Paula Span from the New York Times wrote a very good blog post today describing "Caregiving in the USA 2009", a new report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP. She writes:
"Every few years, the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP team up to survey the nation’s family caregivers and produce a massive, highly detailed study funded by Metlife. The first of these reports appeared in 1997, the next in 2004. The latest, released this week, provides an interesting picture of what’s changed in five years and what hasn’t."
Some interesting facts:
- Elder care remains primarily women’s work
- Most caregivers continue to juggle unpaid caregiving and paid work.
- In 2004, the proportion of elders over age 75 was 55 percent; now it’s 63 percent.
- Caregivers’ average age rose from 48 to 50.
- A higher proportion are caring for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
- The proportion whose older relatives had aides, housekeepers or other paid workers dropped to 41 percent from 46 percent; the use of paid help also declined among all caregivers.
- Unpaid caregiving supplied by other family and friends has risen.
