Boomers Get a Wake-Up Call Regarding Family Care Giving
At the annual meeting of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging last week, one message to boomers was this: “Get ready. You’re going to do much of the family care giving yourself – caring for your parents, helping navigate them through a sea of doctors, and often doing it long distance.”
“As a society, we’re totally unprepared for the aging of America,” said James Firman, president of the National Council on Aging. “We have our head buried in the sand. The whole health care system is out of whack in every way.”
There was some glimmer of hope offered at the convention. It was noted that in a few years we will have technology that will make doctors, nurses and boomers a touch screen away from frail elders thanks to interactive computers, monitors, cameras and sensors. This could provide enough information and assistance to delay the onset of falls and diseases, improving the lives of elders and caregivers.
Plenty of new ideas for where and how seniors will live at the ends of their lives were discussed. One trend getting attention is “cohousing” where either seniors or people of all ages come together “in community,” looking after one another (www.cohousing.org)
Also getting attention are the power and benefits of “civic engagement” – looking at aging Americans as an assets, with great contributions to make rather than as a burden.
Back to less positive statistics regarding care giving – the number of caregivers will only grow as the boomers and their parent’s age. The prognosis isn’t good. If you’re an older woman caring for your husband now, you have a good chance of winding up poor and alone. “Family care giving is going to mean the disruption of people’s lives,” said Emily Friedman, a health-policy analyst in Chicago who spoke at the convention. She notes that 20% of women caregivers under 65 have no health insurance, 46% of caregivers have a chronic condition themselves, and 50% of family caregivers live in households with less than $50,000 annual income. “When women become caregivers, they are 2.5 times more likely to end up living in poverty,” said Cindy Hounsell, executive director of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement.
If family care giving is in your future, you should start preparing for the eventuality before it happens. A good source of information is the ASA and the National Council on Aging .
