Most of the care provided to an older adult is from an informal network of family and friends, rather than a paid or formal network. The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP reported in 2004 that the estimated number of caregivers in the US was 44 million people. That translates into nearly 21% of all US households providing care for an adult family member. Â Many of these people work part-time or full-time hours and may also still have child-rearing responsibilities on top of this. The people in this group have come to be known as the “sandwich generation”, because they are often “sandwiched” in between taking care of the kids and mom and/or dad as well. The costs of this are far reaching from emotional, physical and of course financial.
The cost to US businesses from this is very significant, almost 34 billion annually. This happens from workers having to leave work early, take time off, and deal with interruptions which all leads to less productivity which effects on the bottom line. Employers are doing what they can to help their employees with these issues more than ever. This assistance includes help such as resource and referral programs which include local services like home care which may include hourly help or live in help. If an employee is having an issue they can go to their employee or HR department and asked to be referred to a home care agency. There are also workshops and support groups as well as long-term care insurance coverage.
This trend is going to continue for several decades with people living longer due to better medicine and more healthy lifestyles.
- NJ Home Health Care Client Bill of Rights - March 12, 2019
- Senior Home Care Preparation For New Jersey Families - December 17, 2018
- Elder Abuse More Common Than Thought - December 10, 2018
