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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
In a recent survey, The Washington Post asked white women and black women about their outlook and priorities when it comes to issues such as money, religion, and marriage. And in many cases, they found very big differences. But when it came to one issue, there was no disagreement at all. You guessed it: Caregiving. Nearly two-thirds of both African-American and white women worried about family [...]
Why are caregivers for the elderly such bad advocates? There are 40-60 million Americans caring for loved ones yet their needs are widely ignored by the political system. Thus, politicians rarely rouse themselves to do much to help, and when budget-cutting time comes, what little assistance there is often ends up on the block. The inability of caregivers to organize politically was a major topic of [...]
When I was caring for my parents, I thought what I was doing was both the hardest thing I had ever done and the most rewarding. Now, an important new study suggests I was not alone. The study, called Caregiving in the U.S., is an important snapshot of what life is like for those providing assistance to aging parents, as well as young adults [...]