194907 Resource 177922 191501 191501 1200520852229 1205531202167 Controlled The Costs for Family Caregivers Continues to Rise

Doing the right thing is an expensive proposition

<p>In the United States nearly a quarter of our multi-generational families have a family member working in a job that they never trained for, never asked for, and have never been paid for. That job is the informal family caregiver.&nbsp; It is estimated that there are 34 million Americans providing care for older family members and friends.</p><p>One might assume that because this care is provided by family and friends, it&rsquo;s free &ndash; but that&rsquo;s not the case at all. Considering actual financial costs alone, a recent study of 1,000 informal family caregivers found that the annual cost was $5,500 dollars. And if you were caring for a family member from afar, let&rsquo;s say from another state or distant community, the average cost was $8,728 dollars per year. The money goes toward direct medical expenses; household items, including food; extra help and travel; and home repairs and basic day-to-day equipment. &nbsp;<br /><br />The money comes from a variety of sources. Half of the family caregivers cut back on hobbies, leisure activities and vacations. One third dip into savings and defer major purchases for themselves. And a quarter cut back on their own groceries and seeing their doctors to cover the costs. <br /><br />It&rsquo;s not surprising then, that as families and friends deprive themselves while caring for others they often become sick as they struggle to do the right thing. In the end, they often so seriously compromise their own health that they, too become victims of disease. Studies have shown that a large number of surviving spouses die within a year of the loss of their loved one. The mortality rate is more than six percent among the men and 3.5 percent for the women.<br /><br />The fate of surviving spouses, many of whom were primary home-based caregivers for their ill loved ones, emphasizes society&rsquo;s need to provide better social network support for family caregivers. For more statistics and analysis of the issue, please watch this week&rsquo;s video (embedded with this blog post) or read the full transcript, below. Then tell us how you feel: Should our caregivers be compensated in some way? If so, how? What kind of changes to our health care system are needed? Please join the discussion by posting a comment!&nbsp; </p><p /> 9 application/xml false caregiving health care reform Are we ready for the burdens of our aging population? Perhaps not, according to the Alliance for Aging Research, which published a report titled "Medical Never-Never Land: Ten Reasons Why America is Not Ready for the Coming Age Boom." http://www.agingresearch.org/content/article/detail/698/ With their joint study "Caregivers in Decline," published in 2006, the National Alliance for Caregiving and Evercare provided a troubling look at the health issues facing caregivers. http://www.caregiving.org/data/Caregivers%20in%20Decline%20Study-FINAL-lowres.pdf Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080201 Firefox/2.0.0.12 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 abigailg 199.74.89.64 false true false false true 179654 false false true false false false true 194919 Resource 179654 173239 183236 1200537913831 1200588388598 Controlled Costs of Family Caregiving

<p>What a timely comentary.&nbsp; I've unexpectly become my 55 year old husband's caregiver.&nbsp; While I have continued to work outside of the home, I have reduced my hours so that I can provide care and meet our many doctor's appointments.&nbsp; I am very fortunate that my employer (local health department) allows me the flexibility to take care of things at home.&nbsp;&nbsp; Financially, we are fortunate that my husband's employer offers short-term disabilty benefits (70% of his salary) but with hospital bills and other obilgations, we are tightening our belts and delaying expenses such as home maintenance.&nbsp; Our lives are difficult right now but the support we've received from family and friends has been tremendous.&nbsp; <br /></p> 9 application/xml New family caregiving resource and renewal http://www.caregivingbook.org Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; (R1 1.5); .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 plarson 24.13.80.118 false true false false true 198377 Resource 179654 173239 183236 1204178744723 1204221238093 Controlled Who Takes Charge

When the Bottom Drops Out

A year and a half ago my employer (he is as well one of my closest friends) had an accident in the ocean and suffered a severe spinal cord injury. He is a quadriplegic. Before his accident he was very successful in business and was also the kind of guy who excelled at everything and never really needed anyone's help. After his devastating accident, no one else was willing or able to take charge of his life. And I could not imagine ever abandoning him&nbsp;during this tragic turn of events. So the person who took charge was me. I sorta stopped my life completely to take care of him and this overwhelming situation. Fortunately, he has enough saved to pay for the caregivers he needs 24/7 but I am the one who is daily struggling with all the challenges that goes with helping someone who is paralyzed. And that includes the constant search for new caregivers. It has been my experience that most caregivers can't handle working with spinal cord injury and leave within hours or a few days of taking on the assignment. It's been 19 months of waiting for the shoe to drop - and it always does. We have a chronic &quot;caregiver crisis&quot; that no agency, no individual, no family member, no friend, no contact, no referral, no advertisement has ever been able to totally resolve. I have grown a lot in the last year and a half and for that I am grateful. I appreciate each minute of each day that I have on this planet now, even when things seem very dark. 10 application/xml false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; AOL 9.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 207.200.116.195 false true false false true 177922 blog blogsite/HealthCommentary/web