Caring for Elderly and Disabled is a Family Affair
and an Unpaid Job
Caregivers: Two-thirds are women. The average age is
about 48. Almost all86%--care for a relative
By
Joseph Shapiro, NPR News
Elinor Ginzler is
Director for Livable Communities in the Office of Social Impact
at AARP. She is responsible for the development of multi-year
strategic plans to achieve social impact goals for AARP
Dec. 9, 2009 - Here's something else to consider in
the definition of what it means to be an American: Being a caregiver for
an elderly or disabled loved one. A new study says almost one out of
three adults in the U.S. currently serves as a caregiver. The time and
energy they put into caregiving becomes like an unpaid job.
On average, they spend about 19 hours a week
providing care, doing everything from bathing and dressing an elderly
parent or loved one to balancing a checkbook or doing household chores.
"This is essentially a half-time job," says
Elinor Ginzler of the AARP. The AARP and the National Alliance for
Caregiving sponsored the survey, called
Caregiving in the U.S. 2009, with funding from the MetLIfe
Foundation. (The MetLife Foundation also underwrites reporting on aging
at NPR.) Researchers interviewed nearly two thousand caregivers.
As people become lonely, they become less trustful,
and a cycle develops that makes it harder for them to form friendships;
important to recognize loneliness and help those people connect
Many of the results of the survey are similar to
those from earlier versions in
2004 and 1999. Two-thirds are women. The average age is about 48.
Almost all--86 percent--care for a relative. Most often, 36 percent of
the time, it's for a parent. On average, caregivers have been providing
care for 4.6 years, and three in ten report doing so for five years or
more.
Ginzler says one of the biggest changes to show up
in the survey this year is just how much caregiving can interfere with
regular work. "Making accommodations in the workplace has increased in
several ways," she says. "In most cases, two-thirds of them, means they
either go in late, leave early or take time off."
In addition, large numbers said they've reduced
work hours or taken a less demanding job (12 percent); turned down a
promotion (6 percent), lost job benefits (6 percent), taken early
retirement (3 percent) or given up work entirely (9 percent) to care for
a loved one.
This story comes from our partner
And 20 percent--like
Kathleen Ballweg--have had to take a leave of absence.
In 2001, Ballweg was working in New York City as a
flight attendant. But back home in Wisconsin, her father had Parkinson's
Disease and her mother was struggling to take care of him. So she closed
down her apartment and drove back home and moved in with her parents.
She took a six-month leave of absence from her job.
When it was up, her parents still needed her. So she cut her work to
part time, and commuted back and forth from Wisconsin.
Now, it's been five years since her father died.
But her mother developed Parkinson's, too. So Ballweg keeps her
part-time hours for the airline. She'll take a three-day trip to Cairo
or Capetown. Then come home to Wisconsin for a week to cook and care for
her mother.
"It's the thing I'm most proud of," she says, "I'm
really proud of the way I've taken care of my Mom and Dad."
A few years ago, Ballweg's sister moved back to
Wisconsin, too, and she helps some. That's one of the fastest growing
trends: As families try to avoid expensive care like assisted living,
more members of a family help out to provide unpaid assistance.
Most people in the survey say they don't consider
caregiving a hardship. The longer a person has been providing care, the
more likely he or she is to report being in fair or poor health. That
came to 23 percent of those providing care for five years or more. But
it was striking that, overall, 57 percent of caregivers say their health
is excellent or very good.
But large numbers feel isolated. More than half, 53
percent, say their caregiving responsibilities take away time from
friends and other family. And they're the ones who are most likely to
say they are emotionally stressed.
This was the first time the survey asked about
caregiving for disabled children. And that turns out to be a large
proportion of the total: About one out of 7. And while most caregivers
for the elderly said it was very or somewhat easy to coordinate health
care for their loved ones, that wasn't true for those who provided care
for disabled children. For them, 40 percent said it was at least
somewhat difficult to coordinate care, including care at home and
school.
As people become lonely, they become less trustful,
and a cycle develops that makes it harder for them to form friendships;
important to recognize loneliness and help those people connect
