DESERVING CREDIT

Deserving Credit



Deserving Credit

Family caregivers are the largest caregiver group in the workforce — 65 million Americans who provide unpaid care for a chronically ill, disabled or aged family member. The value of the services they give free to our society is estimated to be $375 billion a year. That is almost twice as much as the government spends on home care and nursing home services combined ($158 billion).

I spent last week at the annual Aging in America conference, where 3,700 professionals in the field of aging gathered to exchange ideas and information. These are all passionate advocates for older Americans and their adult children, but nowhere did I hear new hope for easing the financial burden of working caregivers. Three-quarters of caregivers work for a living as well as look after family members who are chronically or seriously ill or lingering with dementia. How do they manage this most challenging and extended passage?

They give up their savings, sell their homes, often move into the same home with their frail loved ones to cut expenses, and face the constant danger of being fired for their divided concentration between family and work. Will family caregivers get government help before they go broke? We know that 47% of working caregivers say the increases in caregiving expenses have caused them to use up all or most of their savings, according to the 2009 Survey of the Economic Downturn and Its Impact on Family Caregiving by Evercare (AARP , 2003).

The National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC). Women who are family caregivers are 2½ times more likely than non-caregivers to live in poverty and five times more likely to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI). But it's the physical toll taken by the stress of unpaid caregiving that may be the greater cost to families and society. The shadow heroes who provide long-term care for their family members by and large don't see doctors for themselves, don't have time to exercise, and develop poor eating habits. Nearly a quarter of family caregivers who look after aging loved ones for five years or more report their health is fair or poor, according to AARP and NAC. And 40% to 70% of family caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression. Research has shown that the stress of caregiving can trigger an underlying predisposition to depression or other mental illness. Even celebrities with all kinds of resources can be taken down by the shock and sadness of caregiving (Levine, 1998).

Catherine Zeta-Jones fell into depression when her husband, actor Michael Douglas, went through brutal treatment for stage 4 throat cancer last fall. The actress couldn't sleep or get out of bed even to meet a few friends at a restaurant. She was diagnosed in March with bipolar disorder and checked into a mental-health facility. The stress of caregiving for a family member with dementia is even more severe. It has been shown to affect a person's immune system for up to three years after their caregiving ends, according to the ...