Family caregivers help loved ones suffering from many illnesses, from heart disease to severe arthritis. But a new study shows that one condition—dementia—places an outsized burden on those family members. They spend more hours, do more difficult work, and provide assistance for more years than family members caring for older adults without memory loss. An article in the journal Health Affairs [...]
Family caregivers are invisible. Those children, spouses, or other relatives who provide personal assistance to loved ones with physical or cognitive limitations are often taken for granted or even ignored. But without them, our system of long-term supports and services would collapse. Frail elders and younger people with disabilities would get sicker. Hospitalizations would increase. Medicare and Medicaid costs would [...]
Here is a political mystery: At least 44 million Americans are caring for aging parents or other relatives and friends. That’s more than one of every six adults in the US—an enormous voting block. Yet, their interests are largely ignored both in Washington and in state capitals. Now, the Altarum Institute, a non-partisan, Washington-based research organization, has come up with [...]
A landmark new study paints a dramatic picture of family caregivers: Nearly 44 million adults in the US are providing personal assistance for family members with disabilities or other care needs. That’s more than one out of every six adults. More than 34 million care for frail elders and nearly 4 million help children with disabilities. About 6.5 million care [...]
Over a 12 year period, nearly 6 of every 10 adult children age 51 or older will provide some care for an aging parent or in-law and nearly one in five will help an ailing spouse. And those who do are less likely to work, more likely to see a decline in their financial well-being, and more likely to fall into [...]
Like millions of others, Kathy Kenyon is trying as best she can to care for her parents—both of whom have some dementia. The health care system won't let her. In a presentation to the prestigious Institute of Medicine a couple of weeks ago, Kathy described in painful detail what is it like to try to navigate the disorganized maze we call health care. Kathy [...]
Note to President Obama: Families don’t just care for young children. They also care for aging parents, spouses, and adults with disabilities. In his State of the Union address last night and in an announcement last week, Obama proposed a number of steps aimed at helping working parents care for sick kids. Among his ideas: requiring employers to offer up to seven [...]
For well over a decade, we’ve been tantalized by digital technology’s potential to assist family caregivers. They surely could use help managing the enormous challenges of caring for a loved one. And enterprising technologists could get very rich creating the right gizmos. Yet, while digital tech has profoundly changed the rest of our lives over the past few decades, it has [...]
You are caring for a parent or spouse who is in the hospital. At 9:00 AM, your loved is told she’s being discharged by Noon. You had no idea this was coming. Worse, she’s going to have complex care needs—maybe wound care after surgery, or lots of medications to take on a complicated schedule. You have no idea what to [...]
In a nice blog post the other day, AARP’s Lynn Friss Feinberg reminded me of one of my great pet peeves: The way some so-called experts describe the help family and friends provide loved ones with care needs. Lynn called them out for using the phrase “informal caregiving,” as if this were merely some sort of casual relationship. You know, [...]