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Associated Press
27-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
PBS and WETA Caregiving Documentary by Executive Producer Bradley Cooper Now Available to Stream
PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 2025-- Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc., the lead, founding sponsor of a new PBS and WETA documentary created with executive producer and award-winning actor Bradley Cooper, announces that Caregiving is now available to stream on PBS and PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel. The two-hour documentary portrays paid and unpaid caregivers navigating the challenges and joys of this deeply meaningful work, intertwining intimate personal stories with the untold history of caregiving in the U.S. Otsuka supports this documentary as part of its corporate commitment to raise awareness about the growing urgency to support caregivers, who are frequently the backbone of care in communities across the nation. A new study by researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health sponsored by Otsuka showed that nearly half of the states in America are categorized as 'critical' or at 'high risk' of a caregiving crisis that needs to be addressed urgently. The shrinking healthcare workforce and a rising prevalence of dementia is putting more pressure on the 44.58 million family caregivers in America today. Recent research found family caregivers are performing an estimated value of $873.5 billion worth of labor each year — most of which goes unpaid. If the number of caregivers for loved ones with dementia increases by just 10%, the national value of caregiving will grow to $935.8 billion (an additional $62.3 billion), reinforcing the need for a consistent and reliable standard of support has never been more urgent. 'This powerful documentary shines a light on the reality facing millions of Americans today. As a nation, we are at an inflection point where the pressure on caregivers is becoming insurmountable,' said Tarek Rabah, president and CEO, Otsuka North America Pharmaceutical Business. 'I encourage everyone to watch Caregiving and advocate for expanded benefits, increased funding, and comprehensive support services for family caregivers in their own lives and beyond. This documentary aligns closely with Otsuka's corporate commitment to support family caregivers and ensures they receive the recognition and resources they deserve.' 'The lack of resources available to caregivers like me is making caregiving in America extremely challenging. After ten years caring for my mother, I see how important it is that caregiving is viewed as a critical part of our country's well-being,' said Jessica Guthrie, a caregiver featured in the Caregiving documentary, who moved home to become her mother's caregiver at the age of 26 when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. 'Caregiving should be about finding joy and creating new memories with our loved ones, but right now, new family caregivers lack even basic resources, such as education, emotional support and affordable care support like trained aides and transportation. I hope by sharing our stories, we can inspire more investment in caregiving to ease the burden on family caregivers across the country.' Since launching its corporate caregiver commitment in 2023, Otsuka has remained steadfast in supporting family caregivers of loved ones living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. The company designed family resources including an educational video and interactive storybook to help 'sandwich generation' caregivers explain Alzheimer's disease to their children and created the ' Still Here ' docuseries to give family caregivers a platform to share their care stories. Otsuka also launched an interactive salary calculator in collaboration with to illustrate the projected income of unpaid caregivers if they were compensated and hosted policy events in Washington, D.C., to call for action. The two-hour documentary will premiere Tuesday, June 24, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS and the PBS YouTube Channel. It is available to stream as of today, May 27, on and the PBS App. To learn more about Otsuka's caregiver commitment visit About Otsuka Pharmaceutical Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: Otsuka–people creating new products for better health worldwide. Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures, and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products to meet unmet medical needs and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health. In pharmaceuticals, Otsuka is a leader in the challenging areas of mental, renal, and cardiovascular health and has additional research programs in oncology and on several under-addressed diseases including tuberculosis, a significant global public health issue. These commitments illustrate how Otsuka is a 'big venture' company at heart, applying a youthful spirit of creativity in everything it does. Otsuka established a presence in the U.S. in 1973 and today its U.S. affiliates include Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc. (OPDC) and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. (OAPI). These two companies' 2,250 employees in the U.S. develop and commercialize medicines in the areas of mental health and nephrology, using cutting-edge technology to address unmet healthcare needs. OPDC and OAPI are indirect subsidiaries of Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The Otsuka group of companies employed 35,340 people worldwide and had consolidated sales of approximately USD 14.7 billion in 2024. All Otsuka stories start by taking the road less traveled. Learn more about Otsuka in the U.S. at and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter at @OtsukaUS. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.'s global website is accessible at ABOUT WETA WETA is the leading public broadcaster in the nation's capital, serving Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia with educational initiatives and with high-quality programming on television, radio, and digital. WETA Washington, D.C., is the second-largest producing station for public television, with news and public affairs programs including PBS NewsHour, PBS News Weekend, and Washington Week with The Atlantic; films by Ken Burns and Florentine Films, such as The American Buffalo and the forthcoming Leonardo da Vinci; series and documentaries by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., including Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and GOSPEL; performance specials including National Memorial Day Concert and A Capitol Fourth; and health content from Well Beings, a multiplatform campaign. More information on WETA and its programs and services are available at Visit on Facebook . View source version on CONTACT: Otsuka in U.S. Jill Roman, Corporate Communications [email protected] Carolyn Nurnberg Spungin, Rubenstein Communications [email protected] KEYWORD: NEW JERSEY UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: MANAGED CARE OTHER HEALTH ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT FILM & MOTION PICTURES PHARMACEUTICAL MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITALS CELEBRITY TV AND RADIO BIOTECHNOLOGY NURSING HEALTH SOURCE: Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 05/27/2025 10:00 AM/DISC: 05/27/2025 10:01 AM
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Funding the Future of Care: How Donor Collaboratives Can Support The Care Movement
As the population of older Americans rapidly increases, so too does the demand for reliable and accessible in-home care. Meanwhile, home care workers and family caregivers experience physical, mental, and financial challenges associated with care, leading to workforce shortages and burnout. In response, a robust care movement has emerged over the past three decades, led by NGO's, grass roots organizations, public agencies, and more, working to build and strengthen care infrastructure. With federal funding for social services in flux, philanthropy plays a crucial role in supporting and advancing the efforts of the care movement. Philanthropists can deepen their commitment to care by forming or participating in donor collaboratives—an approach that helps maximize their collective impact across the continuum of care. The growing demand for caregivers in the United States places even greater strain on an already overburdened care system. Contributing factors including low wages, limited benefits, and unsafe working conditions have led to a nationwide shortage of direct care workers and rising employee turnover, further widening gaps in care. At the same time, family caregivers spend an average 26 hours a week providing unpaid care, and collectively forgo an estimated $522 billion in wages each year due to their caregiving responsibilities. Furthermore, caregivers and care workers are more likely to experience negative mental and physical health outcomes than non-caregivers. Direct care workers face some of the highest rates of occupational injury, based on data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Family caregivers disproportionately experience chronic health conditions and mental health challenges including depression, anxiety, and burnout, Guardian Life reports. These challenges don't just affect the caregivers themselves, they also impact the people they care for. For example, studies show that high caregiver burden, caused by stress and exhaustion, can contribute to lower quality of life and worse symptoms for care recipients with dementia or heart failure. These outcomes, while troubling, could serve as a catalyst for building a stronger coalition between care workers and care consumers. During the 2024 election cycle, care became a part of the national conversation for the first time in decades, due in part to the work of non-profit organizations and community leaders in the care movement. 'Decades of deep narrative and culture change, and long-term power and coalition building across race and geography, brought us to this moment,' shares Anna Wadia, Executive Director of the Care for All with Respect and Equity (CARE) Fund. 'While we know that policy advancements can be reversed, the care movement is stronger than ever.' To meet the growing needs of caregivers, care workers, and those who receive care, a coalition of major grant makers, including Ford Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Fondation CHANEL, and more, came together in 2021 to form the CARE Fund, with the goal of investing $50 million over five years to improve care infrastructure. 'The CARE Fund has brought diverse actors in philanthropy together to build the cohesion, capacity, and power of the care movement to win the care supports families need across the lifecycle,' Wadia explains. Today, the CARE Fund has raised more than 44 million from 17 partners. The CARE Fund provides a model for individual donors and foundations to maximize their impact and deepen their commitment to the care movement. Donor collaboratives allow funders to diversify their investments across the care spectrum. For example, through the CARE Fund, philanthropists can invest in strategies and solutions that they would not otherwise be able to support directly on their own. Many pooled grant-making funds invest in multi-stakeholder initiatives; a survey conducted by the Bridgespan group found that 63% of respondents support a variety of organizations and initiatives that share a common goal. Donor collaboratives are more likely to involve grantees in the grant-making process than independent foundations, Bridgespan reports. This allows collaboratives like the CARE Fund to bring funders and grantees together to assess needs and develop strategy. For example, Fondation CHANEL joined the CARE Fund because it wanted to learn from and grow with the care movement, while also broadening its scope of influence. "Pooling resources with other funders multiplies our impact," explains Adeline Azrack, Managing Director, Fondation CHANEL Americas. "It gives us the opportunity to learn about on-the-ground strategies, hear directly from grantees about their needs, and fund both state-based initiatives and emerging organizations that we couldn't reach alone." Pooled grantmaking funds are just one of many ways philanthropists can invest in care at this pivotal moment. As Wadia concludes, 'By deepening their commitment to both the care movement and solidarity across movements now, philanthropists can catalyze a transformation that will strengthen families and entire communities. This is an investment in the future—a future where care is recognized as the foundation of a vibrant economy.' To learn more about how philanthropy can support the care movement, visit The Well Beings Blog supports the critical health and wellbeing of all individuals, to raise awareness, reduce stigma and discrimination, and change the public discourse. The Well Beings campaign was launched in 2020 by WETA, the flagship PBS station in Washington, D.C., beginning with the Youth Mental Health Project, followed by the 2022 documentary series Ken Burns Presents Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness, a film by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers (Now streaming on the PBS App). WETA is continuing its award-winning Well Beings campaign with the upcoming documentary film Caregiving, executive produced by Bradley Cooper and Lea Pictures, premiering in 2025 on PBS. For more information: #WellBeings #WellBeingsLive You are not alone. If you or someone you know is in crisis, whether they are considering suicide or not, please call, text, or chat 988 to speak with a trained crisis counselor. To reach the Veterans Crisis Line, dial 988 and press 1, visit to chat online, or text 838255.
