

Both the state Assembly and Senate have approved the study.

Boncie, who said she wasn’t familiar with the bill, hopes some sort of help is on the way.

“We can all pat ourselves on the back and say we’re doing great things, but these families are still falling through the cracks,” she said.