Midlife’s A Trip

The Sobering Issue of Caregiving

Posted on 27. Mar, 2008 by Karen in Reflections

Yesterday I attended the Boomer Business Summit in Washington DC.  Yes, there’s a whole conference just about us.  One of the issues that came up often was the issue of caregiving.  Former first lady, Roselyn Carter was quoted as saying that there are four types of people:

1. Those who have been caregivers.
2. Those who are currently caregivers.
3. Those who will be caregivers, and
4. Those who will need caregivers.

As a Type 1 and 3 already and perhaps facing Type 4 in the future, the session on caregiving was particularly sobering.  From research provided by MET LIFE, I learned that there’s currently a shortage of paid caregivers now.  Not that this was a complete revelation to me because I’ve certainly seen this play out in the Alzheimer’s facility where my 88 year old mother lives.  But the shortage is only going to get worse as we Boomers move into our senior years. 

Because of this shortage or the complete lack of resources to even tap into paid caregiving, family members are and will continue to be forced to make huge compromises in their personal finances to provide the care needed.  In the U.S. alone, the economic impact because of factors like lost productivity and people quitting their jobs in order to caregive is $354 billion annually.  It’s estimated that an individual could lose $659,000 in lifetime wealth over the care-giving period and beyond. 

And as author Gail Sheehy pointed out in her remarks at the conference, the financial impact on caregivers is only the tip of the iceberg.  Through her own experiences as caregiver for her husband and the many interviews on this topic for her next book, Sheehy highlighted the physical and emotional stressors as caregivers cope with what becomes the strange “new normal” in their lives. 

As I come away from the Boomer Business Summit, I realize that our generation has so much to learn on how to cope with the issues of aging.  But since no other generation has faced the myriad of issues that Boomers will, we have to become both resource and support for one another.  Quite frankly, after meeting so many people yesterday who are  committed to a better aging process, I feel like I’ll have some great companions on the journey. 

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