Who Is Care for the Caregivers?

A wife, hesitant to put her ailing husband into a nursing facility or assisted living facility, chooses instead to care for him at home to save on costs and give him more attention.
A daughter, holding down her own regular job, helps her elderly mother, who lives nearby, with medical or nursing-type tasks. She additionally oversees her mother’s doctor appointments and will her grocery searching and far of the change of state.
Caregiving in the United States, as carried out by those who provide unpaid care to an adult or a child, runs the gamut from millennials on one end (one-quarter of caregivers nowadays ar millennials between ages eighteen and 34) to people who ar seventy five years or older (nearly one in 10) and ar the only real support for a lover. In between, there ar men and ladies from all ages, gender, socioeconomic, racial and ethnic group taking on the responsibility of caring for another.
A large majority of caregivers (85%) facilitate take care of a relative. Forty-nine percent are caring for their spouse.
While there are countless joys that come with caregiving, there are also countless stresses and strains. With almost 44 million family caregivers in our country—that’s nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population—is it any wonder that a part of this population suffers from.
The fact is that the longer caregivers give care, the more likely they are to report that their own physical or mental health is fair or poor, especially those caregivers in more complex or demanding care situations. That includes those who are the primary caregivers or who have the additional stress of holding down a job (six in 10 caregivers are employed).
A June 2015 research report, Caregiving in the U.S., a joint effort of the National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP, found that, on average, caregivers spend 24.4 hours a week providing care to their loved ones. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of them give forty one or a lot of hours of care every week. Caregiving is especially time-intensive for those caring for a partner or partner (44.6 hours a week), the report finds.
Caregivers need support. If they do not apprehend, not only are they at risk, but so are the people they care for. Â poor intake habits, failure to exercise or obtain medical attention for his or her own health all place caregivers’ health in peril.
But who is caring for the caregiver? Usually, it’s just the caregiver herself or himself. The Family Caregiver Alliance urges caregivers to take stock of their personal situation and take responsibility for their own care.