| Americans are living
longer. The average age of Presbyterians is 5-7 years older than
their peers. At the turn of the 20th century,
the average life expectancy was only 50 years. Today, the average
life expectancy is near 80 for men and the mid-80s for women.
This means that more people will have older relatives and will
experience the stresses and rewards of providing care for them.
And because many people are starting their families later in
life, they may be caring for young children and aging parents
at the same time.
Families are the primary source of assistance for older people
who are unable to meet all of their own needs. Family caregivers,
the majority of whom are women, provide 80 to 90 percent of
the care that older relatives receive.
But today's families have
changed significantly from decades ago. Families now are more
likely to be headed by dual-earner
married
couples or by a single parent who works. With both women
and men in the paid labor force, a growing proportion of families
have
no adult at home to care for children or to manage or provide
care for elderly relatives. Instead, they rely on systems
of
care that
can be costly, undependable, incompatible with hours of work
or in short supply. Today's families are struggling to meet
multiple
responsibilities.
For those family members who work, care
for older relatives can be particularly difficult. According
to one study, caregivers
spend
an average of four hours per day on caregiving tasks in
addition to the eight hours they've already worked.
Some people find they have to take vacation and/or sick
leave to deal with crises, spend hours on the phone during
the
workday to
find resources and even quit their jobs because they don't
have the flexibility needed to handle the responsibilities
of both work
and caregiving. The situation is particularly stressful
for adult children who live far away from their parents
or who
are caring
for their own children as well.
How can you prepare for your role as caregiver? What kinds
of congregational and community services are available?
What programs in your workplace
provide assistance and flexibility if you need to make
major time adjustments in your work schedule?
The daughter who moves in with her mother to monitor her
well-being; the daughter-in-law in New York who calls her
elderly father-in-law
in Ohio every Sunday, the son-in-law who drives his mother-in-law
to the bank every month and gives her $25 to help out with
her bills, the son who makes the decision to place his
mother in a
nursing home so that her needs are met and the daughter
who struggles to work and provide care for her ailing parents
are
all caregivers
in various ways.
If you're the adult child of older parents, your caregiving
role may gradually increase as your parents become more
frail and less
able to live independently. Or, you may be thrust into
this role all at once in a crisis situation, such as a
parent's
sudden illness
and/or hospitalization. You may find yourself providing
the care directly or you may need to recruit and manage
the care
provided
by others. Planning ahead can help smooth your transition
to caregiver and ease the minds of older relatives.
Throughout the document, "parent" is used interchangably
with elderly family members for ease of discussion. Follow these
links to learn more:
Meet With Your Parents
Understand Health Care Coverage
Prepare Advance Directives on Health Care
Income Security
Learn About Community Services
Housing for Independent or Semi-Independent
Living
Care Options
Learn About Your Workplace Resources
Community Resource and Referral Programs
Workplace Programs
Caring for Yourself as a Caregiver
Important Contacts for Caregivers
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