Did you know that approximately 17 million people are spending more than 10% of their income on caregiving for a loved one 50 or older?
This and much more relating to caregiver impacts, was published in the Evercare study entitled "Family Caregivers – What They Spend, What They Sacrifice", a comprehensive study of the personal financial toll of caring for a loved one.
The study points out that when it comes to employment, that 37% of the study respondents reported quitting their jobs or reducing their work hours in order to care for a loved one.
According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, (FCA) informal caregiver and family caregiver (terms that refer to unpaid individuals such as family members, friends and neighbors who provide care), can be primary or secondary caregivers, full time or part time, and can live with the person being cared for or live separately.
The FCA publishes a Fact Sheet on Selected Long-Term Care Statistics.
From the Fact Sheet are some sobering data:
- 52 million informal and family caregivers provide care to someone aged 20+ who is ill or disabled.3
- 29.2 million family caregivers provide personal assistance to adults (aged 18+) with a disability or chronic illness.
- 34 million adults (16% of population) provide care to adults 50+ years.
- 8.9 million caregivers (20% of adult caregivers) care for someone 50+ years who have dementia.
- 5.8 - 7 8 million people (family, friends and neighbors) provide care to persons 65+ who need assistance with everyday activities.
- Unpaid family caregivers will likely continue to be the largest source of long-term care services in the U.S. and are estimated to reach 37 million caregivers by 2050, an increase of 85% from 2000.
The numbers are large and increasing, as our population ages, and in light of healthcare and treatment options that were not previously available.
Far too many employers today have underestimated the impact of this growing trend.
The workforce issue occurs on two fronts:
- The "formal" healthcare workforce, which provides volunteer caregivers or paid care providers associated with a service system. In light of the Administrations's recent Health Care initiative, the industry, already struggling to keep up with demand, will see an increasing set of requirements.
- The informal caregiver workforce, who are making critical financial and lifestyle decisions, affecting entire families. Often informal caregivers are thrust into this mode unexpectedly, after an accident, healthcare diagnosis, medical event, for which
Americans are living longer and having fewer children. At the turn of the century, the life expectancy was 46 years; today it is approximately 76 years. In the 1990s alone, the number of centenarians in the United States nearly doubled (from 37,000 to 70,000). Analysts at the Census Bureau suggest that this per-decade doubling
trend may continue, with the centenarian population possibly reaching 834,000 by the middle of the century.
Workers are in a "pressure cooker" today, and studies conducted by the National Center for State Courts document increases in domestic violence, and family violence affecting older persons increasingly finding their way into the nation’s courts.
Steps need to be taken to increase employer awareness of this matter, going beyond the current FMLA provisions that already exist. Lacking this foresight, expect increased worker frustration when the unexpected happens, and a worker is thrust without warning into the role of caregiver.
